There is still a big debate on what to do with ground zero. What are you
thoughts on it?

I am from Arlington, Virginia (where one plane took out a section of our
Pentagon's wall), and have lived here at Ft. Bragg, NC (home of Special
Forces [the Green Berets], the 82nd Airborne Division and the 18th
Airborne Corps) and also, Pope AFB is here. I was terrified when it
happened, but especially so when the Pentagon was struck.

The pilots used the road my father lived on as a landmark to follow
straight to the Pentagon and they lost power and phones because the
plane came down so low, it clipped all the power poles.

Here at Ft. Bragg, the soldiers and airmen were upped to Def 5
immediately. The roads leading into the bases were bumper to bumper with
active duty manning being called to full alert. The skies were filled
with planes, jets and helicopters...going God knows where, but the sound
was deafening. Civilians who live close to the bases (as I do, just one
mile off post) were out in their yards ~ watching and waiting.

So many people don't know what goes on behind the scenes when something
like this happens...and I wish they were more aware. All of those
innocent people on those planes KNEW they were going to die ~ can you
imagine that? Those people who jumped from the Trade Center Towers ~
what terror THEY knew in their last moments. And do you have any idea
how many of our troops have been gone willingly to their deaths to
search for the likes of Osama Bin Laden? No, they don't have death
wishes ... but they believe strongly enough to fight to defend our
freedoms and for Homeland Security to die as heroes.

And every day, the planes and jets are still taking off and landing here
at Ft. Bragg with troops rotating in and out of the Arab Emirates...

Yes, I believe there ought to be some sort of Memorial in the original
footprints of the Trade Towers that were attacked and leveled. But I
don't believe that any governmental body ~ State or City ~ should be the
ones to decide WHAT that Memorial should look like. I believe that the
family members of the victims should decide. Yes, the Memorial will be
for all of us...but it is the blood, bone and tissue of their loved ones
that the Memorial will be built upon.

My flag is flying today. Is yours?

These are some awesome pictures. Click on the link below. There are 28
pictures in all so keep hitting next.

WHEN YOU GET TO THE #20 PICTURE, HIT MORE, THIS GIVES YOU 8 MORE SCENES.
THEN HIT END FOR A BIT OF TEXT. (Article by E. B. White, 1949 )

Pictures were taken by a non professional beginning with a view from his
living room windowin Brooklyn!!
When you get to the last one, go back to the 1st one to see how the view
had changed. This guy must have a fantastic camera!

Copy/paste:
http://camazotz.com/wtc/1.html

i think they should put up a memorial but i don't think it will happen.
not too long ago they wanted to put the memorial under the site of
ground zero and rebuild the area with more offices and strip malls. my
guess why they decided on this way is because it is prime real estate
and worth too much noney(good ol capitalism). the families of the people
that died there protested though so hopefully they come up with an idea,
there should definitely be something put there to remember everyone.

Some one told me today that they ARE going to rebuild on the site. Not
with just two; but, three towers; one named the freedom tower. In my own
opinion, I think that is really, really wrong! Who in their right frame
of mind would rebuild on a burial ground! Besides, I feel that it is
very disrespectable not only to the lives lost there, but to their loved
ones as well. I just don't want another target on top of a target if you
get my driff.

9/11 Babies Asking About Missing Dads
By SARA KUGLER


NEW YORK (AP) - Four-year-old Gabriel Jacobs inherited his dad's sandy
hair, long nose and blue eyes. The day they buried what was left of his
father - a piece of rib, part of a thigh bone, a bit of one arm - the
boy released a balloon into the air, then turned that familiar face
skyward to make sure his daddy caught it.

This is how a son reaches out to the father he never met. Ariel Jacobs
died in the World Trade Center attack six days before his only child was
born.

``When he sends a balloon up to the sky and he finally sees the tiny dot
of the balloon go through the clouds, he says, 'OK, the balloon found
the doorway to heaven, I think he has it now,'' says Gabi's mother,
Jenna Jacobs-Dick.

There are dozens of children like Gabi Jacobs, born to Sept. 11 widows
in the months after the attacks. Five years later, as they approach
kindergarten, they are just beginning to grasp the stories of their
fathers and of the day that changed their lives forever.

The first baby arrived just hours after the disaster, and the last nine
months later. Some mothers only discovered they were pregnant after the
dads were gone - including Rudolph Giuliani's longtime aide, who was
married to fire Capt. Terence Hatton. The firefighter's daughter was
born the next spring, and her mother named her Terri.

Their fathers were rescue workers, cops, restaurant waiters and
stockbrokers. Their mothers, pregnant and alone when the dust of the
towers settled, worried about the stress on their unborn children from
the agony and shock. Some miscarried. One went into labor during her
husband's memorial service.

