Wednesday, September 14, 2011
At least half a dozen men who lived in the south suburbs were caught up in the federal government's intensified scrutiny after 9/11. Ten years later, here's a look at the results.
The aftermath of 9/11 was felt in profound ways in the Chicago Southland, and among them was the federal government's intense effort to root out terrorism and terrorist sympathizers wherever they may hide. Several times, that attention focused on the south suburbs. Today, Orland Park Patch has an exclusive interview with a former Orland Park man who was deemed, without explanation, a "security risk" by the federal government in 2003. Sabri Samirah was prevented from returning home after traveling to Jordan to visit his sick mother. Samirah, who was never accused of a crime and never labeled a terrorist, kept pressing his case against the U.S. government, and in December 2010 he prevailed. A judge told the federal government that it had no …
Monday, September 12, 2011
Hundreds came to downtown Tinley Park Sunday for a tribute to the lives lost on 9/11 and during the war on terrorism.
It's hard to believe that a decade has passed since Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorist acts targeting New York, Washington D.C. and Pennslyvania took the lives of thousands of our nation's people. Tinley Park rallied its national spirit Sunday during its Patriot Day Remembrance. The weather Sunday was just like it was that fateful day. The sun was shining and there were few clouds in the sky. But ever since, life continues to be a little different for all of us. Tinley Park recognized that fact in a big way. The day began with a pancake breakfast at the American Legion. Bikers then lined up for the Kevin Clarke Memorial ride. By 8:40 a.m., Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki welcomed those who joined firefighters and police officers along South …
41.595761
-87.785093
Village of Tinley Park
16250 Oak Park Ave, Tinley Park, IL
/articles/photo-gallery-a-tinley-park-patriot-day-to-remember
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/locations/5406708
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Local perspective on the day that changed our nation in ways large and small.
- NEWS
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Sunday, September 11, 2011
Video: Orland Park ceremony; Photo Gallery: Tinley Park Patriot Day; Video: Oak Forest ceremony; Photo Gallery: Oak Forest remembers; Video: Palos ceremony: Photo Gallery: Frankfort 9/11 Concert; Video: New Lenox ceremony; Photo Gallery: Oak Lawn Patriot Day; Photo Gallery: Homewood's Patriots Park Ceremony Also: Pastor Leads Emotional 9/11 Prayer Vigil 10 Years After 9/11, Patrick Murphy's Life Continues to Be Celebrated The memory of the Marian Catholic High School grad who died in the attack on the Pentagon is kept alive by his family, friends and alma mater. 'We Live it Every Day': Mothers of Soldiers Find Solace in Other Families with Deployed Loved Ones Two Orland Park mothers saw all of their children sent overseas to fight at …
Mike Mendoza is among the Americans featured in "9/11: The Decade After," a special report by Patch and Huffington Post.
Every Sept. 11, Mike Mendoza is reminded that freedom isn’t free. The 32-year-old Tinley Park man spent a decade in the U.S. Marine Corps—1997 to 2007—and left as a decorated staff sergeant in the First Reconnaissance Battalion. He believes each anniversary of the attack should also be a gentle nudge that not only servicemen and women should be on alert. "People think the U.S. is untouchable," he said. "But it's not. We bleed just like everybody else and we hurt just like everybody else." Mendoza earned a Silver Star, Purple Heart and a Navy Achievement Medal with combat valor as a sniper during his service. He was deployed to Iraq three times as a Marine and thereafter has been sent several times as a contractor through the U.S. State …
Craig Miller is among the Americans featured in '9/11: The Decade After,' a special report by Patch and Huffington Post.
After U.S. Marine veteran Craig Miller lost nine of his men in the Middle East in 1987, he thought he was done with death in the military. But in 2009, the Oak Forest man and chairman of the Oak Forest Veterans Commission picked up the phone to tell his mother that her 22-year-old nephew, Miller’s cousin Army Staff Sgt. Josh Rath, who was from Tinley Park, had been killed in action. Rath’s unit was hit by an Iraqi suicide bomber. The first day of Rath’s wake would have been his 23rd birthday. It was the events of 9/11 that sealed Rath's intent to join the Army. Now Rath’s name is carved on a Middle East war memorial in Illinois. Patch first heard Miller and Rath's story in May, after the death of Osama bin Laden. If anyone was going to …
Saturday, September 10, 2011
In service to country, community, family and God, residents of the Southland reflect in a special Patch photo montage on the changes in their lives wrought by 9/11.
