posted 09-11-2002 06:29 PM            

quote:

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No emergency here, only rememberance and grievance for the innocent who lost their life or loved ones one fateful day a year ago.

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posted 09-12-2002 04:32 PM            

I don't like what's going on with our liberties, and all the sneak and peaks...the airport exams...the roof cams, stoplight cams...the watering down of our privacy...

the good thing is most of these *adjustments* are temporary...and will expire in a few years...

just don't forget to remind your congressman about it....

posted 09-12-2002 09:55 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by silentNOmore:
Why don't I feel safe, as a matter of fact the more big brother does to "protect" us the more horrified I become.

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I don't feel safe either and I wasn't too happy about us going to an Orange Alert Status and neither was anyone else. Just the thought of something happening kept a lot of people from flying and closer to home on 9/11 and I'm sure that at least a few people didn't get too much sleep. I know I didn't.

I'm not sure that we should rebuild the WTC the way it was, because of the significant loss of life on that day and all the bodies that were not recovered. Many died there, and in ancient times, such sites were left somewhat untouched and monuments were erected so that they would never forget and anyone passing by would leave an offering and say a prayer. In New England, such monuments would often start off as simple piles of stones that over time would grow in size and become great piles of stone.

I would rather see the site become a memorial park with statues and other monuments and a museum with pictures and personal effects of those who died on that day so we will never forget them. To us, it's real because we were so close to ground zero, but for those who were not here on that day, it just doesn't seem real to them.

posted 09-12-2002 10:13 PM            

9/11 Memorial Plans Go Forward

By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON- A difficult anniversary now past, planners are pressing forward with a sense of urgency to erect memorials where thousands died at the hands of terrorists.

The projects in New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa., face challenges - including the prickly question of what is appropriate.

But organizers aim to avoid the decades-long processes that have guided previous memorials to war casualties and world leaders.

"This is meant to be a fairly quick reaction and response to provide a place of solace and comfort," said Carol Anderson-Austra, manager of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Pentagon memorial design contest. "We don't want it to take five years or 50 years."

Most complicated is building a memorial to the 2,801 people who died when the World Trade Center towers fell. Divided between economic interests and raw emotion, the stakeholders are pushing for a range of development plans, from turning the entire 16-acre site into a memorial to using at least some of that space for hotels and offices. The first effort to seek proposals failed in July when six designs were widely criticized as inappropriate.

Starting over, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has given would-be designers until Tuesday to submit their qualifications. Five design teams will be selected by Sept. 30, and final plans must be submitted two months later. The choice will be made in the spring.

"There is an obvious sense of urgency about revitalizing lower Manhattan," said Matthew Higgins, spokesman for the development corporation.

"Both the memorial and the overall planning for lower Manhattan must move forward at the same time," Higgins said. "The memorial is and always will be the centerpiece of our efforts."

Meanwhile, Congress on Sept. 10 sent President Bush legislation directing a commission to come up with a design within three years to memorialize the 40 people who died when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa.

But even as lawmakers set up the procedural framework, the families of those who died hadn't felt ready to participate until the anniversary of the attacks this week, according to those involved.

"They don't have the need to feel as urgent," said Susan Shankinson, a volunteer public relations coordinator for the group. "They know the right thing will happen."

Furthest along is the Pentagon memorial project to honor the 184 people who perished when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building. The two-acre memorial site is under the flight path taken by the doomed airliner, about 165 feet from the west wall it hit.

Wednesday, the anniversary of the attacks, was the deadline for entrants to submit design proposals. Anderson-Austra said about 1,000 designs have been received from more than 50 countries; they are being stored at a warehouse near Washington Dulles International Airport.

The organizers are keeping the designs secret from everyone but the Pentagon victims' relatives, who will view the entries in a few weeks at the stately National Building Museum in Washington.

Several competitors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their designs focus on each victim rather than on the violence of the attacks. Designers have proposed such elements as pedestals on which mourners could leave mementos.

Next month, a jury will narrow the field to no more than five finalists. A winner is to be announced by December, and organizers hope to open the memorial next year.