Many moms broke down in the delivery room, where they tried to fill that
empty space with photos, a police badge, a piece of clothing. Friends,
sisters and in-laws with cameras and brave faces stood in for all those
lost dads.

Each delivery was, all at once, wonderful and awful.

Julie McMahon remembers her son's birth in early 2002 as a day of
jangled nerves. ``It wasn't supposed to be this way,'' she thought.

She delivered baby Patrick while her husband, Bobby, a firefighter with
natural athleticism and a love of photography, looked on from a picture
on the bedside table. The photo captured a moment of pure happiness -
Bobby, wearing a cap and a giant grin, leans over their first son
Matthew, clutching a massive tuft of cotton candy.

Patrick arrived with Bobby's curly hair and lanky body, and has sprouted
into a miniature version of his daredevil dad. The child took his
mother's breath away recently when he bounded by, swinging his arms and
moving his head just so - it was Bobby's carefree strut.

When James Patrick's son was born, everyone agreed it was like looking
at his father - the same fair skin, blue eyes and brown hair, that
certain way he moved his mouth. The Cantor Fitzgerald bond broker,
ecstatic about starting a family, died seven weeks before Jack entered
the world.

The boy is also playful and silly like his dad. His mother, Terilyn
Esse, like many of the other 9/11 moms, cannot explain how the children
acquired their fathers' personalities - the social grace, the twinkling
eyes, a love of words or music.

But there is a word they all use to describe it.

``It's bittersweet,'' says Jacobs-Dick, whose husband was attending a
conference at the World Trade Center. ``He's a reminder of Ari, not just
the fact that he existed, but of who he was because they're so similar,
and I can appreciate Ari in the present through him.''

She is careful, though, that Gabi doesn't grow up with the sense that he
is here to take the place of his father, who wept at the doctor's office
when he learned that the blur on the ultrasound was a boy.

It is an unfair burden for any child who has lost a parent, says
Marylene Cloitre, director of the Institute for Trauma and Stress at the
New York University Child Study Center. And because of the public
tragedy, children of 9/11 victims might always feel pressure to
represent something even larger.

``Which is very hard to do when you're 17 and you hardly know what you
feel and think yourself,'' Cloitre said. ``Like 'Oh, my father's a hero
so I have to carry the heroic memory,' when they don't even know what
that is or how to do that.''

Cloitre is tracking 700 children who lost parents in the 2001 attack,
each a study in grief and hardship.

But the 4-year-olds are unique: They are building images of their
fathers from the wisps of other people's memories and photographs,
without even the subconscious sense of long ago cuddles or kisses on the
forehead.

As each child discovers a lost father's life, along come questions: How
did Daddy die? Who are the bad guys? Where did the buildings go? When
they cleaned up the buildings, did they clean up Daddy, too?

Cloitre says the conversation will change as they grow up. In a few
years they will probably want to know whether their fathers would have
loved them. As teens, they may wonder about identity - how am I like
him?

``It sort of exhausts people - they wish it could be over, that they
could just say one thing, but really, what to say today pales in the
face of the real challenge, which is a lifelong dialogue with their
child about who this person was,'' she said.

Already, some of these children can tell you Daddy died when bad guys
took control of some airplanes, and then flew them into the towers.
Others haven't even heard the word ``terrorist'' and don't know there
was anything more than a big fire.

``There are always questions and things that come up, and sometimes I'm
thinking, 'oh my gosh' - you try to buy time so you can come up with an
answer and do the best you can,'' says Kimberly Statkevicus, whose
second son was born four months after husband Derek died.

Their child, named after his father, turns 5 in January. He knows that a
piece of bone was recovered from his father's right hand, and is
matter-of-fact about what happened. ``My daddy went to work one day and
some bad guys came and knocked the buildings down and crushed him like a
pancake,'' he explains.

He wonders why there are no photographs of him and his father, like his
brother has. Sometimes, it upsets him.

Some of the questions of these fatherless children are easy: Did Daddy
like mayonnaise or mustard? When he played baseball, did he strike
people out?

Other times, they're more spiritual: Does he see me when I ride my bike?

For those answers, Terilyn Esse has taught Jack Patrick there is a
special thing he can do.

``When he started to talk, I would ask him, 'Where does Daddy live?' And
he would say 'In heaven,' and I would say, 'Who does he live with?'''
she said. ``And he would say 'With God and the angels,' and I would say
'If you want to talk to Daddy what do you do?'

``And he would say 'I close my eyes and look inside my heart.''

'


09/09/06 23:56 © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained In this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.

As far as what to do about ground zero, I saw a pic from a joke site
that showed new towers 3 to be ascent, two small towers and one taller
one in the middle as to symbolize giving the bird to the terrorist. I
liked it the moment I saw it and I still think its the best way to
symbolize our contempt to the terrorist.

which newspaper did you see this and when? i'd like to see it myself!!

lol i saw it once but can't remember where. it was really funny.