Free Republic's 9-11 100 Hours of Remembrance

Free Republic | 9/6/03 | Free Republic

[jriemer]

It’s 4:46am September 6.

Its a little more than 100 hours from the Second Anniversary of Start the World Trade Center Attack and the subsequent Strike on the Pentagon and the Crash in Pennsylvania. 100 hours seems to be a long time; however, it is barely enough to reflect and remember all those who perished on the ground and in the air. Each one of the victims has a story, a life, that if retold would take more than 100 hours to appreciate the richness of their stay on this earth before it was snatched away.

Since 911, there has been more sacrifice. More have taken from this earth – this time not in tragedy but in a quest for justice and the expansion of freedom. They were not helpless victims but Heroes of liberation for the Afghanis and Iraqis and protectors of our domestic security.

We would hope that you would take the time and reflect on the lives of those who died on 9-11 and those who have sacrificed their all since that day in these next 100 hours. Please contribute a post of reflection, a prayer, a memorial, a picture or even just a ping to your friends to let them know that 9-11 has not been ignored this year.

Never forget…

[appalachian_dweller]

Jeff,
Execellent site! Thanks for posting here.

a_d

[snippy_about_it]

[knighthawk]

Glad you liked it. The site is made by one of my best friends, Trish Routt.

[Jeff Head]

You are welcome. We can not afford to ever forget that day...or what was done to our nation and our countrymen and women.

ATTACK ON AMERICA

...is my attempt to help ensure that we don't.

[appalachian_dweller]

>> We can not afford to ever forget that day <<

Agreed. I'm going to write a 911 message on my car's back windshield reminding everyone of what happened. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to say yet.

There are far too many people who want to forget. I'll be damned if I'll let them.

I've taken the day off work. I think I'm going to go hang a few flags. Maybe go down to the courthouse and stand there with a lit candle. I don't care if I'm the only one there or not.

My thanks to everyone who's posted on this thread. My heart and prayers go out to everyone who lost someone on that day.

[tutstar]

bttt...may they rest in peace and


Let's Roll!

[Jeff Head]

Thank you, and God bless you for those sentiments and ideas.

Those who want to forget it...who just want us to "get over it", are allowing themselves to buy a lie...that somehow the horror of that day cannot be revisited on us.

The saying, "the cost of liberty is enternal vigilance", is particularly applicable in such cirumstances.

We shall not forget...we shall bear true faith to those killed, to those fighting and sacrificing for our liberty.

Best Fregards...it's good to know that there are so many out there who understand and who will not falter.

Jeff

[StarCMC]

A LESSON TO MY SON
by A PROUD AMERICAN Irma S. Chambers
The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war.
My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.
My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He told him:
"Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"
"I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." he replied.
"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."
Our son giggled and said "OK."
"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country." my husband said.
"OK Dad, I'm pretending."
"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man come out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death.
Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of this son....what do you do?"
"Dad?"
"What do you do son?!"
"I call the police, Dad."
"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?!"
"Dad, but the police are supposed to help!"
My son starts to whine.
"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or our place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.
"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.
"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it.
Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you
see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."
"Daddy...he kills them?"
"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"
"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.
"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.
"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"
"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?"
Our son starts to cry.
"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"
"What Daddy?"
"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!"
"Daddy..."
"WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!"
Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him... "Why?"
"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who needs it....and they won't help....You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself...Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds....so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."
I start to cry.
My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells him...."Son"
"Yes, Daddy."
"Open the blinds because that man....he's at your front door... "WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!!"
My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up this tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says HE WILL HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"
I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and hugs him tight, and cries...
"It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before......it's too late." my husband whispers.
THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all.
Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove this evil man from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid to look out our window and see crimes on humanity.
So that my nine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels
that if he just "closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him. Today the second day of "WAR on IRAQ" I felt compelled to write this and pass it along. Hopefully, you will understand the lesson my husband tried to teach our son. "YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA!! SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."

[TheCookMan]

I was in bed (I had late arrival that day) when my mom came outside of my door and told me that something happened. It never really sunk in until I saw the flaming wreckage of the World Trade Center.

[StarCMC]

My friend called me to tell me about the first plane. I was saying "NO WAY!" watching FoxNews and saw the 2nd one come in. I could not believe it. I WILL NEVER FORGET.

