Ten plus one ...September 11, 2012

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It seems de rigueur on this date to pause to reflect on events long ago.


A dwindling number of elderly Americans can recall first-hand experiences and memories of Pearl Harbor day ...a somewhat larger number can remember the day JFK was assassinated ...today many Americans can remember 'as if yesterday' where they were when the events of September 11, 2001 were unfolding.

The image of representing each life lost on September 11, 2001 with a flag carries a powerful symbolism. Standing tall and rigid. Yet still showing 'life' as each flag billows with the slightest touch of the day's breezes.

Sure, one can imagine the martial jingoism of massed American flags. One can also easily imagine each billowing flag represents the life of one human being killed on American soil that day. One can just as easily imagine any single flag representing one's father or grandmother ...or all one's ancestors.

This memorial event is presented by the city of Des Moines' Park and Recreation Department, a local media company, and the U.S. Air Force. The "Tribute Trail" was placed along the edge of a lake near downtown Des Moines. The "3,213 individual flags, one for each person lost on that day" were an impressive sight indeed.


It will be interesting to see if this particular date in American history has 'legs' similar to other significant American dates and events still remembered and celebrated today. I think the memories, and the public remembrances, will last for many years to come.


...tom...

Nine on the Ninth__May

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OK, OK. It is a blog, not like it is national defense surveillance or your computer's virus checker. So it is a little late. Better than other things that can be late..!!


In the tradition that is 'nine on the ninth' ...lets 'git 'r done'.





Some early flowers that are planted alongside our main driveway. Always a bright way to arrive at or depart from the homestead...

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While red and yellow seem to dominate this particular garden bed (if only because they are the youngest daughter's school colors...) there are some other colors mixed in there.

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This crabapple tree and its flowers were featured in last year's Crabapple Glory Days post.

These pics were captured after an early evening rain with the sun coming out later to highlight the water drops and colors. As I said last year, our two crabapple trees are gloriously colorful about two days each spring. ...sigh...

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These were after another early evening rainsquall passed through. As the sun sank low in the west I knew there must be a potentially good rainbow in the east. Voilà..!! I did not even see the second rainbow, trying to form, until I downloaded the pics later.

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A local barn and house now form the anchor of a city park in a nearby community. Maintained by the Johnston Historical Society in Johnston, Iowa, the buildings, the windmill captured here, and a small pond/lake make a great inner-city retreat. Of course, inner-city means something much different in Johnston, Iowa than it does elsewhere..!!

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...and number nine: a flag flapping gently in the breeze on Memorial Day, 2009.

This flag is one we purchased from a 9/11 memorial event in our area several years ago. There are more pictures here and an essay on my Epinions page that explains more about the event and its meaning to me.


So there we have it ...a month late, but hey, it is about 'git 'r done', even if much later than planned.


...tom...
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Melancholic madness...

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Sometimes ya just wanna reach some basic gut feelings deep inside you...

For me music is the way to do just that...

Enjoy one of my favorites...






...tom...
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Remembering 9/11 ...in 2008

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noamgalai at flickr dot com

WTC Tribute in lights, from Brooklyn Bridge, September 11, 2007


Various links found today in reference to the events on this date, 2001



Neatorama's simple, stark, and stoic 'roll call' of the victims of that day:

Remembering the Victims of 9/11



A video from a neighboring building of the towers on Sept. 11, 2001

September 11, 2001: What we saw from our apartment



Personal reflections of a New Yorker...

Personal reflections on a September 11th (9/11) hero



NASA image of Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001

Photo



My reviews of various 9/11-related books and films at Epinions dot com

sleeper54's reviews



The incomparable, as always, Big Picture look at the day...

Seven years since -- looking back and forward on 9/11



...tom...
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"Last Man Down" ...Last job done.

.....September 11, 2001: 9:59 A.M.
"It came as if from nowhere.
There were about two dozen of us by the bank of elevators on the thirty-fifth floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
We were firefighters mostly, and we were in various stages of exhaustion...
And then the noise started, and the building began to tremble, and we all froze. Dead solid still... No one spoke. There wasn't time to turn thoughts into words, even though there was time to think.
For me anyway there was time to think, too much time to think..."


"Last Man Down" is the sobering personal tale of one New York City fireman's experience surviving a hellish event that the world could never have imagined. His tale is not one of personal heroism while battling flames or pulling innocent victims from the clutches of Death. His tale is one of uncertainty, of not knowing what is happening, of having to be responsible and logical, of having to lead in a situation antithetical to reasoned response, calculated logic and effective leadership.

This is the story of New York City Fire Department Battalion Commander Richard Picciotto and his survival of the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.


Last Man Down opens with a quiet moment of reflection. The author recounts the New York Fire Department's (FDNY) custom of sounding a sequence of five bells, four times in a row, over the FDNY internal bell system when a firefighter is lost in the line of duty. While the communications system has changed "the call of 'four fives,' from one firefighter to another, will always signal the loss of a brother." The author deplores the ugly fact that on September 11, 2001 there was no time for 'four fives'. "There was no time to ring the bells for (our fallen brothers) and too few of us left to hear the ringing."

What follows is his dedication of his story to those firefighters who "gave their lives on that tragic day." What follows are black words set on white paper: rank / surname / given name / unit assignment. Page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page of names...343 firefighters strong--as officially recorded by the FDNY--all gone. A roll call as hauntingly obscene as it is beautifully evocative of all that was lost.

"May their spirits soar, and their legacies linger, and may their mention here stand for the bells that never rang in their honor."
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Read the rest of the review at Epinions dot com.

Originally published May 2, 2002