Ringing of bell to mark attacks

People seeking a tangible way of marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are invited to enter the oldest church in Post Falls and take a turn ringing the church bell Saturday morning.

The ceremony will begin at 8:45 a.m. at the Old Church, Fourth Avenue and Williams Street. The church, the oldest standing structure in Post Falls, is south of Interstate 90 and just east of Spokane Street.

A community preservation group and the Post Falls Historical Society had just installed a church bell, forged in 1880 by the same maker of the church’s original bell, in fall 2001. When Mayor Clay Larkin asked Post Falls residents to mark the horrors of Sept. 11 by ringing bells, the old bell in the old church added its booming notes to the chorus, and has continued on each anniversary.

“It’s a tradition we are starting. We are hoping to utilize the bell as a symbol of freedom,” Kim Brown, one of the organizers of Saturday’s event, said.

Larkin, Police Chief Cliff Hayes and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Lynn Borders have been invited to the event, but Brown said the focus is on ordinary people, especially children, who can take a turn ringing the bell.

“We’d like them to listen to the sound, to think back to why bells are tolled,” she said. “It’s meant to commemorate loss and honor those who lost their lives in service to their country.”

It’s also a way, said Brown, president of the historical society, “to bring our oldest building back into the vitality of the community.

“We encourage people to come and, if they have children, to let them ring the bell,” Brown said.

Also Saturday, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has ordered that flags on state buildings and facilities be flown at half-staff in honor of Marine Capt. Alan Rowe, who was killed in Iraq on Sept. 3. Rowe, who is from Idaho, will be laid to rest in Fairfield, Idaho, on Saturday.

“It’s fitting that his funeral will be held on Sept. 11, the day all Americans will remember the thousands of citizens who were lost in the terrorist attacks on our country,” Kempthorne said in a news release. “Alan was in Iraq fighting for his country – the same country that was targeted on that fateful day.”