How A Priest With No Money Honored Flight 93’s Heroes Where They Fell

2004. 2007. Sometime in the 1990s? These are among the answers I have received in recent years from freshmen and sophomores in a course I teach on American society when I ask them for the year the 9/11 attacks took place. To be fair, some do know the right answer, but it is a bracing, depressing fact that so many do not, and there is little reason to doubt the numbers will continue to dwindle.

So many forces are working to feed this basic historical ignorance about the most important event in American history, of at least the past quarter-century, that it may be impossible to do much to reverse it.

That pessimistic thought notwithstanding, every September, as a regrettably modest contribution to the effort of keeping the memory present in the American consciousness, I write something about that dreadful day and what it means to this country. This year, I give you a few words about a hero of that day and many days afterward, a man — it is to the shame of this entire society to note it — whose name none of my students know, a man I knew as Father Fonzie.

The Father has passed on to his reward.

I have to wonder who picked up the reins of this memorial.

Where does ownership of the chapel reside.

If the picture of the sign of the chapel is recent, it looks as if the chapel has been neglected since the Father’s death.

We met the good father not long after the chapel had been competed and dedicated. The National Park Service really needs to include this as a part of their scope.

When I suggested it to them during our last visit to what is now a full blown National Park with a visitor's center, I got the excuse that the unmarked road nearest the park to Shanksville would remain unmarked because the locals didn't want the traffic disturbing their little community.

What a crock, I thought. Build a toll road out of the south end of the park to connect to the road to the memorial chapel and Shanksville. Share the proceeds with the town and they would be happy to have the extra revenue. But I think like an economist and not a government bureaucrat.

"But I think like an economist and not a government bureaucrat."

Sounds like the government bureaucrat is acting favorably by allowing these country folks as much peace and quiet as they can considering the circumstances. You're sounding as though you're probably more of an opportunist looking to see if there's a profit to be made somewhere. But there are still people out there who do not have much wealth yet have everything they truly need and wish not to be bothered. The excuse is probably not a crock.

Let me give you a concrete example since I work with people from small isolated towns in SW Pennsylvania. Before Governor "Tommie the Commie" Wolf saw dollar signs in his eyes to campaign successfully for governor by proposing extraction fees from gas and oil to benefit (mainly) the teacher's unions (which he calls "education"), rural counties and townships made their own deals with the gas and oil industry to pay "impact fees" on the local level instead.

Fortunately, the legislature (and some of these interests which they represent) has seen fit to restrain Tommie the Commie and leave these impact fees alone.

So the bottom line is that Rural Pennsylvania where the oil and gas are drilled are getting improved roads and local services (including schools) already where the impact is most felt and not sending the dollars to Harrisburg where they would get pennies back.

The oil and gas companies made these deals locally without top down involvement from Harrisburg. Is it so far fetched to think the National Park Service couldn't do the same for Shanksville and nearby towns?

After all, these were the people who erected a temporary memorial and got the mining company to donate the crash site (and supported the memorial chapel) long before the National Park Service got involved. Bottom line is that rural folks, in general, don't mind a little extra traffic if they get the road improvements necessary to carry it. They do mind rape and pillage, dumping your crap and leaving them to clean up and deal with it. Show them a credible plan where that isn't going to happen and they will support it.

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