Olympics.org
By Kimi Puntillo
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani kept hope alive in the hearts of millions of New Yorkers devastated by the terrorist acts of September 11 by carrying the Olympic Torch into Rockefeller Center, Sunday.
Surrounded by a multitude of flickering candles representing the 3,100 souls that were lost, the mayor lit the Olympic Cauldron under the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, patriotically decorated with red, white and blue bulbs.
“I carry this flame in honor of my heroes,” said Giuliani naming the N.Y. Fire Department, Police Department, Port Authority Police and emergency workers. “And to all those people who gave their lives on September 11 to save the lives of other people. And to save the dignity and honor of the United States of America.”
Dressed in a NYPD coat and fire department baseball cap, instead of the sweat suit worn by torchbearers, the mayor took hold of the torch from Captain Richard Parenty, one of the first firefighters to respond to the World Trade Center disaster. Parenty lost 15 men in his company and still finds the strength to escort victims’ families to Ground Zero.
Holding the torch with his left hand to greet the other to shake hands, Giuliani greeted cheering crowds on a promenade lined with more than 50 New York torchbearers, former Olympians, and Melba Moore singing the torch relay theme song, “Carry the Flame,” the mayor shook each and every hand before lighting the copper cauldron.
“The focus on athletics and sports is a way to give people perspective about this wonderful free country that we’re very, very proud and honored to be part of,” said Giuliani, whose eight-year reign as mayor expires at midnight on December 31.
Mitt Romney, Salt Lake Organizing Committee president and CEO, said that normal politicians are excluded from carrying the torch. Giuliani was considered an exception because the leadership he showed during such a tumultuous time outweighed excluding him over a matter of eight days – the time when he officially becomes a private citizen again.
The same day Giuliani carried the torch Time Magazine named him “Person of the Year” for 2001.
On two big-screen TVs, the crowd followed the flame as it left a ferry that cruised around the tip of Manhattan passing Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty. While sailing by the landmark lady’s torch, 14 Olympic Torchbearers passed the flame to one another in her honor and paid tribute to loved ones lost in the terrorism attack. Torchbearers included Mary Geraghty, whose firefighter husband Edward died at the World Trade Center, and Lieutenant Claudio Fernandez of the city’s Highway Patrol who seized public buses that day to evacuate 20,000 civilians from the burning building.
One of the torchbearers who carried the flame from the Hudson River pier to Rockefeller Center was Lyz Glick. Her husband, Jeremy was a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 and is credited with helping foil the hijackers’mission. Glick handed off the torch to Richard Parenty.
Framed by the Christmas tree, a 42-foot high Norway spruce decorated with 30,000 lights, and a gold statue of the Greek God Prometheus, the Olympic Flame will remain at Rockefeller Center inspiring peace on earth through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On December 26 it will resume its 65-day journey by traveling to Connecticut and Rhode Island, Day 21 of the Olympic Torch Relay.