J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘9/11’ Category

Thank you Israel.

The people of Israel of course strongly identify with the United States in its confrontation with the forces of Islamic extremism. President Obama to the contrary notwithstanding, the feeling is largely reciprocated among the people of the United States. A new 9/11 memorial built in Israel, designed by an Israeli, funded by Americans, concretely makes the point.

Last month U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham and Defense and Air Attache Colonel Richard Burgess took part in the dedication ceremony for a 9/11 monument and Living Memorial sponsored by the Jewish National Fund at the entrance to Jerusalem (in the surrounding forest). The dedication ceremony took place on November 12, 2009, drawing a crowd of 150-200 participants including former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The ceremony was moving and the memorial is beautiful, though neither received any attention in the mainstream media.

Why would the media ignore this act of kindness and support shown by one of our staunchest allies?

The answer is simple. The object of their fascination was not in attendance.

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Take a few moments and read this first hand account of the events of 9-11-2001, shared by Allahpundit.

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It was a beautiful late summer morning in my town. Sometime between 8:30 and 8:45 I put my then four-year old granddaughter into her booster seat to take her to pre-school.

As I turned on the ignition I heard the morning drive co-host say she was going to give some medical updates on 9/11 about 911.

Sometime during the short drive a news bulletin interrupted and said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center building. I remember wondering if it was a large plane or a private plane that lost its bearings. The radio cut back to the regular program and I figured it was a small plane and felt bad for the people who surely would have been killed in this “accident”.

Just before I got her out of the car at the pre-school I heard that a plane had hit the Pentagon and I knew then we were under some kind of attack.

I told the director and she moved a TV into her office and the workers stood around watching the news.

I drove back home and my telephone was ringing. It was my neighbor, telling me to turn on the TV because something terrible was happening. I told her I had turned it on as soon as I walked through the door.

Confusion was all over the airwaves and in my mind. Almost as soon as I walked in and turned on the TV I saw a plane slice through the second World Trade Center tower. I didn’t know if it was a replay of the first or a new one. Then I heard the reporter say it was a second plane.

I’ll never forget seeing that plane slice through the building. I’ll never forget the horror I felt as I watched what seemed to be so surreal. I saw the buildings collapse and saw dust clouds following and then overtaking the running crowd. I saw a dead priest being carried out in a chair, but I thought he was just unconscious. I heard about people jumping to their deaths, including a man and a woman who held hands on the way down.

I saw people, covered in cement dust, helping each other and running, running as fast as they could to escape the great cloud of cement dust overcoming them. I saw firemen vomit from all the dust they had inhaled.

I saw Pentagon workers and military people running for safety, helping their comrades.

Then I heard there was a runaway plane in Pennsylvania and we were considering shooting it down, but it went down before we could force it down. Another planeload of heroes met their Maker that day.

A year later I watched the French documentary. French photographers were working with one of the Fire Engine Companies when the first plane hit and they got into the building during rescue efforts.

It was then that I heard that horrible thump of human bodies landing outside the building. They were determined to die their way if they had to die. Heroes. All of them.

For days people stood with photos asking if anyone had seen their loved ones. No one had and no one would.

I started to go to the Red Cross to give blood, but then I heard there was no need for blood because there were not that many survivors.

That day is seared in my memory just as the assassination of President John Kennedy is. Those are two days I will never forget and will never forget what I was doing when I heard about each horrible tragedy.

Below is a series of photos documenting what happened that awful day in New York.

We must never forget what happened that day and we must always remember the almost 3,000 people who lost their lives for a senseless religious act. A religion of peace, they call themselves. This is not peaceful. This is cowardly and murder.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.”

May all these souls rest in peace forever and ever. And may we never forget, lest this happen again.

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Congress and the White House may have the power to change not only America, but the lives of individuals fortunate to reside within her boundaries. However, when it comes to September 11, 2001, it is inconceivable they would make any attempt to hijack the hearts and minds of those who witnessed the most horrific terrorist attack this country has ever experienced.

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.

This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year’s election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it’s not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.

