I shot the first two photos in the early 1990s, the first from the Staten Island Ferry, and the second from the 86th Floor Observatory Deck of the Empire State Building. The Twin Towers were an important part of my life, as they frequently punctuated childhood visits to Manhattan. I worked there for a week as a temp; worked six months in the neighborhood, and celebrated my first wedding anniversary there.
A Day that will Live in Infamy
When these attacks were launched upon our nation, I was working for Con Edison doing desktop support and LAN administration. I had been there about 18 months and had the good fortune to be at at our Victory Blvd. facility in Staten Island, some 30 miles away from the Twin Towers that day. My wife was supposed to be exiting the Battery Tunnel at the time the first plane struck as she would have been on her way to a dance class. After an hour of frantic calling, I learned that she stayed home.
I wanted a Reagan-like response to the September 11 attacks. As the hours passed, I waited. Nothing. Our response would come October 7, 2001 at 12:30 EDT. I was in Boston with my wife as we visited a relative of hers who was attending Harvard University on a partial scholarship. That day, I felt I had to visit all the historic sites in the area -- Faneuil Hall, Bunker Hill, Lexington, Concord. When I heard the Battle Hymn of the Republic being played on church bells, I ran to find a TV, and that was where I saw that the War in Afghanistan had started.
While George W. Bush was no Ronald Reagan, he did keep us safe following 9/11, for there was not one attack on US soil. Indeed many attempts were foiled and many Al Qaeda sleeper cells were busted up.
Rebuilding the Twin Towers -- A Lost Cause for the WTC Site
Immediately after the atrocities, I started advocating for rebuilding the Twin Towers, a cause which would take many twists and turns and dominate my political action for the next seven years. Ultimately, I met Ken Gardner and worked with him on his Twin Towers-based project.
Unfortunately, it was not to be at the WTC site. Today, the WTC site is a cacophony of bickering government agencies, unelected authorities, stakeholder groups, and private interests, each with their own agendas. Much of the development that is to replace the Twin Towers is way over budget, at least five years delayed, and may never be built at all (Brown, 2009). A nightmare scenario is unfolding at the WTC site where neither the Twin Towers, nor what was chosen to replace them will be built as envisioned. But enough has been done at the site that it is too late for Twin Towers there. My hope is that Ken Gardner will have his project built in the Jersey City/Hoboken area, and the official project will be salvaged so that the WTC site is returned to its original function.
The whole WTC soap opera proves the thesis espoused by Sarah Palin and Ronald Reagan before her: big government is the problem, not the solution.
Resurrection and Juxtaposition
It was at the same Victory Blvd. facility nearly seven years to the day following 9/11, that I would hear the resurrection of Ronald Reagan. As I pulled my assigned minivan out of the lot and turned on the radio, her voice and words would so transfix me that after two blocks I could not drive anymore. The yearning I felt at that Victory Blvd. location some seven years earlier was answered by a woman's voice.
Watch as she interrupted her own VP campaign to return to Alaska and bid her troops farewell to Iraq on September 11, 2008. Her son, Track was among them. His 12-month tour should be ending soon.
Governor Palin at the WTC site and with FDNY
This is what we elected President....
...an effete socialist hell-bent on morphing this nation into a Third World socialist dictatorship. Of 9/11, his minister Rev. Wright said, "America's chickens have come home to roost!" The man we elected President listened to 20 years of Black Liberation Theology from a "minister" who screamed at the top of his lungs, "Not God Bless America! God D--- America!" We elected President a man who launched his career in the basement of Bill Ayers a well-known domestic terrorist who should have been executed along with is wife for their crimes. On 9/11, Ayers was seen stomping on our flag and expressing remorse -- remorse that he did not set off enough bombs! The enigmatic nature of Obama's life and the evil characters he associated with is beyond contemptible. And...people wonder why I will never say "President" and his name in the same sentence.
This is not about partisan politics, certainly not about Republicans vs. Democrats, and absolutely not about race. Hillary Clinton - a Democrat is in that photo saluting our flag and demonstrating some basic love of country, not demonstrated by the man with his hands clasped. This is the man we now call "President." And speaking of Democrats -- some of Sarah Palin's best and hardest-to-the-core supporters were -- and are Democrats! They're Hillary supporters, and center-leftists. Though I am a Republican, I campaigned with these Democrats in Pennsylvania, and some are close friends. They would go to Hell and back for Sarah Palin. This is about our national security and our continued existence as the Constitutional Federated Republic envisioned by our forefathers.
Sarah Palin: Presidential Leadership...
"Praesis ut prosis ne ut imperes"
Lead in order to serve, not in order to rule.
(Motto of The Laptop of the United States - LOTUS Blog)
She elevated soldiers' ranks...
She served....
She saluted her Non-Commissioned Officers....
She was saluted as a Commander..."As commander-in-chief, Governor Palin is the one we look to for leadership and inspiration while serving and defending the sovereign boundaries of Alaska," said Lt. Gen. (AK) Craig E. Campbell, Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard (Kosovo, 2009, ¶4).
References
Brown, E. (2009, September 8). "The Biggest Shrug" New York Observer. Retrieved September 10, 2009 from: http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/biggest-shrug
Governor Palin Visits Alaska National Guard in Kosovo. (2009, June 25). State of Alaska, Governor. Retrieved June 26, 2009 from: http://wayback.archive-it.org/1200/20090726151839/http://gov.state.ak.us/archive.php?id=1937&type=1
The LOTUS (Laptop of the United States) (Photo and Logo). (2009). LOTUS. Retrieved September 10, 2009 from: http://thelotuslaptopoftheunitedstates.blogspot.com/
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