October 7, 2008 Sports center honors legacy of 9/11 Play video

(Brian Burnell, NECN) - The September eleventh terrorist attacks set many events in motion. The war on terror is the most obvious. For seven years now American forces have been engaged in Afghanistan... The first front in that war. Judy Keane of Wethersfield, Connecticut lost her husband, Richard, on 9/11. From the first she said war is not the answer.

Judy Keane, Wethersfield CT: I just don't think that we should be involved in a war. You know there's always going to be somebody worse than Osama bin Laden. No matter who we hunt down and capture or kill there's going to be somebody else that's going to come along.

Her response to the attacks... To losing her husband... Is this. The 9/11 Memorial Sports Center. After Dick died Judy created the Richard M. Keane foundation to raise the money.

Judy Keane, Wethersfield CT: Not just for Dick. It was for everybody who died that day.

That, she feels , was key to raising the money... More than a-million dollars. On its own the sports center would draw people but there is something else. Two pieces of twisted steel from the world trade center.

Judy Keane, Wethersfield CT: We're the only organization other than the Smithsonian that actually has a piece of steel and we have two.

Judy wrote to every politician she could think of including the president to get them. They are on loan in perpetuity from the NY/NJ port authority. Technically they are still considered evidence. Judy says

Judy Keane, Wethersfield CT: They do. We've had people on their bikes, with baby carriages, in cars... people coming at all times of the day and in the evening to touch it. Some just to sit and be part of it for a while.

Brian Burnell, NECN: Decision Judy says she struggled with was whether to hang the second piece of steel from the World Trade Center site here inside the building where kids are going to be playing. She didn't want to be morbid. But she decided it was okay after looking at it and saying, you know what? It looks like a whale. And it does.

Seeing that is a sign, perhaps, of how far we've come.