This is a pic of a joined section of beams found in the rubble of the WTC on 10-3-01.
Please note that I do not know the validity of this one!
DEAR ABBY:
On Sept. 10, 2001, my husband and I flew to Las Vegas for a three-day mini-vacation. Then 9/11 happened. Along with millions of other American From a speech made by Capt. John S. McCain, US, (Ret) who represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate:
As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell.
In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it.
That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.
So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world. You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Our three-day holiday extended into five days of utter confusion. Guards were stationed everywhere in the casino of our hotel. It was necessary to make many trips to our room to assure family members by phone that we were all right. Each time we used the elevator to go to our room, we had to show proof that we were guests of the hotel before being allowed to proceed.
We also had to rebook our flight, as our original departure had been canceled. Finally, on Sept. 15, we were able to schedule a flight home. As we left our room for the last time, I looked down and saw two shiny 2001 pennies lying in the doorway. Somehow, finding those pennies made me less apprehensive about flying. They are now tucked away along with the story of where we were on that fateful day.
When we got to the airport, we saw weary travelers standing patiently in line for blocks. I would like to offer special thanks to the airport employees who worked diligently to get people to their departure gates.
My husband must use a cane for any extended walking or standing, and a nurse in our line alerted airport personnel that he needed a wheelchair. One was provided as soon as possible. He was then directed to wait inside the terminal while I was told to go to the end of the long line and meet him when I got to the doorway. A wonderful young man close to the front offered to trade places in line so I could have his place. Abby, he had been waiting there for hours.
Those are just two incidents of kindness and generosity we experienced that day. Whoever and wherever you are, thank you again. -- MR. AND MRS. GEORGE CULLINS, GRATEFUL OHIOANS
----------------------------------------------
DEAR MR. AND MRS. CULLINS:
Thank you for sharing your experience. It shows that sometimes tragedy has a way of bringing out the best in people.
The post-9/11 reorganization plan the FBI announced yesterday may indeed remedy some of the shortcomings that enabled the WTC/Pentagon plotters to succeed. Some 500 agents will be reassigned to anti-terrorism duty, computers will be upgraded, and special counterterror response "flying squads" and a new intelligence office will be formed. But these reforms don't address the FBI's historically biggest weakness: its obsession with its own image.
Since both the flying squads and the intel office will be based in Washington, D.C., the new changes only further consolidate FBI HQ's control over counterterrorism efforts. In her j'accuse memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, longtime FBI agent and attorney Coleen Rowley anticipates this key flaw: "The Phoenix, Minneapolis and Paris Legal Attache Offices reacted remarkably, exhibiting keen perception and prioritization skills regarding the terrorist threats they uncovered or were made aware of pre-September 11th. The same cannot be said for the FBI Headquarters' bureaucracy and you want to expand that?!"
Rowley lays out some perceptive reasons why centralization has been bad for the FBI: 1) Overseeing aggressive operations that don't pan out (as for example, at Ruby Ridge and Waco) has usually been career-ending, so FBI managers tend to avoid all "unnecessary" decisions. 2) Headquarters is dominated by managers, many of them failed street agents, on 18-month ticket-punching tours too short for them to master the details and trends in the areas they supervise. But Rowley doesn't note another aspect of the Bureau's overcentralization, one that's caused it to blow many big cases over the years: It's fostered by the Bureau's obsession with its image, because relentless image control requires a strong central hand. And if making sure the FBI comes out looking good is job No. 1, then truly effective law enforcement?which would require openly admitting mistakes and working with other agencies?is not.
The cult of appearances at the FBI was originated, of course, by founding Director J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the show for 48 years. It was Hoover who promulgated the notion that all FBI agents were either lawyers or accountants at a time when only a small percentage of them were; it was he who came in to make highly publicized personal "arrests" of big-time gangsters already surrounded by street agents (Public Enemy No. 1 Alvin Karpas) or delivered by a reporter (Lepke Buchhalter, the head of Murder Inc., served up by Walter Winchell). It was he who responded to press criticisms about a dearth of black agents by instantly dubbing his chauffeur one. And it was Hoover who expressed his awareness of the FBI's failure to properly monitor Lee Harvey Oswald upon his return from Russia, not in his public testimony before the Warren Commission, but only in scribbled comments on the margins of a secret FBI memo. Hoover censured or put on probation more than a dozen agents for Oswald-related failures?but without ever publicly acknowledging this.