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On the Net:

Pentagon memorial: http://pentagonmemorial.nab.usace.army.mil

World Trade Center memorial: http://www.renewnyc.com

Shanksville memorial: http://www.flt93memorial.org

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/sep/12/091204059.html
__________________________________________________________________

Today: September 12, 2002 at 14:05:21 PDT

Pentagon's Unidentified 9/11 Victims

By The Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARLINGTON, Va.- The five victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon for whom no identifiable remains were found:

-Dana Falkenberg, 3, who loved dressing up as a princess and died alongside her sister Zoe, 8, and parents Leslie Whittington and Charles Falkenberg, as they began a trip to Australia.

-Retired Army Col. Ronald Golinski, 60, an avid golfer who worked as a civilian employee at the Pentagon. A memorial headstone, used when no remains are present, was placed for him at Arlington in December.

-Ronald Hemenway, 37, a Navy electronics technician first class who left behind a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. His memorial headstone was placed at Arlington in March.

-James T. Lynch, 55, a civilian video technician for the Navy known for handing out butterscotch candies to everyone he passed.

-Rhonda Rasmussen, 44, a civilian worker for the Army and mother of four who had been planning to transfer to California.

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/sep/12/091204062.html

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Today: September 12, 2002 at 15:30:31 PDT

Marker Set for Unknown 9/11 Victims

By CONNIE CASS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARLINGTON, Va.- In a single casket, remains that symbolically represent all 184 victims of the attack on the Pentagon were buried with full military honors Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery, the resting place of the nation's unknown soldiers.

In a quiet postscript to the nation's Sept. 11 observances, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld eulogized the dead as patriots who died "here at home, not on a faraway battlefield."

He offered special condolences to the families of five victims whose remains were never identified, including 3-year-old Dana Falkenberg, who died aboard American Airlines Flight 77.

"Today, these five join the unknown of past wars even as we pursue the war that is still unfolding," Rumsfeld said, standing next to the flag-draped casket.

A granite monument with five sides, like the Pentagon, will be placed over the grave next week. It will stand on a hill with a tree-dappled view of the spot where the hijacked jet smashed into the Pentagon.

Names of all 184 victims are inscribed on the 4-foot-5-inch-tall marker.

"It cries out, do not forget. Do not forget, Americans," Brig. Gen. James T. Spivey Jr. said in his funeral address.

Some 1,000 relatives of victims sat solemnly, some hugging and weeping, many holding pictures of their loved ones, as the crowd sang "Amazing Grace" on Thursday.

After the funeral, a caisson drawn by six horses carried the casket behind the U.S. Army Band and two platoons of service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

The service marked the end of a year of Sept. 11 burials at Arlington.

Individual funerals from the Pentagon attack began here on Sept. 25; the last was April 9. In all, 64 of the dead had already been buried at Arlington, most of them next to the site of the new monument.

Many other victims, including some who were working inside the Pentagon on Sept. 11, did not qualify for an individual burial site at the nation's most prestigious cemetery, which is limited to active duty personnel and certain former service members.

All the cremated remains buried Thursday were determined to have come from victims, because they did not have a genetic trait shared by the terrorists, said Chris Kelly, spokesman for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

Some of the remains buried could not be linked to an individual victim. Others were identified after a victim had been buried, and were included in the shared grave at the family's request.

The hijackers' remains were turned over to the FBI in February. Any other remains, such as ash, that could not be partially identified as victims were disposed of by the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Kelly said, to ensure that no terrorists were committed to hallowed ground.

Donna Teepe buried her husband, retired Lt. Col. Karl W. Teepe, in a similar Arlington service on Oct. 15, when she was still too dazed to note the bugler playing taps and other ceremonial flourishes.

"I missed a lot of it," she said, watching hundreds of other family members line up to file by the shared casket. "It's good to see it now."

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/sep/12/091204247.html
________________________________________________________________

Today: September 12, 2002 at 16:40:25 PDT

Eerie 9-1-1 Lottery Draws Interest

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBANY, N.Y.- Officials say it was just a coincidence, but many people found it chilling nonetheless: On the anniversary of Sept. 11, the winning numbers in the New York lottery were 9-1-1.