The administration’s plans were outlined in an Aug. 11 White House-sponsored teleconference call run by Obama ally Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Liv Havstad, the group’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships and programs.

It escapes me how the following commemorates the tragedies which occurred in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.:

Of this National Day of Service, Jones says little except that it will be a great opportunity “for people to connect, to find other people in your peer group who are also passionate about repowering America but also greening up America and cleaning up America.”

On the same day, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Department of Energy Under Secretary Kristina Johnson and activists held a low-key press conference. At it, Yearwood said the National Day of Service will be “the first milestone” of a larger effort called Green the Block that is attempting to convince Americans that the utopian fantasy of a so-called green economy is possible without turning the U.S. into a Third World country.

emphasis- admin

I felt compelled to bold the entire two paragraphs above as they highlight the arrogance of this concept.

There is no mention of the victims or their families, no talk of those who have tirelessly fought to eradicate those who would do this country further harm, nor any mention of the profound affect this tragedy had on all Americans who were its witness.

Where is the decency in this? Why not a reverent, quiet remembrance of those who were senselessly murdered and those they left behind?

Try as they may, no member of our government, or those they task to try, will ever erase these memories from my mind:

I have to believe most Americans feel the same.

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Politicians on both sides of the aisle are guilty of campaigning on issues which once elected they either neglect to address or change their position dramatically.

One would think though, when something so sensitive as the loss of a loved one is the topic, that words spoken would be those of truth and sincerity.

Debra Burlingame says otherwise:

In February I was among a group of USS Cole and 9/11 victims’ families who met with the president at the White House to discuss his policies regarding Guantanamo detainees. Although many of us strongly opposed Barack Obama’s decision to close the detention center and suspend all military commissions, the families of the 17 sailors killed in the 2000 attack in Yemen were particularly outraged.

Take a moment. Read the whole piece in The Wall Street Journal.

We all need to consider the movements of this administration in the area of National Security. They have shown a tendency to politicize even the protection of this nation on far too many occasions.

As for those who chose not to attend the meeting back in February, their feelings are summed up in short order by this comment:

“They saw it for what it was.”

Promises, promises.

[Update] Ran across this video at Gateway Pundit and it certainly reinforces the points made in the article above:

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*Update:

I have updated this post at the top as Debra Burlingame in an interview with Neil Cavuto, speaks for what I would hope are many, many Americans.

Have a listen:

*End Update*

How many people knew this was going to happen?

Sad to say, but freedom is on the way out. As in the absurd decision to rename the Freedom Tower.

What a disgrace.

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was the pilot aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon, said the renaming of the tower is one more example that the nation is forgetting 9/11.

“If we can’t say the word freedom out loud, God help us,” she said.

Just one more of those changes to America which has slipped under the radar. How many more will we absorb before we don’t recognize this country?

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It was a usual Tuesday morning in September. As I loaded my granddaughter into the van to take her to pre-school the lady on the radio was getting ready to do a health report because the date was 9-1-1.

Before she could give the report the announcer said there had been a plane crash into a building at the World Trade Center. I thought it was a small Piper Cub or something like that.

I got her to pre-school and dropped her off and as I was going down the street I heard this might have been a deliberate act.

I got home as soon as I could and turned on the television in time to see the second plane cut through the building. This is when I knew we were under attack, and I followed until I heard of the Pentagon attack and the crashed plane in Pennsylvania.

My neighbor called to tell me to watch the TV, but I was already doing that.

It was one of those days that is seared in your memory, like where you were when JFK was shot, Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Too much violence in one person’s lifetime.

I gave blood, but they didn’t need it for this emergency.

Let us remember those who died just because they went to work that day and the firemen and police officers who willingly went into the fires of hell to try to save as many lives as possible.

I can almost taste the cement dust cutting off the air to my lungs, and I still mourn and hurt for the victims and our innocence as a country.

In loving memory of those who lost their lives and those who risked theirs to save others:

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Senator Joe Lieberman pens an excellent piece published today at NRO.

