Barbara Curtis's Blog, page 189

9/11 Never forget

I went to bed grief-stricken last night, after searching YouTube for items to share and listening to a few 911 audio tapes of the individuals trapped in the World Trade Center coming to the realization that they were going to die.

I feel we've been robbed of the grieving process.  Our Tired Old Media can take the small things and make them big and take the big things and make them small.  Do you think 10 years after Pearl Harbor we were pushing diversity and Let's All Get Along - especially as terrorist attacks on our soil have continued even as the propaganda machine has continued to play them down too?

I love diversity.  As a Montessori teacher, I was trained to introduce kids to other cultures from the earliest years - and to teach respect for other ways of life.  But Islamic extremism leads to death for those committed to freedom.  That's the truth we should be teaching our children.  We have enemies, not because we want them but because evil does exist in the world and we can see it.  Wise people will do their best to defend and protect our way of life, not to deny that it is at risk.


MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 First recorded death a priest

His was the first recorded death at Ground Zero. Three thousand attended his funeral. I remember reading this in 2001 - long before I dreamed I would convert from evangelicalism to Catholicism. I am so grateful NPR revisited this story - because it is truly through stories that we find healing:

Slain Priest: 'Bury His Heart, But Not His Love' 










Shannon Stapleton/Reuters /Landov

A
mortally injured Father Mychal Judge is carried out of the World Trade
Center by first responders, including Bill Cosgrove (in white shirt).
Cosgrove says, "everybody you see in that picture was saved" from the
North Tower's collapse, moments later.

September 9, 2011

Father Mychal Judge was a Franciscan friar and a
chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. He was also a true New
York character. Born in Brooklyn, Mychal Judge seemed to know everyone
in the city, from the homeless to the mayor.

On
the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Father Mychal arrived at the World Trade
Center shortly after the first plane hit. And as firefighters and other
rescue personnel ran into the North Tower, he went with them.

Bill
Cosgrove, a police lieutenant, was also there. When the South Tower
collapsed, it sent debris flying into the neighboring building. When
the dust cleared, Mychal Judge was dead. Soon after, Cosgrove found
him. Then, Cosgrove and a group of firefighters emerged from the
rubble, carrying Father Mychal's body.

Here's how Cosgrove, who's now retired, recalls that day:

I
went a couple of steps, and I hit something. And I told the fire chief
that somebody was on the floor. And he put the light on him -- and I
remember him saying, 'Oh my god, it's Father Mike.'

He
checked his vital signs, and he said, 'He's dead.' So, we all picked
him up. We went up the steps. And I remember looking up, because one of
the firemen was yelling at a photographer. He was telling him, in no
uncertain terms, 'Get out of the way.'

I
didn't even think about that picture being taken. I was just doing my
job. It's just... so many other heroic acts were being done all around
me. It's just that no one took a picture of it.

The
next day, when I came back into the precinct, somebody showed me the
picture. And I got a lot of calls from people that knew Mychal Judge --
firemen. They assumed I knew him, you know, but I didn't, until that
day.

He's always been on my mind ever since then, because it's my firm belief that the only reason I'm here today is because of him.

Read more at NPR.

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 FDNY 343 tribute

FDNY 343 Tribute

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 beauty from ashes: Pat Lyons Foundation

I Have Not Forgotten

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 ceremony excludes clergy, first responders

Making the rounds on Facebook:

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the NYPD & NYFD,
"Don't feel so bad that you were not invited by Mayor Bloomberg to the memorial at the World Trade Center. Neither was I."
Sincerely,
God"

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 pilot was ready to give her life

From Molly:

F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11


By Steve Hendrix, Published: September 8

Late in the morning of the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt.
Heather "Lucky" Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base and
ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had
her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day's fourth
hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington. Penney, one
of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop
it.

The one thing she didn't have as she roared into the crystalline
sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a
hostile aircraft.

Except her own plane. So that was the plan.

Because
the surprise attacks were unfolding, in that innocent age, faster than
they could arm war planes, Penney and her commanding officer went up to
fly their jets straight into a Boeing 757.

"We wouldn't be
shooting it down. We'd be ramming the aircraft," Penney recalls of her
charge that day. "I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot."

For
years, Penney, one of the first generation of female combat pilots in
the country, gave no interviews about her experiences on Sept. 11 (which included, eventually, escorting Air Force One back into Washington's suddenly highly restricted airspace).

But
10 years later, she is reflecting on one of the lesser-told tales of
that endlessly examined morning: how the first counterpunch the U.S.
military prepared to throw at the attackers was effectively a suicide
mission.

"We had to protect the airspace any way we could," she
said last week in her office at Lockheed Martin, where she is a director
in the F-35 program.

Penney, now a major but still a petite
blonde with a Colgate grin, is no longer a combat flier. She flew two
tours in Iraq and she serves as a part-time National Guard pilot, mostly
hauling VIPs around in a military Gulfstream. She takes the stick of
her own vintage 1941 Taylorcraft tail-dragger whenever she can.

But
none of her thousands of hours in the air quite compare with the urgent
rush of launching on what was supposed to be a one-way flight to a
midair collision.

First of her kind

She was a rookie in the autumn of 2001, the first female F-16
pilot they'd ever had at the 121st Fighter Squadron of the D.C. Air
National Guard.

Read more at The Washington Post.

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 Darryl Worley: Have You Forgotten?

Listen to the lyrics:

Have you Forgotten? September 11th Tribute- 9/11 Remembrance

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 Alan Jackson: Where Were You?

Like many leftist/elitists, I scoffed at country music for most of my life. Now as a conservative, I humbly acknowledge its authenticity and unique ability to deal with the "personal is politcal" issues:

Alan Jackson-Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 family and homeschool resources

To be honest, the 10th anniversary of 9/11 caught me unawares. I'm really questioning myself: Did the top-down cultural emphasis on minimizing 9/11 really get to me too? I'll have to admit I think it did.

Though September 11 falls on Sunday, I neglected to use it as a topic for my weekly bulletin column. I neglected to prepare parents for dealing with it. I am truly sorry for this, as the closer we come to the 10 year anniversary, the more convinced I am that it is an important touchstone in the history of our country and in how we transmit that history and the meaning of America to our children.

This is not a Day of Service or time to chat about diversity. It is something bigger than Pearl Harbor - a day which will live in infamy.

Perhaps, like me, you are coming in from behind. Or perhaps you were better prepared. In any case, let's use our Internet resources to make this the richest, most meaningful observance we can.

I am truly grateful to Jenn for passing on this incredibly rich link for homeschoolers and anyone else who wants to make sure that their children hear the real story of 9/11:

Hi Barbara,

I know you are looking for resources for remembering 9/11. A friend of mine sent me a link to this blog: September 11th Mini-Unit and Lapbook

I do not know the author of the blog, but she has some good resources for parents. I have heard great things about this book: FIREBOAT: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey , which she recommends as well.

Blessings to you and thanks for all that you do!

Jenn

Thank you so much to His Mercy Is New - please spread her resources far and wide.

MommyLife 9/11 series

9/11 Students with Bush recall

The Left skewered Bush because he happened to be reading to an elementary school class when terrorists succeeded in striking the World Trade Center on September 11 - even as they fawn over the Obamas each time they stage DC photo ops for the same traditional activity.

They criticize him because he continued to read to the children. I always saw this as the best choice - putting the children's well-being first for a few minutes before going off to war.

But let's listen to what those kids - now grown-up - and their teacher have to say:

Decade Later, Students Remember Bush on 9/11

MommyLife 9/11 series