Twenty-five years later, hundreds of motorcyclists continue a journey connecting the three sites of September 11th and honoring the people America promised never to forget. I was supposed to be riding near the front of America’s 9/11 Ride this year, alongside founders Ted and Lisa Sjurseth; Keith Costanzo, my best friend since we were little kids growing up in Oradell, New Jersey; his colleague from The Blue Knights International Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club; ride leadership; police motor officers; and hundreds of fellow motorcyclists gathering in Somerset, Pennsylvania. I had been invited to participate as a VIP and planned to cover the experience for Rider from the perspective I know best: behind the handlebar. From Somerset, we would travel to the Flight 93 National Memorial, continue to the Pentagon, and ultimately make our way to New York City, connecting the three places forever linked by September 11, 2001. A car accident in my wife’s Alfa Romeo shortly before the ride made that impossible. I was deeply disappointed, but it didn’t take long to put my disappointment into perspective. Thousands of people left their homes on an ordinary Tuesday morning 25 years ago and never returned. Their families didn’t lose a motorcycle trip or an experience they had been looking forward to. They lost husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and co-workers. There was also a personal reason I wanted to approach this story carefully. One of the people killed in the World Trade Center was someone I had gone to high school with. Behind her name is a family and friends that have lived with her absence for 25 years. I wanted to honor her memory, and theirs, without making their loss part of my story. I have long believed that one of the best ways to honor people is to carry something good forward, and that became an important guide for how I approached this assignment. So instead of reporting what I would have seen from behind my BMW R1200GS windscreen, I researched, asked questions, and listened. I listened to Ted and Lisa, to people who have made this journey, to the first responders and volunteers who make it possible, and to the communities that have lined the route year after year. Then, as the 2026 ride unfolded, I followed what was happening from a distance. Reports from along the… [TheTopNews] Read More.
3 weeks ago
