9-11: The Day We Were All Americans

Much has changed in a post 9-11 world, yet very little has changed.  We still go about our daily lives as though little has changed.  Flying is a huge pain.  Getting a drivers’ license is more involved.  We have codes and security measures but on the whole, not much has changed for most of us.  Oh yes, we have been involved in 2 wars.  But, like most modern wars, they don’t really impact your every day American.

I renew my anger and rage on 9-11.  I need to not be complacent.  I need to feel how I felt on 9-11-2001, just for a while.  It is all too easy, because I haven’t been impacted by 9-11 on any real and personal level, to just let it drift off like those horrible national events that have gone before it….blurred by the annals of time.

Film footage is a good stimulus to bring all my rage roaring back.

Link to WTC-911

We cannot let new debates, wars, and politics change the real message of 9-11. We were an innocent people just going about our daily lives when evil took over for the day; when zealtory, in a flash, wiped out the lives of over 3,000 people and left their families and friends without fathers, mothers, children, aunts, uncles, grandparents, girl friends and boyfriends. We must remain vigilant. We must restoke our rage when it starts to diminish. On 9-11-2001 we were all Americans.  We seem to forget about that also.

Mr. Family Values: Newt Gingrich on 9-11

Fromo Gringrichs website
Fromo Gringrich's website

To recognize the tragedy of 9-11, that class act, Mr. Family Values himself, Newt Gingrich, plans to show a film entitled America at Risk: The War With No Name.

The trailer:

It appears that this endeavor is really a war on President Obama. From Newt’s website:

Together with Dave Bossie, Kevin Knoblock and the team at Citizens United, we made this movie because we believe America IS at risk. We believe the dangers facing our country ARE real and growing.

In fact, we believe that if our enemies acquire nuclear, chemical or biological weapons from Iran or North Korea, they will attempt to kill millions of Americans and destroy entire cities.

Read More

“Murdered by Muslim Terrorists” or Nothing

James Gadiel
James Gadiel
Eight years ago James Gadiel was killed in the World Trade Center.  He worked on the 103 floor of Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services firm that was so devastated on 9-11.   Cantor Fitzgerald occupied floosrs 101-105 of the WTC which was 2-6 floors above the impact zone.  Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees, all of the employees in the offices at the time of the attacks.  In fact, Cantor Fitzgerald lost more people than any other company or agency on 9-11.

Peter Gadiel, James’ father, wants everyone in their hometown of Kent, Connecticut, to remember his son James.  And his hometown wants to memorialize James. However, the town coucil has rejected Peter’s wording.  He wants the memorial to read that his son was ‘murdered by Muslim terrorists.’  Some members of the town council object to the language and feel it is inflammatory and might alienate Muslim familes.

 

According to Peter Gadiel:

“It isn’t just overlooked, it’s suppressed,” Gadiel said. “It’s simply wrong to imply that people just died. The buildings didn’t just collapse, they didn’t just fall down — they were attacked by people with a specific identity, a specific purpose.”
 

Conversely:

Town officials call the phrase too controversial for a small town memorial, and they recently voted against erecting the plaque if Gadiel insists on the language.

“We perceive ourselves as a very warm, loving town,” said Ruth Epstein, a Kent selectman and one of two town leaders to vote the plaque down. “To disparage any one ethnic group is just against everything that we stand for here.”

Epstein noted that other Sept. 11 memorials, like the one at the Pentagon, don’t mention Muslim terrorists, and she said she does not want to alienate any members of her small and close-knit community.

“We have at least one Muslim family living here with children and it — it would be just awful to have them see something like that,” Epstein told Fox News.

So far, the matter is unresolved. Peter Gadiel refuses to back down. The town official refuse to back down. Meanwhile, the memorial to James does not exist. Gadiel feels that removing the word ‘Muslim’ is not being truthful. He harbors ill feelings because:

“Muslims have to acknowledge that it was their co-religionists who committed this act in their name,” he said. “I am offended that unlike so many others, they refuse to acknowledge that it was their people who did this.”

Full Story at Fox News

Forever Vigilant — 9-11-01 — We Will Remember

Initial News Bulletins

 

8 years ago. It seems like yesterday and it seems like a life time ago. It feels like 2 wars ago, and yet we are still at war– we have troops in harm’s way. The war in Afghanistan, where many of the criminals of 9-11-01 got their training, rages on, and Americans lose lives daily.

Every one of us has added to our collective memory that knowledge of knowing exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing the moment we learned that our country was under attack, much like older people can tell you what they were doing when they learned of  Pearl Harbor or  where they were  when they first learned of  the assassination of JFK. No incidents have recorded themselves quite as permanently, quite as indelibly, as those three events in the minds of Americans. You and every sentient person alive  on 9-11-01 will forever have this memory in common.

This thread will be an open 9-11 thread. Many of you have much to share regarding this day.

Links of Interest:

 

Memorial and Museum

Liberatio-9/11 Tribute Video 

God Bless the USA Video 9/11

Slideshow Tribute (Enya and Lee Greenwood)

Tribute to 9/11 Victims    (has thumbnail pictures)  slideshow

President Bush Speaks to America 9/11/01