For our second tribute of the day, we present the story of Jimmy Regan, a City of Charleston fireman whose father, a New York firefighter, died while responding to the World Trade Center attack on 9/11:
Back in the 80s (a really cool time), the United States demonstrated its resolve in addressing the terrorist threat of Libya. When evidence pointed to the involvement of Libya in a series of terrorist attacks upon American and European citizens and interests, the United States and Great Britain carried out a joint mission to strike at strategic targets in Libya.
Eight years ago, the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 probably seemed like just the beginning of another day for Captain Daniel O'Callaghan of the New York City Fire Department. With eighteen years' service as a firefighter, and three as a NYPD officer, perhaps it was his committment to his job that led him to be at the station on his day off.
Lincoln's challenge to his time reflects the greatest challenge we face today: Ensuring this nation and the freedom it represents shall long endure. For the sake of all humanity, let us hope and pray that it will.Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war ... testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated ... can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate ... we cannot consecrate ... we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ... that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ... that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people ... by the people ... for the people ... shall not perish from the earth.
A short recap on some of how yesterday was remembered in the SC blogosphere ...
Lowcountry Blogs did their own recap of 9/11 memorials,
On September 10, 2001, little did we know that a similar stand would soon take place in the skies over Pennsylvania, by a small group of airline passengers, including one Mr. Thomas Burnett. While much remains unknown about what happened on that plane, what is certain is that determined and fanatical terrorists with years of training met the courage of free Americans.
On Tuesday, many will commemorate the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks upon New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as honor the heroic martyrs who answered the call to duty on Flight 93 who foiled the planned third attack, and at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Despite geographical distance, a strong link connects the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City and the Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS) shipyard in Avondale, La., which, like nearby New Orleans, was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The bond between them is the U.S. Navy ship currently under construction in Avondale, for the vessel’s bow stem was cast from steel salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center.
Cleanup efforts after 9/11 included removal of approximately 200,000 tons (181,437 t) of steel, much of which was sold worldwide to be reused for various purposes. However, an I-beam was retained to be recast for the Navy vessel’s bow stem, the most forward part of a ship. The role of the bow stem is to forge a path through the water, leading the ship to its mission.
Its been said that New York is the Capitol of the World, but growing up there, for me, it was just home. I could look out of my bedroom window and see the Statue of Liberty and beyond that were the World Trade Centers. My family was in construction and we had friends and family who helped build those great structures.
W.A.S.P. were on tour in America in August and September . I was in Manhattan August 31st to do a day of press interviews prior to a show in New Jersey later that evening. As I was leaving Manhattan (New York City) route to the show I looked over to the skyline of the city. Leaving that place always made me sad. The further away you get from the city, the only thing you could see were the World Trade Centers (as they were the tallest buildings there) and I said to myself "Take a good look, its gonna be a while before you see them again". Little did I know.
September 11th changed all that.
Even as I write this, the hurt is still overwhelming. I feel like crying but I'm numb at the same time. I guess the numbness is a self-defense mechanism.
I did a lot of thinking about what happened on that day (as we all have I'm sure) and tried to figure out not so much why this happened (I know why!) but what does it indicate. Specifically where is all this leading us, and when I say "us" it's not just an abbreviation for the United States, I mean the whole "World". I'll come back to this thought later.
In the Gulf war in the early 90's W.A.S.P. got a lot of mail from the United Nations Forces (American, British, European and others) telling us that they would blast metal music from the loud speakers of the armored tanks when they would go into battle. The sound could project two miles away and when the Iraq troops would hear the music they knew "death" was on its way and they would run like the cowardly mother fuckers they really are. What a vision!
So thinking about that takes me back to what I was saying before about where is this leading all of us. Sooner or later this problem in the middle east is going to have to be dealt with. It's not "if" it's "when". It's not just about America and Israel, it's equally about Europe and the rest of the civilized world. "They" are coming after us and will not stop. You ask who is "they?" (See Bible - "seed of Cain"). The names don't matter, whether it's Bin Laden, Hussein or whoever it's all the same. They are all "Antichrist wannabes" and we're going to deal with them either now or later. So based on the idea of the letters we got from the soldiers in the 90's I thought: ok, why not give our guys (United Nations Forces), a fresh batch of new songs to go onto battle with.. Something that will inspire us and scare the fuck out of them. Think of this album largely as a collection of songs to "go kill people with".
Fuck political correctness:
That went down with the Trade Centers.
As the line says in the song "Stone Cold Killers": "my God will kill your god".
Where ya gonna run
Ya never should have come
But welcome to the ball
My hands on the trigger
My guns getting bigger
I'll introduce you all
Won't you say
Hello to my little friend
Won't you pray
Get on your knees
And pray to die
Oh-you're gonna burn tonight
Nothing's gonna save ya
oh ya better pray - to
Whatever God you want
Oh your God's got you dying to be
Oh your martyr's in the sand
I'll hunt you down like the dogs that you be
Your Armageddon's in my hands
Come to me I'll set you free
Come to me will you die for me
I'm gonna murder supeman
Murder superman
Stone cold killer's what I am
Your widowmaking ones come
You can't hide
I'm gonna murder superman
Murder superman
I got a heart breaker in my hands
Yeah here I come
Oh - You're gonna die
Your lying messiah you know isn't real
How will you die fo the one that you kneel
Better get your guns
I'm gonna
kill your god
My God will kill your god
Come and take me down
The dark beyond
And take me there
Where I come from
Take me down
To the place where I'll kneel
And let me lay
my shadow down
In though the eyes
Of a child's inner me
No pain to heal my bloodied brow
There is no rain
To save this silent town
There is no rain to save at all
There is no place
To save this silent ground
There is no place to save at all
Oh father take me
Unto where I'll lay me down
Oh Hallowed Ground
Oh the sky is falling
And I don't know where my home is now
My Hallowed Ground
Oh and can you take me
For I have tasted Hallowed Ground
Oh all around
Father - oh do you hear me
This pain I will not cry aloud
Father - I know you hear me
My head is bludgeoned but unbowed
I've mourned, told some stories, vented my rage, and shared some of my deep feelings about what happened. Thank those of you who read, listened, and shared. I'm ready to move forward again.
May peace be with those who lost loved ones that day, or since, and may the hand of American Justice land hard on the asses of the bad guys we have yet to catch.
"It took about 30 years for this terrorism to develop. It's going to take more than five years to deconstruct them."-Rudy Giuliani, World Trade CenterSeptember 10, 2006
Five years ago today, four hijacked airliners brought mass terrorism, which has plagued the rest of the world for decades, to our nation. It was a day of atrocity, which changed us forever.
Rudy Giuliani recalls his last few minutes with Father Mychal: I keep thinking about Father Mychal Judge who I passed quickly as I was going to the Police Department command center and he was going toward the Fire Department command center. And I shook his hand, and I asked him to pray for us. I said, "Father, pray for us," because I knew how terrible it was. And he looked at me, smiled and said, "I always do," and then moved on.
And he was the first person that we lost at the World Trade Center.
Lord, take me where you want me to go;
Let me meet who you want me to meet;
Tell me what you want me to say;
And keep me out of your way.
Today, let us remember those we lost that day, as well as those who have fallen since in our nation's continuing efforts against terror, both at home and abroad, and let us be thankful for their sacrifices.
Benito Valentin and Father Mychal Judge are just two of nearly three thousand people who were callously murdered by the terrorist atrocities committed in the United States on September 11, 2001. May their memories be eternal ...
