I was among the last people in the New York- New Jersey megalopolis to learn of the death of the mass murderer- mastermind of the 9/11 attacks Osama Bin Laden. Last night I went through my usual Sunday night routine, catching Game of Thrones on HBO at 9:00pm and Treme at 10:00. I found myself nodding off at 11:00, and I started sawing logs soon afterwards About 4:00am I woke up and turned off the TV, still tuned to HBO.
At 7:00 AM I got up, made coffee.....I put on channel 11 where I saw anchor Laurie Dhue talking about the death of Osama Bin Laden. And my jaw dropped.
I watched the celebration at Ground Zero, and the party atmosphere in front of the White House, and the elation at West Point. This was one of the moments you remember for the rest of your life....the Boogie Man who killed 3,000 of our friends and neighbors was dead, shot through the eye like Moe Green, and sleeping with the fishes like Luca Brazzi.
Well done Navy Seals, CIA, and all who executed this operation. And well done Mr President, and to your administration, for getting it done with surgical precision.
To any clown that suggests that Democrats hate America and are soft on national defense, I have to say the only thing "soft" in such people are their brains.
In the afternoon I took a ride over to the municipal building to give East Brunswick (NJ) their check for the right to live there (aka "tax day"). Upon leaving I took a walk over to East Brunswick's 9/11 monument.
As you can see, the East Brunswick memorial consists of black twin towers. On the left the names Siew Nya Ang, Susan Blair, Paul W. Innella, and Hweider Jian are engraved. The right tower lists Alan David Kleinberg, Stuart Louis, Suzanne Passaro, and Kenneth W. VanAuken etched in the black granite.
They are the East Brunswick 8, township residents who died on that horrible day nearly 10 years ago. I knew none of them personally, but in a community like ours its easy to find people who knew them or their families. These eight, and nearly 3,000 others died in a fiery inferno that collapsed around them- if they weren't incinerated alive they were crushed by tens of tons of falling debris, squeezing the life from them. They must have died horribly. Osama Bin Laden met his demise instantly and literally never knew what hit him. It was much too quick....but at least he was gone.
And hopefully the sharks in the Arabian Sea are eating well tonight.
I snapped several pictures of the monument.....and paused for a few seconds of silence. And then I spoke to The Eight.....
Just in case you were in a cave last night and didn't hear President Obama's speech at the memorial service in Tucson last night, here it is below in it's entirety.
The one victim of this senseless tragedy who has continue to haunt me, and millions throughout the world was nine year old Christina Taylor Green. Below are some of President Obama's remarks regarding the little girl who's short life was bookmarked on each end by tragedies, her birth being on September 11, 2001, and her passing last Saturday. (From a transcript found at cnn.com).
That’s what I believe, in part because that’s what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine, imagine here for a moment, a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just beginning to glimpse that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism, vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.
I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.
This was already mentioned, Christina was given to us on September 11th, 2001, one of 50 babies born that day to be pictured in a book called “Faces of Hope.” On either side of her photo in that book were simple wishes for a child’s life. 'I hope you help those in need,' read one. 'I hope you know all of the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart. I hope you jump in rain puddles.'
If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here, on this Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and we commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.
May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America.
The rest of the night I couldn't get this old song from The Moody Blues out of my head, "The Eyes of a Child", composed by John Lodge, and released on TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN (1969). I found this very appropriate video on YouTube.
About six weeks ago I wrote a blog entry about the so called "Tear Drop 9/11 Monument" in Bayonne, New Jersey, a gift from the Russian people to the United States as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 terror attacks. The piece told about the difficulty in finding it, how amazingly under publicized the memorial is, and the almost total lack of news media bringing attention to it.
Well, today marked the first time I've ever heard a mention of the Teardrop Memorial by any member of the national media, and it came from an unexpected source.
During this afternoon's New York Giants-Carolina Panthers game from the new Meadowlands Stadium in Northern New Jersey, it wasn't anyone from NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, or FOX NEWS talking about the existence of the talked about but largely unknown memorial. In fact, they weren't true "news guys" telling the story. The reporters relaying the abbreviated story of the monument were the FOX Sports broadcast team of Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston, calling the game along with partner Tony Siragusa. It seems that one of the members of the technical crew was from Bayonne, and told the guys about the 100 foot tall monument on the shore of Bayonne's harbor. To the best of my knowledge, there is no existing archival footage from any major national news organization on the internet; as I said in my previous piece, very few New Jersey residents even know of it's existence.....and even fewer New Yorkers know of it.