Today we remember those who lost their lives on that horrible day six years ago. We also honor the sacrifices of Americans in uniform who have bravely fought in the war that began on September 11, 2001.

The fact is that all freedom-loving people throughout the world are engaged in a struggle against the barbarism of Islamist extremism. This is not a battle between civilizations, but rather a battle for civilization.

The cause which we are fighting for is not a Republican cause or a Democratic cause. Our cause is the cause of defending liberty and freedom against a totalitarian movement that is the evil heir to the twin totalitarian threats of the 20th century. Islamist extremism, like fascism and communism, seeks to eliminate all of the ideals that free peoples cherish.

Just as during the World War II and the Cold War, our challenge today, is not to relent in this fight for liberty. And the central front in this war today is Iraq. You cannot be serious and strong in defeating those who attacked us on 9/11 if you counsel retreat in Iraq.

To pull the plug on progress in Iraq would hand our two most dangerous enemies in the world — al Qaeda and Iran — an extraordinary military and strategic victory. These are fateful days and critical decisions we are making about Iraq. We must make them with our eye on the safety of America’s next generation. It is to the credit of President Bush that he has done that in the war against Islamist extremism. He has shown the courage and steadfastness to stand against the political passions of the moment.

Indeed Senator, indeed.

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I know exactly where I was the morning of September 11, 2001 and precisely what I was doing.

Fox News was on and I was waiting for the first of my little charges to be dropped off to begin a day of fun.

I vividly remember Steve Doocy relaying that one of the World Trade Center towers had been hit by a plane and it was being treated as a terrible accident. Things changes in an indescribable fury from that moment on.

There was no fun that day, parents gathered their children and took them home, adults sat numbly watching as not only the two towers but the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania became graves for many. I can’t speak for others but I know the tears flowed often that day, not only in mourning for those who lost their lives but for this country I so love.

We can move on, and we can hope and pray that such an event never happens on our soil again. We can praise those fighting on our behalf in foreign lands and offer words of hope and thanks to them. We can pray our President is steadfast in his relentless fight to keep us safe at home but we can never forget how we felt 6 years ago today.

~J~ adds: For a complete list of every person lost that terrible day please go to Musing Minds.

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If I had to answer the question posed in the following headline from today’s NYT, I would have a great deal of difficulty doing so.

As 9/11 Draws Near, a Debate Rises: How Much Tribute Is Enough?

There are those who believe that enough time has passed that we should move away from formal ceremonies:

“I may sound callous, but doesn’t grieving have a shelf life?” said Charlene Correia, 57, a nursing supervisor from Acushnet, Mass. “We’re very sorry and mournful that people died, but there are living people. Let’s wind it down.”

Then, an opinion of someone who lost a relative on that dark day:

“The idea of scaling back just seems so offensive to me when you think of the monumental nature of that tragedy,” said Anita LaFond Korsonsky, whose sister Jeanette LaFond-Menichino died in the World Trade Center. “If you’re tired of it, don’t attend it; turn off your TV or leave town. To say six years is enough, it’s not. I don’t know what is enough.”

Or is Mr. Brosseau correct in his thinking?

Some people are troubled by what they see as others’ taking advantage of the event. “Six years later, we can see that a lot of people have used 9/11 for some gain,” said Matt Brosseau, 27, of Westfield, N.J. He sees the public tributes as “crassly corporatized and co-opted by false patriots.”

Does a professional in the mental health field have the correct attitude?

Mental health practitioners see a certain value in the growing fatigue.

“It’s a good sign when people don’t need an anniversary commemoration or demarcation,” said Charles R. Figley, the director of the Florida State University Traumatology Institute. “And it’s not disrespectful to those who died.”

There is a great deal of food for thought in this piece. Each of the opinions offered by those interviewed has an element of validity. After all, we all face tragedy in a different manner, with each person determining the path which best suits their needs.

Perhaps, the following says it best:

“Commemoration aims to simplify, but life as it’s lived and feelings as they’re felt are never simple,” said John Bodnar, a professor of history at Indiana University.

That’s for certain.

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