It's striking how strongly this legacy has endured in the three decades since Hoover's death in office. When things go wrong, the Bureau's instinct is still the same?to misplace blame and refuse help from other agencies. To wit:
This egregious track record will not be improved upon in the terrorism sphere simply by moving some agents around and creating some new places to move them to. Some of the right heads have to roll, too. And this means the FBI's near-ancient commitment to damage control has got to go. In Hoover's FBI, or Freeh's, the supervisors at HQ who ignored or downplayed warnings from the field about radical Arab hijackers might get quiet rebukes, but they would stay in place (and might even get bonuses) where they would continue to threaten public safety. And whistle-blowers like Rowley would probably get squeezed out, or punished, or at the very least never get promoted again.
There is exactly one way the Bureau can show now that it has really changed?by firing those supervisors, promoting Rowley, and calling for a public independent investigation of its counterterror foul-ups. http://slate.msn.com/images/eshop/XMLbuddy_header.gif
Scott Shuger is a Slate senior writer who spent five years in the U.S. Navy and served overseas as an intelligence officer.
It was late one Tuesday evening,
Before a mother could sit down,
To tell her only child about
The terror that hit downtown.
She looked into the eyes of her son
God, she loved him so,
She felt her heart begin to break
And the hurt begin to show.
She gathered all her strength and courage,
as her story she began to tell.
"Baby don't cry, but I'm afraid daddy
Might be under a building that fell."
The boy looked back at his mother,
His eyes made not one blink.
And the mother's tears began to fall.
What would her baby think?
You see, his dad is a firefighter,
And his hero from the day of his birth.
He loved his dad more than anything else
That could ever inherit this earth.
The mother's head began to drop,
Her forehead resting on palm.
She thought her son would be upset.
Instead, he was very calm.
The boy leaned over towards his mom,
And put his hand upon her head.
In her ear he began to whisper,
And this is what he said:
"Mommy please don't cry,
I knew daddy wasn't coming home.
I talked to him just a while ago,
But it wasn't on the phone.
He told me that he loved me,
And he promised we'd meet again.
He told of his new home,
And the job he was to begin."
"God is building an army,
And there are many angels needed.
That, is where daddy and the others went.
They weren't all defeated."
It was then, the mother lifted her head.
The tears streamed down her face.
And she could feel her husband's presence,
As it filled her heart with grace.
It was then she knew her son was right.
He was in God's great army now.
She also knew her son was safe,
That he'd be kept from harm somehow.
So, evildoers of the world beware.
An army is on the way.
Bolstered by new angels,
Who left the towers that day..
Their commander has never been beaten.
His power has never been matched,
And if evil thinks He was almighty before......
Well, the surface has just been scratched!
GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!!!
Join the Presidential Prayer Team (there is no fee) and they'll mail you the official blue and gold decal to proudly display in your window or on your car. You'll also receive weekly email prayer updates. There is never any obligation and all member information will forever remain confidential.
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/register.asp
It is my opinion that this is just a joke - but who knows!
Charges were dropped yesterday against Ruth "Grammy" Gordon, an 83-year-old wheelchair-bound grandmother, who was originally charged with assault and battery, and assault with a deadly weapon, because an altercation she had last week with six airport security guards, that left all six hospitalized.
"Justice has been served," said the 95-pound mother of three and grandmother of six, as she sat in her wheelchair, aided in her breathing by an oxygen bottle. "Now I'm going to sue every fool in the federal government for ignorance, stupidity, and just plain general incompetence. I'm an American, and I won't be treated like this."
The problem began last month as Gordon was attempting to board an airplane. "These guys are supposed to be some kind of professionals," she said, "but they're dumber than rocks. Here they were letting guys who looked just like terrorists walk through without searching them, and then they pull me aside and tell me they're going to search me? I don't think so." According to one witness, Bud Cort of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, one guard, "who weighed about 300 pounds, looked like he was drunk, and had his shirt out, told this woman she couldn't board the plane unless they searched her. He was really rude. That's when the trouble started."
Videotapes showed that Gordon ran the guard down with her motorized wheelchair, then sat on top of the screaming man while spinning her chair in circles. "Doofus was so fat he couldn't get up," said Gordon with a giggle.
One guard who attempted to pull Gordon's wheelchair off of the screaming man from behind was hit over the head with an oxygen bottle and knocked unconscious. A third guard, who approached Gordon from the front, was also left dazed on the floor. Witnesses said she was cackling, "Put your hands on an old lady, will you?" as she bashed both guards.