Lottery officials said Thursday that 5,631 people had selected the tragic numbers. They won $500 each.

"The numbers were picked in the standard random fashion using all the same protocols," said lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman. "It's just the way the numbers came up."

The 9-1-1 combination was picked so often, it reached the lottery's set limit for combinations and sold out by Tuesday evening, Hapeman said. On any given day, seven to 10 sets of numbers are "closed out," she said.

For the drawing, which is televised live, the lottery uses numbered balls circulating in a machine. When host Jolanda Vega pushes three levers, three balls pop up randomly. On Wednesday evening, there wasn't the slightest trace of a quaver in Vega's voice as she read out: "Nine ... one ... one."

There is a 1-in-1,000 chance of the numbers 9-1-1 coming up in the lottery.

"I'm a bit surprised, but I wouldn't characterize it as bizarre," said Christopher Rump, a probability expert at the University of Buffalo. "People tend to read into these things. I'm sure that whatever numbers come up tonight will have some special meaning to someone, somewhere."

Lottery players said the eerie number sequence didn't make them think the draw was rigged.

"It's not that unusual," said Bob Matusiak, who bought a ticket Thursday at a convenience store.

A similar coincidence occurred Nov. 12 when the numbers 5-8-7 came up in the New Jersey lottery the day American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in New York City.

Lottery ticket vendors said some people seemed reluctant to try their luck on the sequence even as they bet on it.

"I think some people were disgusted with the idea of playing that number because it represents a black day in the history of America," Farzad Khosravi said.

Hapeman said Wednesday was the first time in more than a year that the 9-1-1 combination had come up in the New York lottery.

posted 09-14-2002 10:45 AM            

quote:

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I don't like what's going on with our liberties, and all the sneak and peaks...the airport exams...the roof cams, stoplight cams...the watering down of our privacy...

the good thing is most of these *adjustments* are temporary...and will expire in a few years...

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Hmmmmmmm.......I highly doubt that.

quote:

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“Freedom, once so embedded in the hearts of all Americans, was surrendered by Americans who believed the sinister men who were determined to enslave them. It was to be for a limited time only, we were assured. But tyrants never relinquish the powers they have gained; they incorporate them into perpetual law. It was done so quietly, so skillfully. A nation will fight when its full liberty is threatened, and the full plot exposed. But if liberties are subdued, little by little, no provocation for a nationwide revolt is given. Like thieves in the night, who move stealthily and without sound, so did the evil men move in your former free government, robbing away the heart and the body of your liberty, denuding your homes of its treasures, slowly stifling your tongues, imperceptibly silencing your press. They invaded the schoolrooms of your children, poisoning and debasing their minds, twisting them to their purposes so that future generations would know nothing of honor or pride and the might of free men. But you were not guiltless.

“Do not believe that this was just a plot in America. It started far back in history, in 1917, with the Bolshevik revolution. Like the black plague of the soul, it seeped into Germany, into Scandinavia, into Britain, into France, into South America and Asia and Africa. It was a nightmare and deathly disease with many names. It was called Fascism and Communism, People’s Democracies and Socialism, the Welfare State and totalitarianism and authoritarianism. In America, it was called Progressive Democracy. (NOTE: The most recent book I’ve read i.e., 1990 - calls it Democratic Socialism.) But it was the same foul disease that blinded and sickened a whole world, and made the whole world slave. It was the same abominable illness of the spirit, the same madness, that plunged an entire planet into endless wars and degradation and despair. It had for its object the unlimited power of a few men, working together in every nation even while they were ostensibly enemies, and even while their respective nations were engaged in combat against each other.

“There was no quarrel among these arch-devils of death and ruin; there was only complete understanding. They knew that man cannot be enslaved in a peaceful society, prosperous and full of ambition and hope. So they plotted wars with each other; they blew away the natural resources of the earth, for their wars, which were not against each other, but against their own people. They outlawed God, for a people staunch in their faith will not renounce their liberties and they will not engage in wars. But you, the people of America, were not guiltless of all this.

