Portales ceremony commemorates 9/11

Jared Tucker

Local leaders and business owners voiced their opinions about current governmental issues while honoring lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at an annual ceremony Friday in the James Polk Stone Community Bank parking lot in Portales.

Portales Deputy Police Chief Lonnie Berry, one of two guest speakers at the ceremony, said events of Sept. 11 brought out the heroes in normal, everyday people.

“Not just police officers or firefighters or military...but travelers, businessmen, stockbrokers, investment bankers...my definition of a hero is someone who does what they don’t have to in times of adversity,” Berry said.

The Color Guard from Cannon Air Force Base performed at Friday’s ceremony and the worship team from Victory Life Church sang and played patriotic music for a crowd of about 200 people.

Bank President David Stone told the crowd the country must be careful, because even though the U.S. won every battle in Vietnam, the war was lost because the country turned against itself.

This year’s ceremony was the ninth-straight Stone has coordinated.