Meditation on a Tragic Anniversary
A radiant cloudless morning
_____ air fresh and clear
__________ sky the brightest blue
_______________ mood mellow
A lovely young day bright with promise ––
And then a gleaming silver shell appeared
_____ mirroring beautifully the morning sunshine
__________ A Thing of Beauty –– but horribly out of place
_______________ like a spacecraft from an alien planet
Dipping crazily far too low upon the skyline
_____ before anyone could feel the menace ––
_________ it smashed directly into a gigantic upright construct ––
_______________ one of a pair ––
Twin monuments to Greed and Vain Ambition some were quick to say
But sudden violent death eradicated an entire investment firm
_____ in one horrific instant ––
__________ dozens of bright young lives incinerated –– gone!
Before dazed onlookers could begin to understand what was happening
_____ another silver shell acting as a missile
__________ crashed into the second of the giant pair.
Ugly buildings! A hideous blot
_____ on the once-graceful Manhattan skyline!
“Ada Louise Huxtable might secretly rejoice at this,”
_____ part of me though wickedly, for I had always resented
__________ the overbearing, outsized twins ––
_______________ bounders, interlopers, invaders!
But before that ruined day was halfway through
_____ three-thousand innocents had been
__________ burned alive, brains and eyeballs boiled
__________ skulls pulverized, skeletons crushed
_______________ between twisting, white hot girders
_______________ pelted with falling rubble midst the flames
_______________ caught, crippled, crumpled, smashed to bits ––
__________ Smothered in collapsing stairwells and buried alive
_______________ in a torrent of red hot cinders and debris
In so many ways the scene must have mimicked the final hours
_____ of the residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum
And then there were those hideous echoes
––––– of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ––
Where so many jumped to their deaths
_____ to escape being burned alive ––
In an instant smashed skulls, broken bones and bloody pulp
_____ were all that remained of their vibrant young lives ––
__________ and locked inside the ruined sweatshop ––
_______________ cinders –– ashes and soot.
And just a year ago in Benghazi –– to mark the anniversary
__________ of this Great Triumph of Barbarity over Civilization
_______________ our young, handsome, well-meaning,
_______________ hopelessly naive, ambassador to Libya
_______________ was surrounded in his quarters,
_______________ dragged out into the streets
_______________ beaten, sodomized and brutally murdered.
But what does any of this matter? What difference does it make?
_____ Let’s just forget about it, and MOVE ON.
__________ Might as well.
We are privileged to live in interesting times.
Kyrie eleison!
Kyrie eleison!
Christe eleison!
~ FreeThinke
POSTED as a MEMORIAL TRIBUTE to the VICTIMS of the ISLAMIC MASSACRE on SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 and the LOVED ONES LEFT BEHIND
ReplyDeleteAfter great pain
A formal feeling comes
The nerves sit ceremonious –– like tombs.
The stiff hear questions
Was it He that bore ––
And yesterday –– or centuries before?
The feet mechanical go round ––
A wooden way
Of ground or air or ought.
Regardless grown ––
A quartz contentment lie a stone.
This is the hour of lead.
Remembered –– if outlived ––
As freezing persons recollect the snow.
First chill ––
Then stupor ––
Then –– the letting go.
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Tomorrow marks the 18th year after the September 11th terrorist acts on our beloved nation.
ReplyDeleteWe all have our own unique and personal ways to remember and honor those lost that fateful day.
However you were affected, whether it be small or large, we hope you find peace in the difficulty of being reminded the horrors that unfolded.
We Will Never Forget.
A haunting glimpse of Ground Zero: Doctor who raced to the scene on 9/11 reveals never-before-seen images of the clean-up after nearly 3,000 people died in terror attacks 18 years ago tomorrow
ReplyDeleteDaily Mail (UK),
by Tim Stickings
A physician who roller-bladed to the scene of 9/11 as the Twin Towers burned has published never-before-seen photos from the recovery effort at Ground Zero, as America prepares to mark the 18th anniversary of the attacks tomorrow. After seeing the towers ablaze on September 11, 2001, Dr Emil Chynn, who had been walking his dog, rushed to the site to see what was happening. When he arrived he was surrounded by debris and smoke but rapidly got to work setting up what he claims to be the first triage center on site. Over the following days, thousands of construction workers, first responders and volunteers gathered at . . .
[Complete article with photos linked at Lucinne.com News Forum Homepage]
Patriot Day: A day to remember. A day to never forget 9-11.
