Sunday, September 02, 2012

Who would have known a hundred years after the assassination of William McKinley such a thing would happen.



I recall 11 years ago when I was working with a museum and we decided to have a 100th anniversary of the McKinley assassination program.  It seemed to me to be the right time as summer was ending and September is pretty much a quiet month. The shooting of McKinley took place on Sept. 6th in Buffalo New York and he would die from his wounds on Sept 14.  So we had little bit of info on our web site and things we would give out at the museum. Also we had some of the funeral programs. Just to bring this important historic event to life. which we planned on marking in mid September.

I felt it would be good to share history and keep it alive. But I nor anyone else who had planned centennial observances of McKinley's assassination would do much except mark the time of the shooting.  As before we could do much more of this ...the world changed.

You see, McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901. That was the day we started and we never even did anything much after as we would see the attacks of September 11th..  One hundred years after the assassination of William McKinley, the attack on the World Trade Towers took place. Everyone forgot history for a while as we saw some of the saddest of it being made before our eyes on September 11th.

So this month marks the 111th anniversary of the assassination of McKinley and the 11th for the September 11th attacks.   I will always connect the two as I was trying to honor the one, and comprehend the other.