These portraits are part of 9/11: The Decade After, a special Patch.com report. Would you like to read more about these local people? Visit our 9/11 10th Anniversary Guide to view a menu of news and features. You can view more Patch photos from around the nation on the Action America Facebook page.
Anything and everything you need to know about Sunday's activities in Tinley Park including street closures and a timeline of events.
It's hard to believe an entire decade now stands between us and the devastating crumble of the World Trade Center. The day is one that will be branded in our memories forever — it's become a cornerstone of our life in the 21st century. As the smoke has cleared over the years and dust has somewhat settled, our American story has truly become one of resilience. Village officials, first responders and residents will gather together in downtown Tinley Park on Sunday to honor that resilience and hail their patriotic spirit on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. They will honor the heroes—both fallen and living—and remember a day that touched us all. I encourage you all to participate. I will be there in my red, white and blue. Oak Park Avenue …
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Oak Park Avenue Train Station
6700 South St, Tinley Park, IL
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2015935
/locations/5318136
In Tinley Park, Oak Lawn, Frankfort, Palos Hills and hundreds of other communities, chunks of steel from the Twin Towers beget memories of a day to mourn and prayers for a future of peace.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011
Shards of a symbol, hunks of steel. Bolt-studded, fire-scarred beams that until 9/11 supported the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York now lie scattered across American towns — reminders of the morning over which there remains mourning. In hundreds of American communities, each piece recalls a day to remember, a hope for the future, a prayer for one peace. From historic Savannah, GA, to glitzy Beverly Hills, CA, 9/11 isn’t one moment or a decade’s acknowledgement but a constant commemoration. In the Southland, the steel also connects us to the memory. World Trade Center steel has been delivered to Oak Lawn, Tinley Park, Frankfort and Palos Hills. During the past three years, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which owns …
Friday, September 9, 2011
A donation of food from a Frankfort mosque and a Tinley church's outreach of compassion after 9/11 created the SouthWest Interfaith Team that strives to build bridges between religious communities.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Joe Vince
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Friday, September 9, 2011
The SouthWest Interfaith Team is a nonprofit group in the south suburbs of Chicago that was born through an act of giving. Rev. Jim Young, then of the Tinley Park United Methodist Church, met with Khalid Mozaffar and Tariq Khan, of Frankfort's American Islamic Association, in November 2002 after the AIA donated to the church a large collection from a food drive. Young, who’d worked at Ground Zero, said he was looking to do something more with Christian-Muslim relations and this meeting with Mozaffar and Khan planted the seeds for that. Around the same time, the Rev. Terrence Baeder of Zion Lutheran Church in Tinley Park reached out to the AIA in a show of support after hearing about threats against area Muslims in the wake of 9/11. This …
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-87.833286
American Islamic Association
8860 W Saint Francis Rd, Frankfort, IL
/articles/area-interfaith-group-born-out-of-tragedy-and-charity
324137
/locations/5310017
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Muslim leaders recall differing community reaction to the approval and building of two Southland mosques in Frankfort and Orland Park post 9/11.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Jesse Marx
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Thursday, September 8, 2011
The year was 1978. Bob Marley convinced warring Jamaican factions to shake hands. China lifted a ban on the works of Shakespeare. Pete Rose logged his 3,000th major league hit. And in the sparsely populated town of Frankfort a small group of Sunni Muslims founded a Sunday school to preserve their cultural heritage and religious doctrine that would later become known as the American Islamic Association. After four years of renting local classrooms and offices, enough money was raised to purchase property from a Frankfort crop duster at 8860 W. Saint Francis Rd. The farmhouse would eventually become the school. The airplane hangar would become the prayer hall. “It was nothing but pure farm land,” AIA co-founder and vice chairman Tariq Khan …
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The Orland Park Prayer Center
16530 104th Ave, Orland Park, IL
/articles/building-a-mosque-after-911-a-tale-of-two-cities
282370
/locations/5296788
41.521383
-87.833286
8860 W Saint Francis Rd, Frankfort, IL
/articles/building-a-mosque-after-911-a-tale-of-two-cities
/locations/5296789
Jodelle Frye
10:50 am on Monday, September 12, 2011
@robert. not sure where you were standing the route, but we were near Fiat and the bands were playing where we were. The begining of the parade with the police cars and firetrucks were silent but the bands did play. :) more ›