Yesterday dignitaries, families of the victims, and others flocked to the site of the World Trade Center, and to the Pentagon, and to Shanksville, Pennsylvania for remembrances on the ninth anniversary of the attacks. A crowd said to be in the hundreds was present at the Tear Drop Monument for interfaith services, organized by Rabbi Gordon Gladstone of Temple Beth Am in Bayonne.
And there is more news regarding the memorial itself....it could be moved in the near future.
That's right....more space is needed on the New Jersey waterfront; not enough space, so commercial needs demand the removal of this amazing work of art. It's not making a buck for anyone....artist Zurab Tsereteli, who designed the memorial, had the misfortune of putting it on prime real estate. And everything and everyone has it's price.
Mr.Tsereteli is said to be saddened by the news of the probable move of the monument. As the artist has said, it is the only significant memorial to the victims of the attacks in the New York metropolitan area, and it overlooked the spot where the Twin Towers once stood. And I feel his sadness at this news as well.
The memorial was a gift from one the people of one nation to another, its a magnificent piece of architecture, and a symbol of the world's struggle against those who wantonly kill and destroy. And to have this gift treated like an ugly pair of argyle socks from Aunt Edna on Christmas, cast into a corner and dismissed as an afterthought...and moved because somebody needs the space to make more money for their stockholders....sadly says something about we, the people, who are ready to let it happen without a word of protest.
This morning MSNBC is showing a rebroadcast of the Today show's coverage of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in real time. The "living history" event began at 8:53am this morning. I only made it through to 9:22am when I had to change the channel and put on local memorial coverage on WCBS TV.
I was prepared to see the plane crash into the South Tower at 9:03am, and even to see a repeat of the event several times. What I wasn't ready for emotionally, even nine years later, was the sight of the little black specks falling from the windows of the inferno that was the Twin Towers; they were people jumping to their deaths to escape the flames, going out the windows while Katie Couric and Matt Lauer tried to piece together what was happening, unaware at that stage of coverage of what was happening on screen.
There are certain days in one's life that we can remember in vivid detail; usually because something wonderful happened, or an event so horrific it sticks with you forever. Early in the afternoon of September 11, 2001 I needed to get out and just walk around- it was unusually warm in the Northeast that day, in the low 80's and humid. In the air you could smell the faint odor of smoke, like a fire had occurred recently; the bodies of some the victims in the WTC were now reduced to carbon atoms floating into the sky. I remember pausing and watching a white butterfly land on a blooming hosta, posing and spreading his wings.
And I thought; in a world that is still so abundant with so much beauty and tranquility, why does man try to wantonly destroy that which is good, all too often in the name of God?
Because in doing so they are committing the most unforgivable sin of all, and perhaps the ultimate sacrilege.
Above, members of the Westboro Baptist Church protest a soldier's funeral in Vermont, Undercoverage.net
Yesterday I published a blog entry about the building of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City, not far from where the September 11th terror attacks took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent victims. The entry took nearly eight hours to write, and it's composition took five writing sessions spread out over two days.
And I thought I had said everything I wanted to say....namely, that extreme Muslim terrorists, not Muslims, were responsible for 9/11.....and that building a mosque at the site was within the Muslim group's rights; I agreed with the position of President Barack Obama and Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
And I disagreed with the critics of those who questioned the reasons for building a mosque at the site; there is a thing called The United States Constitution that guarantees freedom of assembly, speech, and worship to all, not to a select few.
But at 4:00am this morning I woke up- it was a bad dream. I was seeing a Bizzaroland dreamscape, a New York City that didn't have a mosque two blocks from the former WTC site.
Rather, there was another religious group housed there.....The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, had opened a satellite church in New York; 8 million sinners, 8 million souls going to hell en masse.
But I'll digress for a minute....let's talk about those religious groups who could occupy the site, and have little or no objections.
