9/11/01 - Above the 92nd Floor - Anniversary

The tenth anniversary of the horror of 9/11/01 has come. There is noticeable progress on the new World Trade Center and Osama bin Laden is dead after being taken out by U.S. Navy SEALs.

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9/11/01 - Above the 92nd Floor - Revisited
[Previous 9/11/10 post]
Another anniversary, the ninth, of the horror of 9/11/01 has come and still there is no new building or buildings on the World Trade Center site to demonstrate strength and resurgence from the destruction. I don't know why.

Meanwhile, a Muslim group wants to build a mosque within spitting distance of the WTC site, calling it the Cordoba House, a reference to the Muslim conquest of the Spanish city of the same name in the Middle Ages.

New Yorkers and other Americans have become enraged about the placement and naming of the mosque. I personally think it's offensive to have an Islamic religious center called Cordoba House, implying conquest, adjacent to the former site of the World Trade Center buildings taken down by Muslims of the fundamental persuasion.

I also think it's intentional, to send a message of the absolute strength of Islam and to function as an enduring symbol for the Muslim world. "Look, Osama took down the infidel's skyscrapers and replaced them with a mosque."

It remains to be seen whether there will be any progress this coming year on the new World Trade Center.

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[Previous 9/11/09 post]
The horror of September 11, 2001, plagues me -- and will continue to do so for as long as I have a heartbeat. Long-time readers of this blog will recognize the following tribute to three tradesmen, Obdulio Ruiz-Diaz, Manuel Da Mota, and Joshua Poptean, who were guilty of nothing more than going to work one fateful day. New readers may benefit from gleaning a snippet of exactly what happened on September 11, 2001.

However, it's not for the new readers that I repeat the story, it's for me. I want to read through and update, as appropriate, this post. I want to relive the sensations of 9/11, recharging my storehouses of outrage and white-hot anger, of sadness, of sorrow and of fear. I want to remember the heroism of the New York Fire Department, the New York Police Department and the Port Authority Police. I want my long-term memory prompted to recall images of sobbing wives and mothers and sons and daughters and fathers and husbands. I want to remember tears from reddened eyes on faces of loved ones holding photos of the missing, crying for help, crying for information.

For me, revisiting the story of Obdulio, Manuel and Joshua is simply the right thing to do.

Above the 92nd Floor

American Airlines Flight 11, scheduled Boston to Los Angeles, took off from Logan Airport at 7:59am on September 11, 2001. Its flight path was due west.

About the same time, 44-year-old Obdulio Ruiz-Diaz arrived at One World Trade Center along with two coworkers, 43-year-old Manuel Da Mota and 37-year-old Joshua Poptean. The three men then took the minutes-long elevator trip to the Windows of the World restaurant on the 107th floor.

Representing Bronx Builders, a woodworking and renovation company, Ruiz-Diaz, Da Mota and Poptean commenced planning and scheduling a remodeling project for one of the bars in the restaurant.

  
Obdulio Ruiz-Diaz, Manuel Da Mota, and Joshua Poptean

At 8:20am, Flight 11's pilots stopped transmitting a transponder signal and turned the plane northward, a dramatic change from the intended heading. Although the pilots had not actuated a distress call, controllers concluded Flight 11 had likely been hijacked.

At 8:28am, the controllers' traffic screens displayed Flight 11 making a 100 degree turn to the south.

Meanwhile, Obdulio, Manuel and Joshua concentrated on their job planning efforts. They discussed the client's desired results, took measurements, and identified necessary materials and equipment for the renovation project.

At 8:46am, traveling at 490 miles per hour, American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying thousands of pounds of jet fuel, crashed into One World Trade Center between the 94th and 98th floors. The resultant fire and collapse of the building killed Obdulio Ruiz-Diaz and his coworkers. Their deaths were confirmed by the coroner's office.


North WTC burning. South WTC just before collision.
Obdulio Ruiz-Diaz, Manuel Da Mota and Joshua Poptean were targeted for murder, not by name, but by the fact that they were human beings in America. The Islamofascists didn't care who they murdered just as long as the body count was high.

Approximately 3,000 people were murdered on September 11, 2001. Everyone above the 92nd floor of the North Tower, 1360 people, died. Obdulio, Manuel, and Joshua were three of them.

We won't forget you.

Link: Remembering the Victims of 9/11

And, eight years hence, the horror perpetrated on the United States has not been reciprocated. In my opinion, the enemies of America have not been made to pay for 3,000 murders.


[Add. 2009 entry] Public Service on 9/11

As I understand, to remember the horror of 3,000 murders on 9/11/2001, President Obama has called for citizens to pick up litter or work in soup kitchens or register voters or some other public service. Frankly, I'm offended. It appears that the President wants the remembrance of 9/11 besmirched down to something similar to Arbor Day.

Personally, I want to relive all the sensations of 9/11, recharging my storehouses of outrage and white-hot anger, of sadness, of sorrow and of fear. I want to remember the heroism of the New York Fire Department, the New York Police Department and the Port Authority Police. I want my long-term memory prompted to recall images of sobbing wives and mothers and sons and daughters and fathers and husbands. I want to remember tears from reddened eyes on faces of loved ones holding photos of the missing, crying for help, crying for information. And, I want to remember who the terrorists were and still are and I want justice.

There are American children born after 9/11 who don't know what occurred and they are not going to learn by cleaning litter from ditches or planting trees. They will learn by national emphasis on what happened that day when 3,000 friends and neighbors were killed in a terrorist attack on the United States.

Today should be devoted to talking and learning about what happened on 9/11. Picking up litter can wait until tomorrow.

Also: The Jawa Report