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Remembering Sept. 11: 'We Didn't Want The Bad Guys To Win'

As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks draws closer, we're pointing to some of the stories being told about that day and the days since.

This morning, The Wall Street Journaloffers " A Battered Firm's Long Road Back." It's a look at the investment-banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, which lost more than a third of its 171 New York employees when the south tower of the World Trade Center fell.

As the Journal explains, just before 9/11 the firm had been about to be sold. But after the attacks, its leaders decided they would rebuild on their own.

"None of us wanted 9/11 to be the last day in the firm's history," says CEO John Duffy says. "We didn't want the bad guys to win." Among those who died on 9/11 was his 23-year-old son.

Now, KBW is bigger than its was the day the towers fell.

Last evening on All Things Considered, NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty told the story of Father Mychal Judge, the New York City Fire Department chaplain who rushed to the World Trade Center on 9/11. He died when the South Tower collapsed. Moments before, Father Mike had been praying for the people he could see leaping to their deaths. He was absolving them of their sins.

Related note: NPR.org's "Reflecting On Sept. 11, 2001" page is asking "what one word describes how you felt that day?"

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.