The tape also showed a fourth guard attempting to grab Gordon's wheelchair. Gordon removed a knitting needle from her purse and stabbed him in his left buttock. "What a wimp," she told reporters. "He started screaming and grabbing his butt and running like a puppy that someone kicked."
"It was amazing," said another witness, a Scott Ryan. "The whole crowd just stood there cheering and clapping. I mean, she was whupping butt."
A fifth guard that attempted to grab Gordon had the seat of his pants set on fire with a cigarette lighter than had escaped detection. "He just went whoosh across the concourse, screaming and slapping at all these flames flying out of his rear," said Ryan.
A sixth guard did finally manage to get Gordon in a body hug. "I think that was the wrong thing to do," said another witness, who declined to be identified. "She just grabbed him by his greasy hair with one hand and cracked him across the jaw with her skinny fist. And down and out he went."
After all this, Gordon's chair was still sitting on top of the first guard. The tapes clearly showed her leaning over and yelling, "Apologize to me, you fat sumbitch, or when I'm done with you you'll just be a greasy spot on the floor!"
As the crowd roared, the guard cried, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Uncle! I won't do it again!"
Finally, Gordon surrendered without further incident, and was taken to jail and released on her own recognizance. "We didn't have any choice," said an unidentified officer of the court. "Over 200 people showed up to support her. I think if we had demanded bail, there would have been a riot."
Over 20 lawyers offered to defend her for free. However, realizing the precariousness of the case, Gordon was not charged with anything. "I doubt there's a jury in the whole country that would have found her guilty of anything," said one of the lawyers.
"I'm flying again tomorrow," Gordon told reporters. "And I suggest no one at the airport so much as look at me wrong."
You read about all these terrorists, most of them came here legally, but they hang around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10-15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster; you are two days late with a video and these people are all over you. Let's put Blockbuster in charge of immigration!!
Fold a $20 bill down the middle, the long way... Fold it sideways in the middle.
Now fold it back up and take a close look... You'll see the burning Pentagon!
Turn the bill around, and on the back you'll see the burning World Trade Center!
http://www.policehumor.com/911/08.jpg
"A court's inquiry should come to an end once the military has shown . . . that it has determined that the detainee is an enemy combatant. . . . [T]he court may not second-guess the military's enemy-combatant determination."
THESE WORDS were not written by some petty dictator whose kangaroo courts rubber-stamp his every whim and whose whims may include locking up citizens he regards as enemies. They were filed yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi. Mr. Hamdi is probably an American citizen, captured in Afghanistan and currently held without charge at a military base in Norfolk. He is not a sympathetic character, but that should not obscure the extraordinary power President Bush is claiming for himself in Mr. Hamdi's case: the right to detain without trial American citizens forever with no meaningful judicial review.
The government's aggressive position in this matter is unnecessary. There is little doubt a court would find Mr. Hamdi, as the government alleges, an enemy combatant, and there is clear precedent for holding such combatants even if they are U.S. citizens. It is unclear how such precedents should be applied in the context of an undeclared war of indefinite duration against a non-state actor, a subject that will require careful balancing over time. But only the most doctrinaire civil libertarian would demand the release at this stage of someone bent on doing great harm to this country.
But instead of establishing in court that Mr. Hamdi is being held lawfully, the government is fighting with all its strength to keep Mr. Hamdi from challenging his detention at all. For starters, it is holding him incommunicado and has prevented him from talking to a lawyer -- contending that access to counsel would interfere with his interrogation. When Federal Public Defender Frank Dunham sought to challenge Mr. Hamdi's incarceration for him, a judge ordered that he be allowed to speak to Mr. Hamdi. But the government persuaded the 4th Circuit to step in, arguing that Mr. Dunham -- never having met Mr. Hamdi -- could not properly file an action on his behalf; a classic Catch-22, since the government won't let him meet his would-be client. Mr. Dunham responded by filing an action on behalf of Mr. Hamdi's father. The judge once again ordered that he be allowed to meet with Mr. Hamdi. But the government asked the 4th Circuit to intervene again.
In its argument this time, the Justice Department acknowledges formally that the courts retain the authority to review a petition challenging the legality of a citizen's detention -- a basic tenet of U.S. liberty. But it contends that military detainees, even citizens, have "no right of access to counsel to challenge their detention." Moreover, the role of the courts in considering any challenges is "extremely narrow"; generally, a court "should accept the military's determination that a detainee is an enemy combatant." At most, "a court could only require the military to point to some evidence supporting its determination." The court cannot look beyond the evidence the government claims to have.
