At least 140 streets on Staten Island have the names of
victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -
including that of a friend of mine, Donald Foreman - posted above
their regular signs. In 2003, a City Council member who is now a
state senator, Andrew Lanza, noted how Staten Island had suffered
disproportionate losses in the attacks, saying: "In some
respects, Staten Island was ground zero on September 11."
Next Tuesday is the sixth anniversary of the attack on the World
Trade Center and, for the first time, a memorial service will not
be held at ground zero. Am I the only one who believes that the
ground zero services should have been limited to the one held in
2002?
When he spoke in 2003, Mr. Lanza also said he hoped that future
generations would pass by, look up at the signs, and understand
the story of what happened that day. Unfortunately, they won't be
able to because all the memorial services have been commemorating
the victims, not the day's horror.
There have been many caveats about what the public can relive of
September 11, 2001. The images are just too graphic and
disturbing, we've been told. It is true that the attacks left
1,000 children on Staten Island without at least one parent. My
daughter recalls a schoolmate at St. John Villa Academy as being
one of them. Of the 343 firefighters killed on that day, 78 were
Staten Islanders. In the weeks following that day, there seemed
to be a funeral every day. Although the sorrow for their loss
continues, in most cases, the families have gone on with their
lives.
What I find most disturbing is that the level of anger against
the elements that attacked us has dissipated. Whenever I used to
pass ground zero, I'd find my teeth clenched at the loss of the
twin towers, which should have been replaced by now. Yet, when I
booked a reservation for a hotel stay next week, I completely
forgot the significance of the date.
If all we are reminded of is the loss of life, sooner or later,
the grieving ends and we become jaded and disconnected. This is
wrong, because we are at war with Islamists who are still
determined to destroy our way of life, and it's time to remind
New Yorkers of that day in all its gruesome details.
Even now, I cannot see a passing aircraft heading toward Newark's
airport without thinking of the planes that flew into the towers.
I know that there is footage of people jumping to their deaths
and audio of the screams and falling bodies. For the longest
time, I refused to watch the film "United 93," which I
purchased last year, because I didn't want my blood pressure to
rise - but it's time that it did. I plan to watch it again
Tuesday, and I hope that the movement urging us to fly the
American flag outside our homes that day catches fire. What we
truly need to remember is how united we were in the weeks
following September 11, 2001.
We also need to be reminded that President Bush never claimed
that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11 or that the
danger from Iraq was imminent. What he said was that we would be
targeting those that support terrorism before danger became
imminent. Distortions of his statements were spun by hostile
journalists and political adversaries. I truly believe that it
was the "enemedia" that created the so-called quagmire
in Iraq by polarizing the nation for a leftist political agenda.
It was dear, trusted Uncle Walter Cronkite who did the same
during the Vietnam War. He called the war a lost cause after the
1968 Tet offensive, when it was in reality a huge victory for our
military. We lost more than 2,000 men, but the Viet Cong lost
more than 50,000 and, according to one former North Vietnamese
leader, Bui Tin, collapse of our political will was
"essential to our strategy." In an interview with the
Wall Street Journal after his retirement, he said that visits
from such anti-war advocates as Jane Fonda and Ramsey Clark
"gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of
battlefield reverses."
Likewise, the Iraq War has been hampered by the aid and
encouragement the enemy has received from those suffering from
Bush Derangement Syndrome. Television networks should rerun that
video of Osama bin Laden laughing with his fellow conspirators
about how he was surprised the twin towers fell. Ha-ha-ha.
Are we ready for the truth? Can we handle it?