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9/11/01
I am just letting all of you know that on the 11th of next month is coming up soon meaning 9/11/01. I will never forget that day and my prayers goes out to those who died on that horific day. Also Firefighter angels watches over them every day and night. I again pray for our troops who are fighting over there every day.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Edmund Ford Power 3rd on
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Well Gregory Borg, they should just build a wall with all of the people who died on that day. Also should have on their car lights on just for that day.
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Well Matt Hatfield, I really do like your comment.
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Ben Waller, I like your comment.
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Well Gregory Borg, it does explain a lot and means we are all americans.
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Permalink Reply by Michael McCarthy on
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Just figure I wouild lighten the load a little and try to put a positive spin on 9/11/01. I personally went through it from the very beginning--to the last day. I spent COUNTLESS hours there trying to do something that you couldnt even imagine what it was like. On the last day May 30,2002 I sat down and wrote a letter I called "The Unsung" and thank all those who assisted there, here it is:
The Unsung
As I sit here on the steps of St Pauls Church, a church which literally lies across the street from the World Trade Center and for the most part miraculously escaped unscathed, I reflect upon what I believe to be possibly the one single event that has affected me the most in my lifetime. I have been working at Ground Zero for the most part since the beginning and have seen it transformed from the first day where the scene was overwhelming, chaotic, and truly frightening to a place where it has become nothing more than a fairly quiet and solemn construction site. Unfortunately, and maybe the hardest part of it all, it will become the final resting place for many husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. After thinking about it a while, I have begun to realize how many people here have gone for the most part unrecognized throughout the ordeal and possibly don't even reaize the affect they have had on the workers here. I would like to take the time to make you aware of just a small amount of these people and somehow try to thank them all.
During those first few days I met people from all over the world who came to New York with one single intention, to help with Ground Zero. I met a Search and Rescue Team from France whi did not speak a word of english but took their vacation time from work to come and help out. Communication was very limited but their help couldnt have been more appreciated. I met a member from the Chicago Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue Team who could not stop thanking me enough for taking his badly injured search dog a ride on my John Deere "gator" tractor to the emergency veterinarian hospital. As a husband of a wife who shows dogs, I can only begin to tell you how much that dog meant to him. I met a fireman from Toronto who wanted so much to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time that when I brought him to Battery Park to see it, he had tears in his eyes and said "she is truly beautiful". Here I am thinking that this guy is crying and this "Lady" doesnt even signify his country. These are just a few of the people and things in those first few days that people will never hear about but have had a great affect not only on my life, but many others
We can not thank enough the volunteer organizations who came in the very beginning to assist in any way they could. Whether they were at Ground Zero or supported by assisting in manning a fire station or assisted in amulance runs, they all contributed. I personally know that at 7 PM on Sept 11th there were over 70 volunteer ambulance organizations from all across the Tri-State area at W 54th St and the West Side Hwy standing by to assist at Ground Zero. I am truly proud to say that I am a member of the Babylon Fire Department and our volunteer fire department was extremely honored to standby in FDNY Ladder 160 quarters and lend a hand while our "brother" firemen were at Ground Zero. I have always said "there is amazing strength in one willing hand".
We can not begin to thank the single volunteers enough who have come to Ground Zero on their own to help with feeding and taking care oare of the workers. These people have truly been a Godsend to many of us. Many of these people have professional careers, mothers, fathers, husbands and wives and have taken time out to volunteer their time. These people come from all parts of the country, pay their own way to volunteer in 12-hour shifts. In St. Paul's Church alone, a place which has become a safe haven and a place of rest for many of the workers from Ground Zero, there have had over 6000 volunteers there. I know today the people at St. Paul's Church were from Oswego, New York relieved people who were from Birmingham, Alabama who relieved people from San Diego, California. I met a young lady whose intention was to stay here and volunteer for 3 weeks and hasn' left in six months. There is a young lady who stands on Church Street every day and stands and holds a big card that says "Thank You". This list goes on and on. These people again go unrecognized and don't want any recognition but have had a great affect on all of us. The people from the Salvation Army were there immediately during the disaster and assisted in preparing food, keeping the area organized and sanitary, and sometimes just taking the time out to sit down and talk with us. Sometimes those talks and a lending shoulder to lean on is all it took for us to keep going on. Saying goodbye to all these people may somehow be the hardest part of the entire thing.
Some of the best and most inspiring parts of these past few months have been the millions of cards and letters from children we have recieved from every part of the country. I have read cards from children who are in preschool to letters from young mena and women of high school age. All of them thanking us for something that I hope one human being would do for another. I wish that I could personally write a thank you a letter to each and every child that wrote. As I think of the children I remember attending Midnite Mass on Christmas and a priest during his sermon said it best when he said "September 11th was the day that childrens heroes such as Michael Jordan and Cal Ripken were replaced by your neighbor John the fireman and Sue the policewoman". I think he hit it right on the head.
Last and not least and probably the most unsung heroes of all of this are the relatives of the ones who have passed away. These people have stood tall and have managed to somehow deal with this great tragedy every day since September 11th. They have had to somehow try to come to grips with it themselves, manage to try to explain it to children who have lost their father, mother, brother or sister. Fathers and mothers have somehow tried to make sense of their sons or daughters death and try to keep their heads up high and look for a brighter tomorrow. To me they are the frue "heroes" of this great tragedy' Trust me when I say this to all of you, and I truly believe it because I and everyone else who has been working at Ground Zero have the same exact feeling... "they never have been nor will they ever be forgotten".
Mike McCarthy
FDNY EMS
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Sorry about some of the misspelling---keyboard is too small for my fat fingers... lol
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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If you want to really do something to honour the responders on 9/11, look at how your representative voted for providing health care to the responders, and hold them accountable for their vote.
I've attached the vote tally here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll491.xml
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Viv Silverfish, I like your comment.
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Michael McCarthy, that is ok. We just need to remember our brothers.
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Mike McCarthy, I like your comment and I also had tears in my eyes. If I knew how to go to NYC I would have to help out, but I don't know how to go over there.
Be Safe.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Nope, Gregory, he said, literally, that no one in NYC has a problem with it.
Obviously, many of them - and in the poll's case, a majority of the sample - have serious problems with it, particularly the proposal for where it may be placed.
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Appreciate the offer but believe me we had more than enough help after a while. We actually had to get the word out to stop sending supplies and help. The food that was sent was beginning to spoil in some spots and we had too much of some supplies that we didnt know where to put it or what to do with it. The one thing I did that when I was there to make me remember all the people that came to see the site was to learn about the site itself and how things happened and describe the site. It actually made it alot easier on people understand September 11th, where the planes came from, and how things happened chronologically. I explained to them when they came and saw and knew where things were, what buildings actually were affected, describe how we knew if the person was inside the building or was someone who was a jumper or a person on the street. I really tried to educate myself on it because some of the people who came to Ground Zero came hundreds of miles. I met people from all over the world who thanked me for taking the time out to show them.
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