If this is correct, any American could be locked up indefinitely, without a lawyer, on the president's say-so. You don't have to believe that Mr. Hamdi is innocent to see grave peril in this. The Constitution's checks and balances don't contemplate blind trust in the wisdom or good faith of the president. And the courts must not acquiesce in Mr. Bush's claim that they are powerless to ensure the lawfulness of presidential behavior.
You may not agree with all this Marine says but you must admire his straight talk AND be glad we have Marines.
Said like ONLY a Marine could say it! Speech by former ACC Commander Gen Hawley:
"Since the attack, I have seen, heard, and read thoughts of such surpassing stupidity that they must be addressed. You've heard them too. Here they are:"
1) "We're not good, they're not evil, everything is relative."
Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying "We're good" doesn't mean, "We're perfect." Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be, the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant line to see "The Producers."
2) "Violence only leads to more violence."
This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League University to say it.
Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence. Limp, panicky, half- measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully-thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated," not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-Well, you get the idea.
3) "The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community has failed us."
For 25 years we have chained our spies like dogs to a stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed, we yell at them for not protecting us. Starting in the late seventies, under Carter appointee Stansfield Turner, the giant brains who get these giant ideas decided that the best way to gather international intelligence was to use spy satellites. "After all," they reasoned, "you can see a license plate from 200 miles away."
This is very helpful if you've been attacked by a license plate. Unfortunately, we were attacked by humans. Finding humans is not possible with satellites. You have to use other humans. When we bought all our satellites, we fired all our humans, and here's the really stupid part. It takes years, decades to infiltrate new humans into the worst places of the world. You can't just have a guy who looks like Gary Busey in a Spring Break '93 sweatshirt plop himself down in a coffee shop in Kabul and say "Hi ya, boys. Gee, I sure would like to meet that bin Laden fella." Well, you can, but all you'd be doing is giving the bad guys a story they'll be telling for years.
4) "These people are poor and helpless, and that's why they're angry at us."
Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer's frozen head collection was just a desperate cry for help. The terrorists and their backers are richer than Elton John and, ironically, a good deal less annoying. The poor helpless people, you see, are the villagers they tortured and murdered to stay in power. Mohamed Atta, one of the evil scumbags who steered those planes into the killing grounds (I'm sorry, one of the "alleged hijackers," according to CNN. They stopped using the word "terrorist," you know), is the son of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew this, too.
In the sixties and seventies, all the pinheads marching against the war were upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause they could think of to get out of their final papers and spend more time drinking. At least, that was my excuse. It's the same today. Take the Anti-Global- Warming (or is it World Trade? Oh-who-knows-what-the-hell-they-want demonstrators). They all charged their black outfits and plane tickets on dad's credit card before driving to the airport in their SUV's.
5) "Any profiling is racial profiling."
Who's killing us here, the Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times had an article saying dozens of extended members of the gazillionaire bin Laden family living in America were afraid of reprisals and left in a huff, never to return to studying at Harvard and using too much Drakkar. I'm crushed. I think we're all crushed. Please come back. With a cherry on top?
Why don't they just change their names, anyway? It's happened in the past. Think about it. How many Adolfs do you run into these days?
Shortly after that, I remember watching TV with my jaw on the floor as a government official actually said, "That little old grandmother from Sioux City could be carrying something." Okay, how about this: No, she couldn't. It would never be the grandmother from Sioux City. Is it even possible? What are the odds? Winning a hundred Powerball lotteries in a row? A thousand? A million?
And now a Secret Service guy has been tossed off a plane and we're all supposed to cry about it because he's an Arab? Didn't it have the tiniest bit to do with the fact that he filled out his forms incorrectly three times? And then left an Arab history book on his seat as he strolled off the plane? And came back? Armed? Let's please all stop singing "We Are the World" for a minute and think practically.
I don't want to be sitting on the floor in the back of a plane four seconds away from hitting Mt. Rushmore and turn, grinning, to the guy next to me to say, "Well, at least we didn't offend them."
SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year:
Never to forget our murdered brothers and sisters.
Never to let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this.
Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas"? I wish I had one that says, "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."
Semper Fi!
I think the vast differences in compensation between the victims of the September 11th casualty, and those who die serving the country in uniform, are profound.
No one is really talking about it either because you just don't criticize anything having to do with September 11th.
Well, I just can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country.
If you lost a family member in the September 11th attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.
If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.
Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs.
If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry.
And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.
Keep in mind that some of the people that are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough.