“We, in America, were not guiltless. For decades, we saw the disease spreading in Europe and Asia, and many of us knew when the infection had reached our own country. But too many of us were greedy; we saw opportunities for individual gain and profit if we supported the emerging tyrants in Washington. Tyrants are so full of pleasant promises; they are so skillful in false suspicions, false hatreds, false envies, and natural human greed. When we Americans should have stood together, defying with our votes and our voices and our anger each tyrant as he appeared, we turned our innate and instinctive jealousies and dislikes upon our neighbors. We betrayed each other. The disease entered our souls, and we sold our honor for a handful of silver, whether we were workingmen or capitalists, farmers or bankers, bureaucrats or clerks, industrialists or shopkeepers.

“...In the first years of this century (now the last century) Americans were free and prideful and independent. We were an ambitious people, and any social injustices were being slowly but steadily eliminated. We were a kind and generous people, guardful of our liberties. But, after 1917, the black plague spread over Europe, and we were infected long before 1939, when a new and deliberately plotted war broke out. We were infected in the very halls of Congress, in the very inmost chambers of Washington. The disease was already in our flesh, and its foul breath was already in the mouths of our children, and its cries were ringing in every schoolroom, every college, decades before we were plunged into this series of wars which have lasted over twenty years. We were a diseased nation long before we were slaves. We were impotent before we knew we were impotent.

“God has had mercy upon us, though we have committed monstrous sins against each other as well as against the world. God has brought us to this day, (in the story, America has just re-won its freedom after a long dictatorship) though we are not worthy of it. For many years, He has stimulated the hearts and the souls of a few free and just men, who have worked among you, unknown to you. He gave them a lash with which to arouse you. He gave them words to awaken you. He gave them courage to deliver up their lives for you, though you were not worthy of it. You betrayed them to your oppressors and your tyrants, but still they loved you. You called them ‘traitors’ and ‘subversives,’ when they cried out to you that the walls of your nation were tumbling into the seas of tyranny and death. When they warned you on the day religion was turned against religion, and race against race, in America, you laughed at them and denounced them as ‘dividers of the country.’ When they cried to you that States Rights were being abrogated, you shouted ‘Unity!’ at them, and beat them down, and silenced them. When they exposed the causes of wars to you, and the plot against you in those wars, you jeered at them with such epithets as ‘isolationists’ or ‘pacifists.’ While you still had a measure of liberty and could vote vile tyrants and corrupt men out of office, you listened, instead, to the promises of those men, and you voted honorable and decent men out of office.

“But still, God had mercy on you, and did not abandon you. He gave you the Minute Men of the United States of America. They were your neighbors, and you did not know it. They spoke to you furtively, and you did not know who they were. You lifted yourselves in your chains, and heard the words of life and liberty and saw the glimmer of the sun again. You did not know who called to you in your despair and your agony. And you would not have listened had you not been reduced to hopeless slaves...

“...I would not have you deceive yourselves. The battle is not entirely won. At least half of the Armed Forces are with us, and a portion of the Picked Guards. But the others will resist you. ‘Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.’ Your courage and your faith must sustain you for many months. Attempts will be made to delude you, to lead you again into slavery, to confuse and divide you. Your enemies are still alive, and still full of hate for you. They have been momentarily silenced, at your command. They will speak again.

“We are a free nation, tonight, and in the name of our freedom we cannot silence our enemies. The very opportunity we are giving them will damn them in your own ears. They will betray themselves to you with their own voices. Or, if they choose not to speak in this hour of peril for themselves, they will withdraw to plot against you again. But you are armed. You know who your enemies are.

“Working together, we can restore this nation, and restore the peace and the liberties of all other nations. A whole world listens to us tonight. With patience and with justice, with mercy and with knowledge, we must work slowly and with enlightenment, for there is so much to be done.

“...Tonight there will be issued by me a directive to the commanders of our Armed Forces on all battlefields to call an immediate truce, and to negotiate an armistice. Within a few hours all fighting will stop, and the guns will be silenced, and the war planes will retire. Your sons shall be returned to you as speedily as possible, and there shall be no more war.

