This church was destroyed on 9/11. Now it’s reopening as a shrine to victims

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/this-church-was-destroyed-on-9-11-now-its-reopening-as-a-shrine-to-victims



St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church stood out amid the hustle and bustle of lower Manhattan.

The church started out in 1916 in a small row house that used to be a tavern. Over the years, the neighborhood around the church changed, from surrounding row houses to high rises. Developers attempted to acquire the property, but the church stayed put at 155 Cedar St., and became a familiar place for people who worked in the area. Eventually, the church, nowhere near as tall as the buildings nearby, stood alone, surrounded only by a parking lot.

“It was a little church on a lonely parking lot, and it was always open,” said the Rev. Alex Karloutsos, the vicar general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “People found it like an oasis.”

Because of lower Manhattan’s growth, the church was overshadowed for more than a quarter-century of its existence by two towering neighbors — the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which were built in the 1960s. That location also gave St. Nicholas an unwelcome place in history; when hijackers crashed planes into the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, the collapse of the buildings also destroyed the church. It was the only place of worship leveled by the attacks. Now, two decades later, the church is embarking on a resurrection of sorts. It will reopen not only as a functioning church for Orthodox Christians, but also as a shrine to those who died in the attacks. Most of the exterior of the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center will be finished for the anniversary on Saturday.

Three People I Would Interview About Afghanistan
Aug. 19, 2021

As I watch events in Afghanistan unfold, I find myself trying to ignore all the commentary and longing instead to interview three people: President Lyndon Johnson, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan.

President Johnson, what did you think of Joe Biden’s speech about quitting Afghanistan?

Johnson: I listened to it, and I have to say that I choked up. If only I had had the guts to give that speech on April 7, 1965, about America’s involvement in Vietnam — the war that I inherited and then expanded with that speech. Promise me one thing: You won’t link to that speech.

Friedman: Sorry, Mr. President, but I already did. Here are some highlights of what you said to justify sending more troops into Vietnam:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/opinion/afghanistan-us-taliban.html

PORTLAND, Ore. (Portland Tribune) — Almost six years ago, then-Lake Oswego School District Superintendent Heather Beck announced a surprising discovery she’d made about a slice of local history.

It turned out that Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, who’d been inaugurated as president of Afghanistan about a year before Beck’s announcement, was a former student in the district. He’d been an exchange student at Lake Oswego High School during the 1966-67 school year and served on the student council. His photo appeared several times in the LOHS yearbook under another name he went by, Ashraf Ahmad.

“Not only are we the top school district in the nation, we produce world leaders,” Beck said at the time.

Ghani remains Afghanistan’s president as of this week, but in name only. Over the weekend, as the Taliban entered the capital city of Kabul and the fall of Ghani’s administration appeared imminent, he fled the county.

https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/exiled-afghan-president-attended-school-in-lake-oswego/