[larryjohnson]

Retired colonel reflects on 9-11
by Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
9/9/2003 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Col. Diana Fleek sat alone on the Pentagon parade field among hundreds of gray metal chairs left empty by people who had just attended the Oct. 11, 2001, one-month anniversary of the terrorist attack on the nation.
At the time, Fleek said she was pondering the evil of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed and wounded thousands of innocent people at New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and in a plane crash in Pennsylvania.
"(Remaining in my seat after everyone left was my way of showing) the utmost respect and reflection for the lives lost, their families, the hundreds of friends, (and) the incredible acts of bravery, heroism and compassion that followed," Fleek said.
She said she was thinking about how appreciative she is of the people who lost their lives in the attack.
"Not just in the Pentagon," said Fleek, "but in the Twin Towers World Trade Center in New York, and the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania, too.
"By appreciative, I mean that an entire act is hope to the rest of the world," she said.
Fleek said she now has a little bit of a different take on the tragedy that galvanized the nation. She retired from the Air Force in February 2002.
"I feel very spiritual about the folks who died in the Pentagon," she said.
"I think that the people whose lives were lost that day were people (who) knew there was a destiny and purpose for their lives," Fleek said.
Fleek said memorial services should celebrate people's lives, not mourn their deaths.
They did not die because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Fleek said. "They were in the right place at the right time," she said. "That's what I think we should celebrate for them. They were exactly where they wanted to be.
"All of humanity understands the good of the whole," she said. "When we stay very narrow-minded, life and death are not a continuum, but a finality. Then we don't appreciate the fact that there was a great sacrifice that these people made for the good of the whole.
"(Secretary of Defense Donald H.) Rumsfeld said out of great evil comes great good. That's a wake-up call for the world," she said.
When the airliner crashed into the Pentagon, Fleek was on the phone with her daughter, who was at their new home in Texas. Fleek and people on her former office staff were lucky. They had moved out of harm's way shortly before Sept. 11.
"We'd moved to the second wedge of the Pentagon four weeks earlier," she said. "As a matter of fact, the airplane's cockpit took the place of our former offices.
"We knew we had been hit, but we didn't know what it was -- we just knew there was an explosion," Fleek said. "We all felt it quite literally. The building shook, and the windows rattled. Thousands were evacuated. It was done very quickly and very orderly.
"As we looked over our shoulders, all we could see was a huge black ball of smoke, moving eastward, coming at us," she said. "Then we heard the rumble of a jet above us, and looked up to see an F-16 (Fighting Falcon) pass over the Pentagon. Those fighters up there brought a rush of emotions in our hearts and had a tremendous effect on everyone. I couldn't have been prouder to be an Air Force officer. It was an incredible moment in time, and I'll never forget it.
"(I was in) complete disbelief that someone would be so naive to think that they could penetrate the structure of the building or the will of the people housed in it," Fleek said.
Sitting alone among hundreds of empty chairs "was an opportune time to make a personal pledge -- never forget the destructive power of hatred and prejudice and to move forward with a greater determination to create value, every day, somehow," Fleek said.
"I wanted to deeply internalize my feelings," she said. "Those people's lives were not wasted. Our nation now had the opportunity to be the phoenix rising up out of the ashes."
Fleek has since reunited with her daughter and family, as well as friends around the world. She has taken up scuba diving and snow skiing again, and said she is loving the new business of breaking, training and showing quarter horse colts in Texas.
She said she has also been appointed to a leadership position in a group serving as a nongovernmental organization of the United Nations. Fleek has spoken several times at local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars events.
Fleek said her thoughts have not changed during the past two years.
"The revolution of a nation begins with individuals," she said. "That's the law of cause and effect."

[jriemer]

Linking FR 9-11 threads The Truth of 9-11-2003 (vanity)

[jriemer]

Linking FR 9-11 threads 42 in New York still mystery

[jriemer]

Linking FR 9-11 threads Atheists still fighting against WTC cross

Note: Inclusion of this link was the judgement call of the thread's originator.

[never4get]

Thank you for creating that great site. I am glad it is there to pay tribute to brave Americans and remind all other Americans of the evil these terrorist pieces of garbage pose to all of us.

[wolficatZ]

John Labriola  took these photos of the WTC Tobin Plaza from inside before the collapse; Koenig's Sphere is visible

in the center of the plaza.

 

 

 

 

According to Koenig's friend and translator, Percy Adlon, the decision to partially restore the work came of its own accord. "They found intestines of one airplane inside a hole that was ripped open in the top of the sculpture. They found a bible in there, an airline seat, papers from offices on the top floor. It became its own cemetery."

 

 

http://wtc.phatmax.net/inside

[jriemer]

[jriemer]

Republic of Singapore, Dec. 7, 2001 - During a port visit to the Republic of Singapore, officers aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) display the U.S. flag that once flew over the World Trade Center complex in New York City, N.Y. Found in the ruins of the North Tower and Building Number 7 by New York Police Sergeant Karl Hagstrom,who is also a U.S. Naval Reservist, the flag was sent by Hagstrom to Stennis to be flown as the ship takes her station in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Alta I. Culter. [011207-N-1587C-005] Dec. 7, 2001...US Navy Photo

[SAMWolf]

Never Forget