ReplyDeleteCDN - Communities Digital News
by Laurie Edwards-Tate
When New York City’s Twin Towers were attacked on September 11, 2001, America was forever transformed, and Patriot Day became a day of remembrance. Americans across the country tragically lost their unshakable belief that acts of foreign war and terror could not occur on American soil. As approximately 3,000 Americans died, while visions of burning buildings and people jumping to their deaths proliferated on the TV news, the country came together. for a brief moment in time in a unified voice screaming in disbelief, shock, mourning, outrage and resolve to move forward together. . . .
I'm more pissed off now than I was on 9-12-2001 and I was very pissed then.
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean, Kid.
DeleteWe shoud have mopped up the floor with thise bards and DEPORtED every god-damned MUSLIM starting on 9/12/01, but we DIDN'T.
Instead we've spent EIGHTEEN YEARS and untold TRILLIONS of $$$ and lost thousands more Americn lives to no avail fighting a MEANINGLESS "WAR" in the Muddle East we hever had the slghtest INTENTION of WINNING.
That's leaderSHIT at its worst, if you ask me.
I feel the same way as Kid!
DeleteFor our own sakes, –– as Christians, –– we must somehow learn to FORGIVE, but we must never let ourselves FORGET.
ReplyDeleteNever! Forget, NEVER FOGIVE!
DeleteI'm very sorry you feel that way, OaR. Living in a state of perpetual rage and aggravation, –– as we've been doing now for most of the past eighteen years ––, has only worked to ENERVATE us, DISSIPATE our strength, and turn us against one another, because we have never been led to focus our wrath on the APPROPRIATE target –– th presence of ISLAM in OUR midst.
DeleteISLAM is NOT a RELIGION, it is an INVASION.
I certainly haven't reached the forgiveness stage.
DeleteIt's been said so frequently it's becomea cliché, but I still believe it's true.
Deletethose who HATE are hurt far more than the objects of their contempt and loathing.
I don't "hate" Muslims, –– I feel deeply sorry for them –– I just want to see them DEPORTED and EXILED –– taken OUT of MY country.
I can forgive these barbarous bastards ANYTHING as long as they perform their hideous deeds OUTSIDE the confines of WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
Tha's not "hatred," it's just good common sense.
];^}>
+ TIME OUT for a BIT of EXULTATION +
ReplyDeleteBuoyed by Trump, GOP's Dan Bishop Wins Pivotal North Carolina Special Election
Fox News
by Gregg Re
In a major victory for both President Trump and national Republicans, North Carolina GOP state Sen. Dan Bishop was projected to win a fiercely contested special U.S. House election that was widely seen as a bellwether for the president's chances in the 2020 election. Another Republican House candidate won a separate special election in a GOP-leaning district elsewhere in North Carolina earlier in the evening -- frustrating Democrats who spent millions trying to avert the clean sweep and fire a warning shot against the president's bow, only to come up well short . . .
BOTH Republicans Donald Trump Endorsed Win North Carolina Special Congressional Elections in Contests that Suggest the President Can Hold
DeleteOn to Red States He'll Need in 2020
Daily Mail (UK)
by David Martosko & Kayla Brantley
Both Republicans who Donald Trump endorsed won their special congressional elections Tuesday night in North Carolina, delivering the president a symbolic victory as his re-election season gets underway. The two contests, months in the making, were seen as referenda on whether the president could hold on to majorities in red states that propelled him to the Oval Office. Republican Greg Murphy won his Third Congressional District handily, holding on to a seat left vacant when Rep. Walter Jones died in February. The other race, a more hotly contested Ninth Congressional District battle, was a dead heat in the final pre-election polls. . . .
H_A_L_L_E_L_U_J_A_H_!
MORE GOOD NEWS for TRUMP and the GOOD OL' USA:
DeleteDems Outspent the GOP in North Carolina Races but Here's How Republicans Came Out Victorious
Townhall
by Beth Bauman
Although the Democrats were heavily focused on winning in North Carolina's 3rd and 9th Congressional Districts and they outspent the GOP heavily, Republicans Dan Bishop and Greg Murphy came out victorious on Tuesday night. But how did they win when the odds were stacked against them, at least on the monetary front? According to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, President Donald Trump rallied voters and helped push the candidates over the finish line. In particular, Trump's last minute stump on Monday night gave Bishop a last minute boost, . . .
____ A Wry Memorial ____
ReplyDeleteThe Swarthy Ones took over;
And made weapons of four planes.
The riders had no cover;
They suffered dreadful pains
That ended once their deathtraps
Burst into roaring fires
Turning instantly to mere scraps ––
Cinders –– made of former flyers.
