RETROSPECTIVE
“IF FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS TAKEN
AWAY THEN DUMB AND SILENT
WE MAY BE LED, LIKE SHEEP
TO THE SLAUGHTER.”
George Washington
I write this on September 11, 2015, I do not know when I will post it or when you will see it. This date is one of those dates, that they say you will always know where you were at and what you were doing when the news happened.
I remember that the day the space shuttle blew up I was in an attorneys office making a report on a case that I worked on for him when I was a private detective. He told me that it blew up and it did not really hit me it was so unbelievable. I thought it was a bad joke, but he was serious.
I was watching the Today Show when the first attack on the World Trade Center took place. I spent much of the day watching the reports and footage of that scene.
On 9-11-2001 I was watching the Today Show and the report came on that something had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. Knowing that the New York Fire Department would be moving a lot of men and equipment I could imagine what kind of effort would be involved in fighting the fire and rescuing survivors. I was glued to the TV as the scene kept getting worse and worse.
When the second jet liner hit the other tower it took a second to realize, that this was not only real but an attack on our country. Soon the Pentagon and then another plane went down in a farm field. Pulling from my training as a firefighter and investigator I was imagining this happening all over the country. And it was supposed to. Somehow, someone through the grace of God, ordered all flights to put down where ever they were and stop the threat.
On this one day we became as one people like after December 7, 1941 facing a common enemy and coming together. And since then, WHAT HAPPENED?
We have allowed our outrage and sense of who we are and what we stand for to be killed and diverted to fragmented groups desperately trying to hold on to the greatness of the United States. And those who want to change what we are and destroy us. Every divisive tactic has been used and the sad part is that it has all been written as to what and how to do it. And those doing it said that they were doing it. And so it is as if what is known to be wrong is right, what is good is bad, what is evil is good.
I constantly see images of the towers with the label “how did we get from this too today?” I don’t know.
I want to write about light hearted subjects and laugh at our foibles and irony’s. On this day I cannot.
As I watched the bodies fall and the haunting sound that they made hitting the ground. As I watch all the firefighters, police, and EMS personnel heading to the scene I was in a horror show. And I do not like horror films, but myself and the rest of us were trapped in a living horror show. When the buildings fell I yelled “NO, THE FIREFIGHTERS ARE STILL IN THERE!!!”
Active, retired, or former once you are a firefighter you are part of a brotherhood that you cannot leave. And I witnessed the loss of 343 of my brothers who I never met. You may not understand it, you cannot. Believe in coincidences? I don’t, but, my street address at that time was on 343rd Street. Some things will stay with you whether there is any connection or not. That is one.
In retrospective we went from a nation who was held together by the knowledge that we were being attacked for our way of life. Until today we have allowed ourselves to become a fragmented people quickly losing the Republic. As the forefather told us “here you have a free Republic, if you can keep it.”
My hope is that the great majority that spends its days building and tolerating those who would tear it down has had enough. That the good, decent, freedom loving, and God fearing people will stand and say THAT IS ENOUGH! And go back to building a free nation to leave to our grand children. And to those who try to destroy us, go back to your evil master and report defeat.