“As of tonight, all work on war orders shall cease. Plans will be made to convert all war plants to the making of civilian goods. All conscripted labor laws are abrogated at once. During the period of reconversion from war to peace your former employers will pay you full wages. When work is resumed, hours of labor shall not exceed forty hours a week, under any circumstances, unless by consent of the employed. All rationing ceases as of midnight...

“All confiscated private property shall be restored to the former owners, and those who confiscated that property, with or without the consent of the State, shall pay back rentals for the periods the property has been at their disposal.

“All labor camps shall be disbanded tomorrow, the inmates furnished with food and with transportation to their former homes. All children shall be returned to their parents. All political prisoners everywhere shall be freed.

“Orders are being prepared at this moment to wrest power from the Military and return it to civilian authority. The Military, at midnight, shall be recalled from private homes where they have been quartered and payments shall be later adjudicated to those who gave the Military involuntary hospitality.

“As of tonight, the Military has no authority whatsoever, no powers, no directives...Any officer or soldier attempting violence against the people of America shall be judged insubordinate, and shall be punished...I, the Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces, now call upon all officers and all soldiers and all military men of any designation to retire to their barracks and lay down their arms...

“We have so much work to do, my dear friends, my dear fellow-countrymen. The ruin of decades cannot be cleared away in a day, a month, a year, or years. It will be a long and slow and sometimes bitter progress and sometimes disheartening. But, we can do it. We can rebuild our cities and restore our streets and prepare good homes for all of us. This will take much time, and we shall need all the patience and faith we can summon up...

“...You, the people of the United States of America are in command of your nation. Take that command. Restore your cities and your churches. Speak of God again, freely, and teach your children, and your children’s children, of His mercy. Never let them forget this day of their deliverance, and never let them forget the men who died and worked that they might be free, that peace might live with them again, and the promise of the centuries might be fulfilled in them.

“Teach your children to be brave. This century of ours has been marked most conspicuously by cowardice of the people everywhere. It was by our cowardice that we were betrayed into the hands of corrupt men who promised to make life ‘safe’ for us and devoid of hazard, and robbed the adventurousness by which the spirits of men are strengthened. It was by our poltroonery that we lost our liberties. It was by our fears that we almost died. A brave people never become slaves.

“If we, the people of the United States of America, again lose our freedom it will be by our own lack of courage and faith and manhood.

“Tonight States’ Rights are restored. Guard those rights as you would guard your lives. They were intended for just that purpose. A centralized government is a centralized evil.

“On the day when you again allow abominable men to confiscate your freedom, your money, your lives, your private property, your manhood and your sacred honor, in the name of ‘security’ or ‘national emergency’ you will die, and never again shall you be free. If plotters again destroy your Republic, they will do it by your greedy and ignorant assent, by your disregard of your neighbors’ rights, by your apathy and your stupidity. We were brought to the brink of universal death and darkness because we had become that most contemptible of people - an angerless one. Keep alive and vivid all your righteous anger against traitors, against those who would abrogate your Constitution, against those who would lead you to wars with false slogans and cunning appeals to your patriotism.

“For, remember, if you die in prison, you will have built that prison. If your sons are again conscripted, you will have penned the writ. If a company of malignant men again assumes control of your lives, you will have given them that control...

“Always, the people are responsible for wicked lawmakers, oppressors, exploiters, criminals in government, tyrants in power, thieves, liars, malefactors and murderers in the capitals of the world. You, the man in the street, the man in the factory and in the shop, the man on the farm, the man in the office, you, the man everywhere, are guilty of the creatures whose crimes against you have been so monstrous, and will be again, by your own consent - if you give it...

“...A wise man distrusts his neighbor. A wiser man distrust both his neighbor and himself. The wisest man of all distrusts his government. Therefore, be watchful and sleepless; be brave, be strong; be without fear. This is not the end. Villains will try, again and again and again, to enslave you, until the end of time. It is in your hands to defeat them and to destroy them, whenever or however they appear.

“If you do not, then may God have mercy on your souls!”

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------Taylor Caldwell, "The Devil’s Advocate" (1952) - pgs. 332 - 338