On this anniversary, I remember, do you? Do our elected representatives, our public SERVANTS?
Today, the President traveled to the Pentagon while the Vice President went to New York.
New York City… Manhattan… site of the former World Trade Center Towers… where construction has yet to begin on that “shovel ready” project… the site of the original attack… the site of the greatest loss of life… the site known as Ground Zero, the Vice President speaks.
Now, read the words both of the President’s Pentagon speech, and also his proclamation from 9/10/09:
On Friday's anniversary, the White House marked a moment of silence at 8:46, the time when the first tower was hit.
"We remember with reverence the lives we lost," Obama said in a speech at the Pentagon memorial to honor those who died there in the 2001 attacks, and meet with loved ones of the dead.
"We read their name, we press their photos to our hearts," he continued. "On this day that marks their death, we recall the beauty and meaning of their lives."
He issued a proclamation Thursday urging Americans to mark the anniversary with acts of community service. He also pledged to "apprehend all those who perpetrated these heinous crimes, seek justice for those who were killed, and defend against all threats to our national security."
The president's challenge, says former Bush foreign policy adviser Juan Zarate, is to "find a balance where he's clearly marking 9-11 as a key historic moment from which his current policies flow, but also not allowing it to define him," as the attacks defined Bush's presidency.
(From Fox News)
Heinous Crimes? No, act of war. This is not something that will be solved in a court of law, if he doesn’t understand that fundamental fact, then as in the words of the past, we will relive the experiences of the past:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Community Service?
What a disgusting thought to present on this date. Even if it was meant to be what in the past we thought of Community Service.
This is a day to remember that there are those that were killed in attacks on our Country. It is a day to remember their families and all that they have had to deal with. It is a day to remember children that will never know their parent. It is a day to remember that there are those that will not stop at anything in an attempt to try to kill us, no matter the change of terminology, the apologies, the pandering.
It is even more disgusting with his “version” of community service, bullying, supporting the government, doing the government’s bidding ACORN (gotta love the news on ACORN over the past two days). Excuse me Mr. President, It is YOU that is the public servant, I suggest you might ramp up your community service, you might want to follow the Constitution rather than reshaping or destroying it, you might want do something that will create real jobs rather than turning the nation into a bunch of crack-whores dependent on the teat of the federal government. (Like that is going to happen.)
So now,
- Instead of terrorism we have man-made disasters
- Instead of the war on terrorism, we have overseas contingency actions
- Instead of standing with strength you apologize to everyone Mr. President?
- Instead of asking hard questions, we follow a field manual
- Instead of illegal enemy combatants we have criminals how get the rights of US Citizens conferred upon them
Mr. President I remember quite well:
I remember:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Mr. President, My Country is certainly not perfect, but as charged in the Preamble to the Constitution ours is a More Perfect Union when compared to elsewhere, it does not need to be fundamentally transformed, which in your vision would seem to follow steps that have in this and the past century been proven to be false hope, and destructive. This path you wish us to go down has always led to tyranny, to loss of life, liberty and freedom.
I remember:
Todd M. Beamer
32 years old
Cranbury, New JerseyTodd Beamer, who resided in Cranbury, New Jersey, was an account manager for the Oracle Corporation. He died at age 32 in the September 11, 2001 attacks on board United Airlines Flight 93. He is survived by his wife, Lisa Beamer, two sons, David and Drew, and a daughter, Morgan Kay, who was born on January 9, 2002 . nearly four months after her father's death.
Todd and other passengers had been in communication with people via in-plane and cell phones and learned that the World Trade Center had been attacked using hijacked airplanes. Beamer tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. He was also on the phone when the plane made its turn in a southeasterly direction, a move that had him briefly panicking. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning "jump on" the hijackers. According to Jefferson, Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Let's roll." This term would later become the war cry for those fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Though it was a widely-held belief that the passengers crashed the airliner in an attempt to save the lives of others on the ground, the 9/11 Commission's findings (based on the "black box" cockpit recording) were that the passengers on Flight 93 did not cause the plane to crash intentionally. They burst into the cockpit and fought with the terrorists over the controls for the plane.
A post office in Cranbury, New Jersey, was named after him. There is also a high school (Todd Beamer High School) in Federal Way, WA, named after Beamer. Wheaton College also has a building named after him (the Todd M. Beamer Student Center). Beamer attended Los Gatos High School, Wheaton Academy, DePaul University, California State University, Fresno and Wheaton College.
For the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's biography of Todd Beamer, click here.
Yes I remember 9/11/01, I will remember 9/11/09, both very sad days for very different reasons.
Tomorrow is 9/12/09. America, my fellow American’s, Let’s Roll.