The burning towers crumpled,
And fell into the street.
New York was more than rumpled;
It briefly knew defeat.
The nation drew together;
We felt collective grief.
Anger broke its tether;
To express it gave relief.
But just a short time hence
We were at each other's throats;
And built ourselves a fence
Over which the Devil gloats.
We've failed to give the orders
To build a proper wall
Sealing off our borders
To the fiends who’d make us fall.
Instead, we've made division ––
Went to war against ourselves ––
Became mired in derision
Sparked by partisan elves,
Who forget this blessed land
In pursuit of powers lost
In close elections manned
By fraud. So, tempest-tossed
The country’s now in turmoil.
The Enemy's our own.
He said ‘twas all for Big Oil,
And then usurped the Throne.
The heap of twisted rubble
Raising toxic fumes for weeks
No longer gives us trouble
Because of media leaks
Designed to throw us off the scent
Of whom we need to blame
And encourage ruinous dissent
That hopes to break the frame
That holds us all together
And preserves our liberty,
So many now doubt whether
We really should be free.
And each rabble rousing louse
Should 'neath these words be pinned:
"He who troubleth his own house
Shall inherit–––the wind"
~ FreeThinke
History books somewhere in the future will report 9/11 2001 was the beginning of the end of the US.
ReplyDeleteSF,
DeleteI hope you're wrong!
A more REALISTIC way of looking at it, Silver, would be to date "The Beginning of Our End" to the advent of "Progressivism" [a code word for crypto-Marxism, if you ask me].
DeleteThe election of Woodrow Wilson was a TRAGEDY for our NATION.
Frankly, I, myself, go back much farther even that that. It was Abe Lincoln who perpetrated an illegal, unconstitutional, tyrannical, usurpation of legitimate power when he decided we just HAD to fight a Civil War –– a horrible thing that resulted in the bloody DEATH of 635,000 American men, and plunged countless millions of widows, orphans and MAIMED, CHRONICALLY-ILL, CRAZED survivors into decades of grinding poverty and desolation.
In actual FACT Abe Lincoln SHOULD be counted among History's greatest MASS MURDERERS.
It never ceases to OFFEND ME that several generations of naive school children, myself included, have been BRAINWASHED into regarding Stinkin' Lincoln as "The Great Emancipator and Savior of the Republic."
Ugly buildings! A hideous blot
ReplyDelete_____ on the once-graceful Manhattan skyline!
Perhaps. But all those lives therein!
REMARKABLE that of all the hundreds of wrathful words and poignant sentiments expressed on these pages that you would choose to focus on THAT.
DeleteMORE GOOD NEWS in the MAKING:
ReplyDeleteThe DOW-JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE has RISEN above TWENTY-SEVEN-THOUSAND AGAIN.
27,019.48 +110.05 (0.41%)
Sep 11, 12:58 PM EDT ·
Let us hope the upward trend continues.
What's good for the DOW is good for the nation –– and vice versa.
A GREAT DAY on the STREET! WHOOPEE!
DeleteDOW ENDED UP TWO-HUNDRED, TWENTY-SEvEN!
27,137.04 +227.61 (0.85%)
We're headed back toward record Territory and hopefully Beyond.
Sep 11, 5:00 PM EDT ·
H_A_L_L_E_L_U_J_A_H_!
Kyrie indeed.
ReplyDeleteFollowing, forgive delay.
We are where we are today,because we refused to take a DECISIVE, pragmatic, UTILITARIAN Approach to the host of problems that surfaced eighteen years ago.
ReplyDeleteWe have hamstrung OURSELVES by bending over backwards to Ensure the Safety of the ENEMY, instead of ANNIHILATING the pernicious Influence of ISLAM in the WEST.
Notice please that i said the "annihilate the INFLUENCE" not the people involved.
I would, however, outlaw the practice of Islam in the West, and DEPORT all the Muslims to the Middle East or Africa, –– whether they were born here or not.
When the Founders promised "Freedom of Religion" they MEANT freedom to practice any branch or variety of the CHrIStIAN religion. It never occurred to them that SAtANIStS, Snake Worshippers, SEX-CULTS, and barbaric so-called religions such as VOODOOISM or ISLAM would ever become a factor in AMERICAN society.
That poem by FreeThinke is a really great evocation of the horrible thing that hapened eighteen years ago on September eleventh. Those thoughtful, heartfelt words and searing images ought to become a classic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting something with substance instead of the usual perfunctory clichés, platitudes and banalities