No one would have a problem with Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, or other Eastern Orthodox Churches at the site. Coptics? Well, they're Arabs, but they're CHRISTIANS...so they're OK.
Anglicans, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian.....heck, any mainstream Christian Church would be alright, even the ones who perform same sex marriage; this is New York, ya know.
Evangelical Christians and Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews can build at the site....
Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses? Well, there's enough doormen in NYC to slow down any door to door missionary work, at least limiting it to "normal business hours".
Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs....they're part of the mainstream.
Santeria? Well....maybe some trouble with animal rights people....but OK, they can build a church there.
Wiccans....they're "white witches", aren't they? Pantheism....like in AVATAR? Oh, what the heck, they're OK.
Scientologists? John Travolta and Tom Cruise can't be wrong, can they?
Atheists, Agnostics, and Unitarians? One group believes in nothing, another isn't sure, and the third believes in SOMETHING, but can't quite define what it is. They're harmless....let them build SOMETHING there.
Which leads us to the Westboro Baptist Church, and their pastor, Fred Phelps.....remember them? They are the ones who picket other churches, events, stadiums, funerals, and cemeteries with signs that say things like "God Hates Fags", "God Hates America", and "God Hates Israel". The WBC is not part of any Baptist conventions or associations, and claims to adhere to Primitive Baptist and Calvinist principles. And to be fair, the WBC is NOT a representative of any mainstream Christian group
But- for argument's sake- what if the WBC moved into the same building that the Muslim group wants to turn into a mosque/Islamic cultural center?
I talked about these guys a few months ago. On April 14 the WBC was set to picket actress Dixie Carter's funeral, claiming Ms. Carter "...lived her life in adultery. She divorced her husband and married two other men along the way. God says that is living in adultery!".
In the view of the WBC, America is being punished for it's sins by being engaged in war in Iraq and Afghanistan, hence the protests at the funerals of military members killed in action....and they believe that 9/11 was more Divine Retribution leveled at America.
I could go chapter and verse about the Westboro Baptist Church and their hatred of Jews, Catholics, other Protestants, homosexuals, and a long, long, list of all they find sinful.....just check out some of these pictures. But the bottomline is the WBC, spewing hate and venom, could occupy the same space that Muslims want to use for a mosque, and little could be done to stop them. Their picketing (41,000 protests since 1991) could be curtailed by requiring them to have permits, but as far as having freedom of speech and assembly, and of religious expression, they are protected by the Constitution, even being as loathesome as they are.
I wonder how, in this Bizzarroland scenario, would the usual suspects react.....what would Palin, Boehner, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the other voices with an opnion an everything, say about a far, far off the charts radical right Christian group occupying a building so close to Ground Zero, hallowed ground, and an event the WBC cheered as God's punishment?
Would those voices be as strong in repudiation as the one's we've heard in reaction to the building of a mosque? Surely there would have been fewer political ramifications.....and probably much less media coverage.
Part One-Prologue "I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.~~Colin Powell on his endorsement of Barack Obama for the presidency, October 19, 2008 on Meet The Press. The text was copied from the44diaries.wordpress.com.
Part Two- Fear The story told by General Colin Powell cuts to the chase more eloquently than I could ever imagine to. US Army Corporal Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, an American Muslim from New Jersey lies in a grave in Arlington National Cemetery. The picture above shows his grieving mother at his headstone.
Everyday we put on the news, and learn the name of yet another young American killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan. We're told they died defending freedom, and they fight so we don't have to. I'm sure Corporal Khan believed that when he entered the Army. And it's sad, and very troubling, to know that while he and others fight and die in the Middle East for this American Ideal we're told of from the day we enter kindergarten, there are some in this country who believe that some of these freedoms should not be made available to all of our citizens.
Freedom of speech, of assembly, of worship, and the separation of church and state are all guaranteed in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Yet there is an undercurrent in the United States of ant-Muslim sentiment; the proverbial "broad brush" is being used to paint Muslims the same color. It doesn't matter that the majority of Muslim Americans are good citizens, or that some, as in the case of Corporal Khan, died serving our country, killed by extremists who have perverted their religion. There is fear, there hatred, there is bigotry, and there is xenophobia.....and it threatens to undermine much of what we hold sacred in our country.
In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican candidates have denounced plans for a large Muslim center proposed near a subdivision, and hundreds of protesters have turned out for a march and a county meeting.
In late June, in Temecula, Calif., members of a local Tea Party group took dogs and picket signs to Friday prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship center on a vacant lot nearby.
In Sheboygan, Wis., a few Christian ministers led a noisy fight against a Muslim group that sought permission to open a mosque in a former health food store bought by a Muslim doctor.
At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and noise — the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are off.
In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.
These local skirmishes make clear that there is now widespread debate about whether the best way to uphold America’s democratic values is to allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat.
“What’s different is the heat, the volume, the level of hostility,” said Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. “It’s one thing to oppose a mosque because traffic might increase, but it’s different when you say these mosques are going to be nurturing terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading, that civilization is being undermined by Muslims.”
Feeding the resistance is a growing cottage industry of authors and bloggers — some of them former Muslims — who are invited to speak at rallies, sell their books and testify in churches. Their message is that Islam is inherently violent and incompatible with America.
Now I have a question....is this the America that our brave men and women are fighting and dying for everyday? Is it the America that Corporal Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, winner of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, of which he took an oath to serve and protect, and for which he ultimately died in battle? It is a country that he loved, but many of it's citizens, it can be implied by the examples above, did not love him back.
Part Three- Do the Right Thing; The President and The Ground Zero Mosque
On August 12, 1834, just after midnight, an anti-Catholic mob attacked the Ursuline Convent School in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and burned it to the ground as the nuns hurried the children out the back. Rev. Lyman Beecher had helped to incite the mob hours earlier, giving three anti-Catholic diatribes at three different churches in Boston. Beecher, whose children included educator Catharine and abolitionist and author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' Harriet Beecher Stowe, later expressed regret over the arson; but as is often the case, violent speech led to violent action. Those arrested for the outrage were quickly found not guilty and became heroes in Boston. After failed attempts to get the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pay for the damages, and amid threats of further violence, the nuns eventually moved to Canada, driven from the country by bigotry and hate.
The late former Speaker of The House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (1912-1994) told a story in his bio Man of the House about growing up in "Old Dublin", the Irish- Catholic suburb of North Cambridge, Massachusetts. When he was a kid the adults always talked about how the Boston Yankees, all Protestants, had burned down the Ursuline Convent, a dark deed done to the newly arrived Boston Irish-Catholics. Below, his comments from Man of the House, page 8.
I heard so much about the incident that one day, while in my teens, I decided to look it up in a book. To my shock, the burning of the convent took place in the summer of 1834! But to hear people talk about it, you'd think it happened the day before yesterday.
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The scars of hatred can run deep and last for generations, as the example from Tip O'Neill's childhood illustrate; the Irish were on the bottom of the pecking order in the early 19th century. They got the dirty jobs, like building canals across the East and the Midwest, and the new arrivals were hated primarily for their Roman Catholic religion. Here, in my home state of New Jersey, the Catholic minority were subject to persecution of the majority Protestants- in 1701 Queen Anne granted freedom of religious conscience to all in the colony, "except Papists". Later in the century, New Jersey Catholics were implicated in "The Negro Plot", in which they allegedly were accomplices in a slave rebellion; persecutions and executions followed.
As you can see, bigotry and religious intolerance have been part of America since before there was a United States. Every ethnic group or members of a "different" religion has met resistance after arrival on these shores; even the Pilgrim Separatists, who tradition tells us met friendly Indians when they founded Plymouth Plantation, met resistance from the Nauset after first landing on Cape Cod. The Englishmen found small mounds after landing, which they unearthed; they were graves. The Nauset came back to greet the New Arrivals with a rain of arrows.
The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 was an act of mass murder, performed by deluded fanatics bent on destroying an America that they were told was waging war on Islam. What they did was as much a perversion of Islam as what the Japanese warlords did to the code of bushido in their wars of aggression, up to and beyond their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
"(the government) shouldn't be in the business of picking (one religion over another)I think it's fair to say if somebody was going to try, on that piece of property, to build a church or a synagogue, nobody would be yelling and screaming. And the fact of the matter is that Muslims have a right to do it, too.
After weeks of silence on the matter, President Obama addressed the subject during a Ramadan dinner at the White House on August 13. Below, highlights from his address.
"That is not to say that religion is without controversy. Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly in New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.
But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure."
In an age of politicians being politicians, and doing and saying what is popular instead of what was right, President Obama gave us a real moment of political courage in his support of the right of those who wish to build the mosque. His poll numbers are sagging, unemployment numbers are stuck at 9.5%, and the partisan attacks on him continue to grow, as well as criticism from the Democratic Party's left wing. But the President stuck his neck out on this issue....a principle greater than politics is at work here, and it transcends the bumper sticker and sound byte talking points that are fed to the American public by those who believe most of our citizens have the attention span of a potted plant.
The question asked is not if Muslims can build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, but should they.
And the government's position must be they can, and offer no opinion if they should, because it's not the government's business, nor any of the elected or appointed officials business.....period. It's about the separation of church and state, and the practice of religion in this country. If any other religious group were to try to build a house of worship on that same site, and if all permits were in order, their would not and could not be any debate. One religious group cannot be singled out fro special handling.....it's un-American.
President Obama made his statement regarding the right of Muslims to build a mosque to a nation where 57% of Republicans believe he is a closet Muslim ( and 24% say he's the Anti-Christ, and another 45% of the nation's GOP believe he was not born in the United States. Supporting the rights of Muslims to build the community center/mosque was not the politically savvy thing to do....but it took principle, and it took courage.
Mr. Obama is taking political hits for his stance; some say that it may damage his popularity further, and even drag down the Democrats in this year's midterms.
But would it be better to say and do the popular thing instead of the right thing, and retain the House and the Senate, and sully the Bill of Rights in doing so?
Part 4-The Aftermath and Beyond
After the President addressed the mosque issue, the attacks from the Republican right were swift, immediate, and relentless. Below is a sampling.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)....
The decision to build this mosque so close to Ground Zero is deeply troubling, as is the president’s decision to endorse it. The American people certainly don’t support it.
The fact that someone has the right to do something doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do. That is the essence of tolerance, peace and understanding. This is not an issue of law, whether religious freedom or local zoning. This is a basic issue of respect for a tragic moment in our history.
Sarah Palin....
Mr. President, should they or should they not build a mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people?
Please tell us your position.
We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? And, no, this is not above your pay grade.
If those who wish to build this Ground Zero mosque are sincerely interested in encouraging positive "cross-cultural engagement" and dialogue to show a moderate and tolerant face of Islam, then why haven't they recognized that the decision to build a mosque at this particular location is doing just the opposite?
Republican strategist Ed Rollins....
(Obama's remarks were) probably the dumbest thing that any president has said or candidate has said since Michael Dukakis said it was okay to burn the flag. And it was very similar.(CBS News)
Sen John Cornyn (R-Tex)....
It demonstrates that Washington, the White House, the administration, the president himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America. And I think that's one of the reasons people are so frustrated (POLITICO)"
And there was frustration from members of the President's own Democratic Party, particularly House members facing stiff re-election campaigns. Here's what one congressman told POLITICO
Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX)....
"I would prefer the president be a little more of a politician and a little less of a college professor. While a defensible position, it will not play well in the parts of the country where Democrats need the most help."
The comments above can be divided into two types. There are those who criticize Obama for not making the most politically expedient thing; namely question why the Muslim group wishes to build on that particular site, and for God's sake, don't defend their rights as Americans to do so!
And the second group chastises the President for not joining them in the chorus denouncing the construction of the mosque; a private citizen should voice their opinion if they desire, but any government official at any level who does so may very well be infringing on the groups First Amendment rights.
That's not how we should be doing things in this country.
On the day of the September 11 attacks by early afternoon you could smell the faint odor of smoke here in my town, nearly 30 miles south and west of New York. We lost several of our residents in the inferno; the attackers didn't care about the age, sex, race, marital status, or religion of those they murdered....there were Christians and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, non-believers and agnostics......and Muslims in the Twin Towers.
The smoke and the ashes brought all to a common end, and they entered eternity as one.
Most of the opponents of the mosque say that two blocks is too close to Ground Zero. My question is how far away would be far enough. Three blocks? Five? Ten? Or how about miles.....five miles, or 10, or 20?
Maybe the mosque should be moved to Route 3 in New Jersey, or possibly off of I-80 in central Pennsylvania? Does Lewisburg sound good?
The bottomline is the opponents of the mosque have no real solution that makes any sense other than "we don't want it", an emotion based on pain and possibly by fear. And maybe it's time to get beyond that, and think about other possibilities; like building an Islamic community and cultural center may be a viable bridge to understanding, and reconciliation, and possibly our better angels will prevail, and the broken and hardened hearts may heal.
Through it all, the United States is still a nation worthy of our love and our allegiance, and worth fighting to defend. A young corporal who lies in Arlington National Cemetery with the star and crescent on his grave believed that.
Anthony Weiner, Democratic Congressman from New York's Ninth District, went on a tirade on the House floor after a bill that would have set aside a multi billion dollar fund for 9/11 responders and others affected failed to proceed through the House.
Much of his wrath was directed against his co-sponsor on the bill, Long Island Republican Peter King. In this interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, sitting in for Chris Matthews on HARDBALL, Weiner admits that his once cordial working relationship with King has, to say the least, reached a snag.
And he calls out the GOP as "The Party of No!"......only 12 Republicans voted in support of the bill. Twelve Republicans, that's all, voted to help fund the medical expenses of those who responded to a city's and a nation's cry for help on that tragic day, September 11, 2001. Remember, these responders were not only from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut....they came from all over the country. The "no" votes from Red State Republicans probably affected some of that Congressperson's very own constituents.
Weiner makes a point about the Democratic approach in legislating ...."Sometimes we as Democrats bring library books to a knife fight".
The ghost of Lyndon Johnson is probably smiling because of this guy, telling it like it is.
It lies directly across from Manhattan, with Brooklyn in the distance, Staten Island to the right, and the Statue of Liberty is straight ahead. And the question is this; if a 100 foot tall monument to 3,000 slain people is built and there isn't anyone there to see it, is it still a monument?
There was a family emergency in the past week, and my cousin Rich came up from Georgia. After things began to fall in to place we started to talk about the usual stuff relatives do when we haven't seen each other in awhile.
Over a beer or two Rich asked if we had ever been to the "Teardrop Monument" in Bayonne. We had no idea what he was talking about. Then Rich explained to us that there was a monument to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center in Bayonne, about 20 miles north of here, facing the the spot where the Twin Towers once stood.
Sorry....never heard of it. Where did you hear this?
Rich explained that the monument was a gift from the people of Russia to the United States, and it was dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the attacks in 2006,
Sorry Rich....this ain't ringin' any bells. Are you sure this isn't some Urban Legend?
So, on Saturday July 24, 2010, in near 100 degree heat we set out on our expedition to find the rumored but seldom seen "Tear Drop 9/11 Monument".
We headed north on the Jersey Turnpike and got off at Bayonne, and we got lost in the harbor area for about an hour.... but we could see a large tower in the distance, but couldn't find the road we wanted (no, we had no address, so GPS was out). After asking three different people for the same directions three times we finally got some that made sense; he directed us to Harbor View Park, the former Military Ocean Terminal, or 51 Port Terminal Boulevard, off of Route 440.
And there it was....100 feet high, a magnificent sculpture, the work of Russian sculpture Zurab Tsereteli. Moved to tears after the attacks, Tsereteli wanted produce a monument to the victims of 9/11. He went to work almost immediately, and chose the site on the Bayonne waterfront that faced directly where the Twin Towers once stood. The monument would be of a tower being split in half, with a single four ton nickel tear drop suspended from the center. The Russian government got into the act, and President Vladimir Putin was present for the groundbreaking of this gift to the American people from Russia on September 16, 2005.
Tsereteli was at the dedication of the monument on September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the attacks. Former President Bill Clinton was a keynote speaker, New Jersey Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, Governor Jon Corzine, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and Mayor Joe Doria were among those present at the dedication, as were many Russian notables. LeAnn Rimes was on hand to sing AMAZING GRACE. The dedication was captured on video and posted at the website. But there was one large problem with the ceremony....most of the media wasn't there.
The media, for the most part, was concentrated on the ceremonies at Ground Zero where President George W. Bush was to be part of the agenda. The news cycle that day was dominated by the New York ceremonies, and by rebroadcasts and discussion of the events of September 11, 2001.
Consequently, the "Tear Drop 9/11 Monument" in New Jersey was praised, dedicated, sanctified....and then more or less forgotten about by just about everyone.
Below, some pictures we took at the site. The story continues below.
So....we have a one hundred foot tall monument (featuring a four ton tear drop) given to the United States by the people of Russia (with their president at the groundbreaking) to memorialize the senseless deaths of 3,000 people across the harbor; a former President of the United States and a couple of senators, and a cabinet member....AND LeAnn Rimes....dedicated the memorial on the fifth anniversary of 9/11; but nobody knows about it.
My cousin, a guy from Georgia, told me about it. We live in the most populous area of the United States and the media center of the world.....and I'll guarantee that if you asked one hundred people on the street within a 50 mile radius of Bayonne "Where can I find The Tear Drop 9/11 Memorial" at least 90 would have no idea of what you were talking about.....and nine of the remaining would make something up to keep from looking too stupid.
The question is....how did the existence of this monument erroneously fall into the realm of "Urban Legend"? A monument that almost no one knows about....on the day we visited, we were the only ones there; it was a Saturday afternoon in July.
I think there are several reasons for this monument being under publicized. Part of it was timing. On on September 11, 2006 most of the nation (and the world) focused on the ceremonies taking place at Ground Zero. President George W. Bush was at that event, as well as the one at Shanksville, PA for a wreath laying where United Flight 93 went down. At the Pentagon Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld were the guests of honor in that ceremony. And most of the day the news media concentrated on discussion of the events in 2001, plus replays, and doing the things talking heads do on the 24/7 news stations; giving opinions.
From a GOOGLE search I did on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I can find no mention of a ceremony in Bayonne, NJ. CNN, for example, offered no coverage at all. And it appears the dedication of the "Tear Drop Memorial" received no mention by anyone else in the electronic media, not even locally.
A GOOGLE search for "Bayonne NJ 911 Memorial" turns up less. It's mainly reports from bloggers and includes amateur photos and home videos, and a brief report from The New York Times that the memorial might include 40 names too many of the victims of the attacks because an outdated list was used.
And one conservative blogger suggests (and some of his readers agree) that the "main stream media" deliberately chose not to cover the story. The only problem with that theory is that few (if any) conservative and Far Right talkers and bloggers have said anything about this memorial either; no Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, or O'Reilly....no FOX NEWS. Nada.
A search for videos of the "Tear Drop Memorial" turns up less than two full pages on GOOGLE. "The Tear Drop Monument's" only reference by a local TV station is included in a list of the many others found in New Jersey.
Now....let me introduceChester Burger to our story. Mr. Burger was the very first television reporter with CBS back in 1946, and has had a long and distinguished career in media and in public relations. In his series Unexpected New York Mr. Burger tells the story of the monument, and why it is such a secret to even those within its shadow.
At that's his bottomline....New York was still haggling about what kind of memorial to put up and Ground Zero; Jersey City found the monument to be a political football; and Bayonne couldn't raise the cash. The Russians, led by Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB agent, got it funded and built as a gift to the United States. And, if you can accept Mr. Burger's story, that's the reason the monument has been under the radar....to avoid public embarrassment at several different levels as to who, what, and how it was built.
Sounds good to me. Maybe the circumstances became such an embarrassment that State of New Jersey decided to not even change the signs as to who the current governor is at the park; it reads "Jon Corzine" instead of "Chris Christie". I know New Jersey is in an austerity program because of it's fiscal mess, but at least change the sign..and fix the darn access roads, for goodness sake.
My closing thoughts....the monument is pretty hard to find, but the most direct way is to get on Highway 440 in Bayonne, and watch the signs for Harbor View Park.
Better yet.....make sure your GPS is fully functional.
