NEW YORK (AP) -- Wednesday's commemorations of the 9/11 anniversary have generally been less elaborate than in past years, with mourners turning out in smaller numbers.
Some say that in the aftermath of last year's landmark 10th anniversary of the terror attacks, families are ready to "move on." Wanda Ortiz of New York, whose husband was killed at the World Trade Center, says her concern now is how to keep his memory alive. And a man who lost his sister-in-law at the trade center says, "I hope we never lose focus on what really happened here."
Thousands had attended the ceremony in New York in previous years, but today a crowd of fewer than 200 swelled to about 1,000 by late morning. A few hundred attended ceremonies at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.
One New jersey community where 11 victims lived did not hold an organized memorial today for the first time in a decade.
Politicians took a back seat to grieving families this year. No elected officials spoke at the World Trade Center site during today's ceremony.
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney pulled their negative campaign ads and avoided rallies. Obama laid a wreath at the Pentagon and visited wounded soldiers in Maryland. Romney met with firefighters in Chicago.