We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11th families are getting.
In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.
You see where this is going, don't you?
Folks, this is part and parcel of over fifty years of entitlement politics in this country.
It's just really sad.
"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."-Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
Every time when a pay raise comes up for the military they usually receive next to nothing of a raise.
Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low rent housing.
However our own U.S. Congress just voted themselves a raise, and many of you don't know that they only have to be in Congress onetime to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month and most are now equal to be millionaires plus.
They also do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn't have to pay into the system.
If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7 you may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed you in harms way receive a pension of $15,000 per month.
I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.
"When do we finally do something about this??"
Saying the terrorists will win unless we rein in our sexual appetitites, Attorney General John Ashcroft today listed sex as a terrorist activity, unless it is performed mechanically, in the missionary position, on Saturday nights, in the dark, with shirts on, very silently, with minimal pleasure. . .
In addition, those who yield to their lust must go to church the next day to rinse out their souls, and those found breaking this commandment will face military tribunals, with no chance of appeal. Ever.
(from The Last Laugh's "The Crystal Ball")
I get many e-mails, and every day I sort through a host of funny pictures, ribald jokes and forwarded chain letters that I read, enjoy and summarily delete. But every once in a while I receive an e-mail of significance ? a collection of words important enough to compel me to share it with my cyberspace amalgamation of family and friends. Which is exactly what happened on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001.
A writer friend of mine sent me a most thought-provoking e-mail, which she entitled, ironically enough, "Some thoughts for a happy day." The theme of the composition was the need to "seize the moment and live life to the fullest."
I read it, reread it and realized that the electronic transmission perfectly matched my own personal philosophy. Further, it provided a needed reminder that life is short so we need to play hard and enjoy it. I tapped into my lengthy e-mail address book and began forwarding the worthy correspondence to family and friends. In the process, I retitled it "Life as it should be lived."
In one of those serendipitous life moments, as I hit send and put my group mailing on its merry way, my phone rang.
It was my husband urging me to turn on the television. Within moments, my mind was reeling as I watched the incredulous turn of events play out in New York City and Washington, D.C. Conflicting emotions of fear, anger, sorrow and compassion pulsed through my body, while the relentless journalism queries of who, what, when, where and why tortured my writer's brain.
The last time I visited the Big Apple, I went to the World Trade Center. I sat at the bar in the rooftop Windows on the World restaurant and felt as if I was truly on top of the world. It was a memorable evening that is forever captured in a group picture I have hanging on my office wall. And now, in a matter of moments, the picture and the people in it are all that remain of that magical evening. Moving my glance from that celebratory photo to the devastating reality unfolding on the television screen, I felt suddenly isolated. I wanted, and needed, to reach out and touch another human being, to assure myself that no matter how shattering this incomprehensible event might be, my family and my friends were still alive and well, and my sense of normalcy was going to survive.
At about that same moment, e-mail messages began filling my inbox ? all referring to the same subject ?"Life as it should be lived." I looked at the senders' names and discovered many of the family and friends that I had just written to moments earlier.
As I opened their letters, a flood of grief and fear filled my computer screen, along with phrases that spoke of the value of family and friendship.
At the same time, my phone began ringing. My husband, my daughter, my sister-in-law, my friends, fellow writers ? people from New York to California ? called, one after another. Everyone was responding to the same need to reach out and ensure the stability of their lives. When, at last, each of our senses and sensibilities had been soothed, we said our loving good-byes, promising to talk more often and get together soon.
I refocused on the day's terrible events as they continued to unfold. I also returned to the e-mail that had so innocently started my morning. I read it again, this time with a new focus and understanding, lingering over the final line that read, "If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call, what would you say and why are you waiting?"
For the countless numbers in those four airplanes, three office buildings and random city streets, that question is now irrelevant. For the rest of us, perhaps of greater import than the question is how will we decide to answer.
Reprinted by permission of Christina M. Abt © 2001 from Chicken Soup for the Soul of America by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Matthew E. Adams. All rights reserved.
Federal Aviation Agency
800 Independence Avenue S.W.
Washington D.C. 20591
Dear Sirs:
I have the solution for the prevention of hijackings, and at the same time getting our airline industry back on its feet.
Since men of the Muslim religion are not allowed to look at naked women we should replace all of our female flight attendants with strippers.
Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing a naked woman, and of course, every businessman in this country would start flying again in hopes of seeing a naked woman.
We would have no more hijackings, and the airline industry would have record sales. Now why didn't Congress think of this?
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton
