A Day of Remembrance

 

Ten years ago while getting ready for work I turned on the television as I often do in order to check the local weather and traffic report just like most commuting suburbanites who have to travel some twenty plus mile or more to work and back, we had no idea that this terrorist attack would for ever change the lives of millions of Americans for ever.

Our local Los Angeles newscast was preempted by a live video feed from New York City and what first seemed to be just a containable fire coming from a floor in the World Trade Center soon became a story about a possible small Cessna airplane that flew off course into on of the Twin Towers in Manhattan.  

The Video Footage Changed the Story

Within minutes of the first live journalistic assumptions and questions, a video footage showing a large (high jacked ) passenger transcontinental air plane crashing into the north tower of the WTC,  the public later learned it was American Airline flight 11 caring 92 passengers of which there were no survivors.

While observing the live feed from New York a second plane crashed into the south tower once I witnessed this tragic event  before my very eyes, I knew right away, this was no accident, and my family and I were now witnessing in real time one of the most horrific and heroic moments in our nations ever changing history.  The second plane was United flight 175 caring 60 passengers as well as the hijackers. Two other flights were also hijacked on the same day  flight 77 which was en route for the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia ,  and flight 93 which was assumed to be en-route for the White House.  

Like many Americans I was worried that this was not the end of attacks. I was raised with a strong faith in God’s sovereign ability to watch over our nation, knowing we as Americans would have to rely on each other and Gods mercy to get us through this painful moment for years to come.

What Have We Learned ? 

As a result of what took place on September 11, 2001 multiple lives have been affected worldwide. Each year since we still mourn those whose lives that were taken on that fateful morning, and we honor the thousands of service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nations freedom.

Today I am saddened and disappointed in the way some have used this terrible moment in our history to excuse their bigoted remarks, and physical and verbal attacks on innocent citizens and others who are seeking a peaceful solution to the bitter narrative of anger, racism, and revenge.


Recent news stories shed some light on how 9/11 has become a tool of manipulation to further the political, monitory, and racist agenda for those who continue to fan the flames of division in our nation and the world. We are still learning how to accept what happened it is a process but we must not turn on each other because that would play into the hands of those who committed this horrendous act.

How do we pay our Respect?

Some will use this solemn day of remembrance to offer service to others donating their time and skills, such as helping in a shelter for the less fortunate, assisting in building homes, donating or serving food at a food bank, giving monetary assistance to a charity or church out reach program. Whatever we could do to offer some menial service to those in need, cannot in any way comparing to what our service men and women encounter each day on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.


This week rather than focusing on the negatives of those who have used 9/11 for their personal agenda, (which in most cases has some negative slant), I choose to offer a narrative of respect and honor to the lives of those lost and to my country as a whole.


Billy Graham in one of his last national appearances with a sitting president Reverend Graham stated " We come together today to reaffirm our conviction that God cares for us, whatever our ethnic, religious or political back ground may be." 


May God Bless the 9/11 Families, the men and women of the Armed Services and their families, and our President and Congress and finally May God Bless the United States of America.


K. Gerard Thomas

Can He Find His Voice?

Is president Obama playing possum or is the real battle over? This is a concern by many voters almost a year before the November 2012 presidential election.

The upcoming September eighth presidential speech on jobs before a joint session of Congress is causing some in the Washington beltway to nervously wonder what the president is going to say, and if the president does not offer a big bold plan to increase employment, would he run the risk of causing many Americans to become tone deaf to his message or plans?

If he offers the same intellectual highbrow speech or plan that is over the head of the average Joe or Jane citizen it could back fire, Obama already is having a problems convincing some that he is a willing and able fighter on the behalf of the people, and not since his March 2008 speech on race has there been as much hype or concern about what he will say or do.

Obama was perceived to be a strong fighter during his 2007-08 campaign run, but three years later that perception has come under serious attack by some of his most loyal defenders. With unemployment stagnant at 9.1 percent and zero job growth in August 2011 it is affecting the Obama brand. 

Consumer confidence is at an all time low and what appears to be the administrations inability to connect with a large segment of the American public is now (according to different national polls) having a strenuous negative affect on the president’s re-election campaign.    

President Obama’s latest speech before union workers in Detroit, MI on Labor Day 2011 is by all accounts a foreshadowing of his upcoming national speech and he appeared to show a new - fresh willingness to stand against the tea party members of congress and their regular desire to say no to any compromise.  Some are still worried that the presidents speech or plan will offer the same rhetoric and he will cave and offer more concessions to the Republicans and Wall Street leaving the middle class Americans and the jobless with very little hope to latch onto.

K Gerard Thomas