Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 5

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2001 DECATUR, ILLINOIS LOCALNATION A5 STRIKES TERROR tiiiiiiiuiy in i.jiiwmu iij.iii.i EVENTS Ay Seeking Members of the Central Community Church congregation in Wichita, hold hands during the hymn 'It Is Well With My Soul' during services on Sun-focusing on last Tuesday's terrorist attacks. Comfort Americans gather at houses of worship to heal the wounds of attack a a -lay The Associated Press Clutching patriotic flags and prayer books, Americans filled churches Sunday, struggling to comprehend the terror of the week before. "God Bless America" mixed with gospel music. Images of the destruction in New York and Washington flashed on some sanctuary walls. Ushers in one church distributed tissues to weeping parishioners.

Many ministers said attendance rivaled that at Christmas. "America 'God's our hatred coexist The Rev. Charles St Paul the r'J ST if iMH'l fie rijxzKgsi love and cannot in our Kullman, Church of Apostle, New York Associated Press photos REFLECTION: A parishioner prays in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Sunday. Americans went to church around the country, seeking comfort from terrorism through prayers and hymns.

4 '9: I 'a'aVa HUM and be kind to strangers. The attacks also posed a challenge, they said, to stay hopeful when bitterness threatened to consume the nation. "God's love and our hatred cannot coexist in our hearts," said the Rev. Charles Kull-mann of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York.

"Jesus came to save all sinners, even terrorists." Deborah Welsh, a flight attendant on hijacked United ed against people of Middle Eastern descent. The East Valley Tribune reported that Roque shouted, "I stand for America all the way," as he was handcuffed Saturday night. Roque was accused only in the shootings at the second gas station and at the home, said police Sgt. Mike Goulet. He hadn't been charged in the first shooting, which killed Balbir Singh Sodhi, an immigrant from India, but police continued to question Roque on Sunday and had no other suspects, Goulet said.

Police notified FBI officials who investigate hate crimes but hadn't determined whether the incident was based on the victims' race, Goulet said. Sodhi, 49, was a Sikh. His relatives pointed to the fact will never be the same," said the Rev. Cecil Williams of San Francisco's Glide Memorial Methodist Church. "Never." About 250 members of the historic Parish of Trinity Church Wall Street, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, moved services to a Roman Catholic shrine a block from where the twin towers once stood.

Trinity is now filled with ash and shards of glass. Children were filing into the parish preschool when the first plane struck on Tuesday. Stunned rescue workers staggered into the church moments after the crash. nearby during World War II. A white pentagon, representing the military building, stood in one corner of the sanctuary.

At the Church of the Nazarene in Augusta, Maine, a flutist played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while images of the devastation were projected on a wall. Ministers saw lessons in the outpouring after the collapse: to value family and friends iunman kills immigrant from India Decatur business leaders plan a rally Sunday, Sept. 23 in Central Park. HELPING OUT Millikin University will use its fund-raising staff to collect money for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Through Wednesday, Mil-likin's Alumni and Development Center will call area residents between 6 and 9 p.m.

seeking donations. Millikin University's Office of Service Learning is coordinating a fund-raising campaign on campus. The money will be divided between the Red Cross and the United Way relief efforts. An effort to assist faculty, staff and students seeking to donate blood is in the works. CANCELLATIONS The Herald Review Community Agenda meeting on education scheduled for today has been postponed.

The meeting, which was to be at noon at the Decatur Public Library, will be rescheduled. Until further notice, all access roads to the Lake Shel-byville dam will be closed. All access roads, the west spillway recreation area, east spillway recreation area, dam west overlook and the dam east recreation area including the visitors center are closed to all vehicle and pedestrian traffic. All boats are required to stay one-quarter mile back from the dam, and no boats are allowed in the Kaskaskia River between the Illinois 16 bridge and the dam. The U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers has informed local law enforcement of the heightened security. Individuals needing to conduct business with the corps will be required to use the east entrance off 111. 16 between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. All vehicles may be subject to security checks.

HOW TO HELP The Catholic Charities office in Decatur is accepting donations to the national effort. Take or send donations to Catholic Charities, 247 W. Prairie Decatur, IL 62523, or call 428-3458. You can also send it to Catholic Charities USA, Box 25168, Alexandria, VA 22313-9788 or call 1-800-919-9338. AAL Insurance and Concordia Lutheran Church will host an American Red Cross Blood drive Friday, Sept.

21, in the church, 3330 E. Maryland Decatur. To give blood, you must be in good health, at least 17 years of age and weigh at least 110 pounds. For an appointment, call 428-6421 or Melba Stockdale at 864-3742. VFW Post 99, 925 N.

Water is taking donations for the American Red Cross. VFW members are also donating blood. Post hours are 11 a.m. to midnight. The United Way of DecaturMacon County has established The September 11th Fund to help victims of the terrorist attacks.

Anyone wishing to contribute may send financial donations in care of United Way September 11th Fund, 160 E. Main Suite 301, Decatur, IL 62523. For more information, call 422-8537. Project Linus, an organization that provides homemade security blankets to traumatized children, is seeking donations of blankets or money to send blankets to emergency sites in New York City and Washington, D.C. To volunteer or donate, call 877-9860, e-mail sciquilter (gaol.com or visit www.pro-jectlinus.org.

Monetary donations can be sent to Project Linus, Box 5621, Bloomington, IL 61702-5621. Union Planters Bank facilities in Decatur, Shelbyville, Taylorville, Clinton and Cham-paign-Urbana are serving as collection points for those wanting to make donations to the American Red Cross. To make donations to the Salvation Army for helping the victims, call "Human words are inadequate, and so we come together to turn to the word of God," said the Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of Trinity, an Episcopal parish dating back 300 years. New York Cardinal Edward Egan celebrated Mass for hundreds in the majestic St.

Patrick's Cathedral in Man hattan, urging parishioners to commune with God to ease the grief of the past six days. The crowd stood and applauded when Egan thanked rescuers and lauded Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who attended the service. The two political leaders hugged during the ovation. St.

Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Oklahoma City, a block from the site of the 1995 Murrah federal building bombing, held special ser-' vices, just as it did days after the tragedy there. In Alexandria, the sound of patrolling helicopters could be heard above the Fairlington United Methodist Church, two miles from the Pentagon, one of the terrorists' targets. The church was built for military families stationed he finished. He collapsed into a chair on the stage and hung his head as Giuliani stepped to the podium. Giuliani hailed the firefighters as heroes, then helped swear the promoted into their new positions.

Some of the men were not thera Some of them were still under the wreckage of the Trade Center their promotions a gesture of faith that they and some of their brethren will survive. The men awaited their honors in a plaza adjacent to the department's Brooklyn headquarters, sitting stoically under the same azure skies that delivered death to their colleagues five days ago. No one cried. The promotions reached all the way to the top. Chief of Operations Daniel A.

Nigro was named Chief of Department, the highest uniformed position in the organization. He replaces Peter Ganci, the former department chief, who died in Tuesday's attacks and was buried Saturday. After the ceremony, the firefighters chatted quietly with their families. One man tousled his son's hair. Another lifted his daughter to his shoulders.

A few posed for snapshots, their faces pale and their smiles thin-lipped. Lebanese-American clerk also targeted MESA, Ariz. (AP) An Indian-immigrant gas station owner was shot to death and a Lebanese-American clerk was targeted, but not injured, by gunfire at another Mesa gas station, police said Sunday. Shots were also fired at a home where a family of Afghani descent liva Frank Roque, 42, was charged with attempted murder in two of the three attacks Saturday, and police were investigating the possibility that the crimes were linked to Tuesday's terror attacks in New York and Washington. Around the country, several apparent backlash attacks and threats have been report Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, was a member of the choir at the Roman Catholic church.

Choir members pinned pictures of Welsh to their clothing. The hymn after communion was "America the Beautiful." "It has been a bitter week for all of us," said the Rev. Paul Brooks of First Baptist Church of Raytown, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. that the gas station wasn't robbed as evidence that Sodhi was targeted because of how he looked. Male Sikhs often have long facial hair and wear turbans.

"He wouldn't have any enemies," said his cousin, Harjit Singh Sodhi. The clerk at the second gas station was a U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent, according to his employers, Ali Saad and Saad Saad. The brothers, who didn't give the clerk's name, said they had no doubt that he was targeted because of his raca "In Mesa, Arizona, today, it's time for calm and rational thought," Mayor Keno Hawker said Sunday. "These people are innocent.

Because they wear a turban on their head is no indication they are terrorists." to business successful test of its systems. "The life of the city goes on, and I encourage people to go about their lives," said Giuliani. "One of the best things they can do to show how strong they are, and to show how terrorists can't cower us, is to not be cowered." President Bush also weighed in, saying Sunday: "When you get back to work, work hard like you always hava People will be amazed at how quickly we will rebuild New York." Associated Press BITTERSWEET: New York city firefighter Robert Bloome of Bronxville, N.Y., holds his 2-year-old son, Brian, before being promoted to 7th Division Batallion Chief in New York on Sunday. Bloome, who was at the scene of the World Trade Center terrorist attack, is one of 168 firefighters promoted Sunday to replace fire department personnel killed in the World Trade Center disaster. New York getting back uzjz i "3B gromot Forces needed as replacements for those lost NEW YORK (AP) New York promoted 168 firefighters on Sunday and no one laughed or beamed with pride.

There was only heartache. These were the replacements for a Fire Department command structure that was eviscerated in a few moments on Tuesday morning, when the World Trade Center toppled. Their promotions were a necessity, not a joy. "No one really wants to be here. No one really wanted to be promoted," said Jerry Horton, who became a captain during the ceremony.

With nearly 300 firefighters still lost beneath the jumbled remains of the twin towers, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani compared the promotions to battlefield commissions awarded during wartime. "We are shaken, but we are not defeated," said Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. "We stare adversity in the eye and we move on." Von Essen delivered his remarks in a strong, unwavering voice, but his face twisted in pain the moment Mayor says he thinks city is ready NEW YORK (AP) The air thick with dust and tinged with bitter smoke, a city still patching together phone lines and electricity battled to get back to business for today's reopening of Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange and the Mercantile Exchange, as well as City Hall and other government buildings and courthouses, are to reopen today, even as much of lower Manhattan remains inaccessible. "We think we're ready for it," Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday.

"Some of it obviously is trial and error." Investors anxiously awaited the markets' reopening. Five days after two hijacked commercial jetliners brought down the World Trade Center, parts of the island's southern tip are still without electricity or telephone service. Streets are crisscrossed with heavy utility cables, and portable generators stand on sidewalks. The Wall Street subway station is closed, and only subways on the east side of downtown Manhattan will run at all. A new ferry service will carry passengers across the East River from Brooklyn.

Streets are closed Associated Press CLEAN UP: Isaac Durant vacuums dust and soot off merchandise at the Record Explosion shop on Sunday near the site of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center In New York. to vehicles, and some thoroughfares are blocked altogether. Even so, Giuliani has made reopening the area home to the city's financial and government sectors a priority. The New York Stock Exchange had a successful test Saturday of its computer and communications systems. The computerized Nasdaq Stock Market, which doesn't have a trading floor as the NYSE does on Wall Street, said it had also conducted a i.