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Lest We Forget
Townhall ^ | Feb 20, 2002 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 02/19/2002 9:09:03 PM PST by My Identity

February 20, 2002

Lest we forget

Run to the grocery store this week and buy the Feb. 25, 2002, issue of People magazine. The cover photo is a special, double-paged layout that you must see. No, it's not a Victoria's Secret model shoot. No, it's not the cast of "Friends" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

It's a group picture of mothers and babies -- 31 widows of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 32 infant sons and daughters their fathers will never hold. There are lean babies. Chubby babies. Smilers. Criers. Snoozers. A bubbly set of twins. All of them dressed in white. All of them born into this world without the fathers who had happily anticipated their arrival -- until alien terrorists invaded our skies and took daddy after daddy after daddy away.

People magazine brought the women and their children together last month for interviews and photos in New York City, where they "quickly formed a confederacy of mourning and support." Holli Silver, 38, of New Rochelle, N.Y., mother of Rachel, 3, and 5-month-old Danielle, explained: "We don't have to ask 'How are you?' because we all know how we're doing. We all know what we went through." During what should be the happiest time in their lives, these new young mothers are grieving in private, wearing their husbands' pajamas, and taking bittersweet solace in beautiful children who have their daddies' laugh, hair, hands and toes.

People identified at least 50 women who have given birth to children whose fathers perished in the Sept. 11 attacks. The first was 8-lb., 10.5-oz. Farqad Chowdhury, born on Sept. 13 in Queens. As of Feb. 12, the most recent was 5-lb., 12-oz. Robin Ornedo, born Jan. 31 in Los Angeles. "They are Irish, Italian, African-American, Latino, Christian, Jewish and Muslim," the magazine reports. "And their parents hail not just from New York and Washington but also from Boston, Arizona, Toronto and even Sligo, Ireland."

This is exactly what we need right now. At a time when the bloody shock of terrorism has faded from the media's radar screen, this story -- and this cover photo filled with the babies of murdered fathers -- provide jolting reminders of why we are at war. And why we must not sink back into a pre-Sept. 11 mindset of triviality and self-indulgence.

Osama bin Laden is a distant memory, yesterday's news. Figure-skating scandals, sex courses at the University of California at Berkeley and campaign finance reform-posturing dominate the headlines this week. But out of the spotlight, young mothers are still grappling with the raw horror caused by al Qaeda's uncaptured mastermind. Courtney Acquaviva, 31, of Glen Rock, N.J., mother of 3-year-old Sarah and 8-week-old Paul, told People about a recent breakfast conversation with her daughter: "'Is Daddy still dying?' How do you answer that?" Acquaviva explained to the toddler: "Daddy couldn't come home. A lot of daddies couldn't come home. But they love us still."

When told that her father is "in the stars," Fahina Chowdhury, 6, asked her mom for binoculars. "I want to see my dad," she said. Four-year-old Donald McIntyre Jr., son of a Port Authority police officer who died at the World Trade Center, comforts his newborn baby sister when she cries: "Do you miss your daddy?" his mother says Donald Jr. asks the baby. "Then he'll tell her, 'I do. I cry too.'"

This magazine cover photo and story will shake you not only because of who's featured in it, but also because of who does not appear. It brings to my mind the forgotten husbands who lost pregnant wives during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And the children who lost parents. And the parents who lost only children. And the entire families whose lives were erased by homicidal maniacs masquerading as religious warriors. And all the widows and children of past al Qaeda terrorist attacks that faded long ago from public memory.

Lest we forget: We are at war. Evil remains on the loose. Children are still crying themselves to sleep. Things are not yet back to "normal." And they won't be for a long time to come.

Contact Michelle Malkin

©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: frlibrarians; michellemalkinlist

1 posted on 02/19/2002 9:09:03 PM PST by My Identity
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To: My Identity
Lest we forget: We are at war.
Evil remains on the loose.
Children are still crying themselves to sleep.
Things are not yet back to "normal."
And they won't be for a long time to come.
2 posted on 02/19/2002 9:09:48 PM PST by My Identity
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To: My Identity
Got it right this time. Sorry.
3 posted on 02/19/2002 9:12:41 PM PST by My Identity
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To: My Identity
The times will NEVER be back to normal. 9-11 changed this country forever. The victims and the heroes will be forever remembered. Now in their memory, "let's roll" to make a safer world for every American and every innocent person on the planet.
4 posted on 02/19/2002 9:12:50 PM PST by goldstategop
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To: My Identity; JohnHuang2; ppaul
bttt
5 posted on 02/19/2002 9:13:16 PM PST by kayak
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To: goldstategop
The times will NEVER be back to normal. 9-11 changed this country forever. The victims and the heroes will be forever remembered.

I hope and pray that you are right, but I fear that you are not.
6 posted on 02/19/2002 9:17:58 PM PST by My Identity
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: seamole
Thanks for the list update
8 posted on 02/19/2002 9:27:51 PM PST by My Identity
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To: kayak
Thanks =^)
9 posted on 02/19/2002 9:59:47 PM PST by JohnHuang2
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To: My Identity
I would like to remind Americans that today is the anniversary of the day the Japanese bombed Darwin,Australia. And remember all the soldiers that gave their life attempting to defend the city against overwhelming odds.

Lest we Forget.

10 posted on 02/19/2002 10:16:03 PM PST by cavador
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To: My Identity
Don't forget that Sunday, March 10, 9PM EST, CBS will run video from the WTC that has not yet been publicly seen in it's entirity. Never forget!
11 posted on 02/20/2002 6:07:59 AM PST by FreedomPoster
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To: My Identity
Lest we forget.....


12 posted on 02/20/2002 6:15:29 AM PST by ppaul
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To: My Identity
Never Forget - now *sniff* pass the kleenex!
13 posted on 02/20/2002 6:17:24 AM PST by Johnny Gage
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To: kayak
Thanks or the flag.
14 posted on 02/20/2002 6:18:09 AM PST by ppaul
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To: Johnny Gage
Never Forget - now *sniff* pass the kleenex!

Sorry, is that a smirk??
15 posted on 02/20/2002 7:02:40 AM PST by My Identity
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To: My Identity
No offense, but I don't need some magazine to help me remember.
16 posted on 02/20/2002 7:06:24 AM PST by oldvike
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To: My Identity
No. Being a 10 yr member of a Fire/Rescue dept. I will NEVER forget.
My apologies if my previous post seemed sarcastic. It wasn't in the slightest.

Dave
Mpls Mn
17 posted on 02/21/2002 6:30:59 AM PST by Johnny Gage
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