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9/11 Victim 0001: Father Mychal’s MessagePosted on Sep 6, 2011By Amy Goodman The body bag marked “Victim 0001” on Sept. 11, 2001, contained the corpse of Father Mychal Judge, a Catholic chaplain with the Fire Department of New York. When he heard about the disaster at the World Trade Center, he donned his Catholic collar and firefighter garb and raced downtown. He saw people jump to their deaths to avoid the inferno more than 1,000 feet above. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed, and the force and debris from that mass of steel, concrete, glass and humanity as it hit the ground is likely what killed Father Mychal. His was the first recorded death from the attacks that morning. His life’s work should be central to the 10th anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11 attacks: peace, tolerance and reconciliation. One of the first vigils held this year was in honor of Father Mychal. About 300 people gathered Sunday in front of the St. Francis Church where Judge lived and worked, just down the block from the Ladder 24/Engine 1 Firehouse. The march followed Father Mychal’s final path to Ground Zero. The man behind the annual remembrance is Steven McDonald, the former New York police detective who was shot in 1986. He was questioning 15-year-old Shavod Jones in Central Park. Jones shot McDonald, leaving him paralyzed for life. I caught up with McDonald as he led the procession, rolling down Seventh Avenue in his wheelchair. He talked about what Father Mychal meant to him: “He, more than anything ... reaffirmed my faith in God, and that it was important to me to forgive the boy who shot me. And I’m alive today because of that.” Father Mychal had managed to get Jones on the phone with McDonald and his wife. He apologized from prison. Taking the lessons of reconciliation, McDonald joined Judge in a trip to Northern Ireland, where they worked together to try to help end the violence there. Advertisement Brendan Fay is a longtime Irish-American gay activist who was a friend of Judge’s. He produced a film about the Franciscan friar in 2006 called “Saint of 9/11” and is finishing up another one called “Remembering Mychal.” Fay told me this week: “He was one of the priests at Dignity New York, an organization for gay and lesbian Catholics. ... He ministered to [us] during the AIDS crisis, when there were few priests available to our community.” I first interviewed Fay in October 2001, after an Associated Press photo appeared showing a U.S. bomb before being dropped on Afghanistan, with the words scrawled in chalk, “High Jack This, Fags.” The offensive slogan forced the military to order its sailors to pen more “positive” messages on their bombs. On Sept. 20, 2001, President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress. He declared, famously, “They hate our freedoms.” He welcomed Lisa Beamer to the Capitol, the widow of Todd Beamer, the passenger on board United Flight 93 who was heard to say, “Let’s roll” before attacking the hijackers. Beamer’s fellow passenger, Mark Bingham, a rugby player and public relations consultant who also joined in the fight to prevent the hijackers from using the plane as a weapon, was openly gay. As was David Charlebois, the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon. A decade later, Brendan Fay reflects on the life of his friend: “On 9/11, the one thing we can take from Mychal Judge is, in the midst of this hell and war and evil and violence, here is this man who directs us to another possible path as human beings: We can choose the path of compassion and nonviolence and reconciliation. Mychal Judge had a heart as big as New York. There was room for everybody. And I think that’s the lesson.”
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller. © 2011 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy. |
By lisa, September 10, 2011 at 9:22 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Is this to promote a gay story? I’ve read accounts
Report thisthat state he was gay and followed a chaste life style.
Is the chaste part left out on purpose?
By gerard, September 7, 2011 at 7:06 pm Link to this comment
As long as American adults can be kept arguing about 9/ll, or whether Bin Laden is really dead, or whether poor sick people “deserve” to die without adequate health insurance, they won’t be able to think straight and get together to organize for truth and reconciliation. They won’t be able to assimilate the lessons of history. They won’t be able to prevent more wars, educate their children instead of indoctrinating them, and restore a ruined democracy to sanity. Some things are more important than others. Nothing is more important than restoring the mental health of this nation.
Report thisBy diamond, September 7, 2011 at 2:20 pm Link to this comment
“My own opinion is that if it were them, they would have screwed it up and the tragedy would never have happened.”
Well, they didn’t screw it up and it did happen. The Pentagon, the CIA and NORAD made sure of that. Bush didn’t have to do anything and was put on a plane and taken away while Dick Cheney, in violation of the Constitution, occupied the Presidential Emergency Center and presided over the whole operation. In the end it has bankrupted America but the elites and the corporations have made a fortune out of it.
‘An analysis released by a Democratic senator found that Vice President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asserts that Cheney’s options - worth $241,498 a year ago -are now valued at more than $8 million (October 2005).
Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options. The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of a no-bid contact in Iraq. Auditors found the firm marked up meal prices for troops and inflated gas prices in a deal with a Kuwaiti supplier. The company built the American prison at Guantanamo Bay.
And insider trading worth $15 billion occurred on Wall Street on 9/11.
Nothing about it is new:
As Hermann Goering said at his Nuremberg trial,
‘Why of course the people don’t want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a facist dictatorship. Voice or no voice the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger’ (The Roots of War and Terror, Anthony Stevens, p. 137).
And a lot of people in Congress have a vested interest in seeing that war continues for the foreseeable future.
The Investors: Lawmakers with the most money invested in companies with Department of Defense contracts
Members of Congress
Minimum Value of Investment -Maximum Value of Investment
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) $28,872,067 $38,209,020
Report thisRep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) $12,081,050 $49,140,000
Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) $9,232,037 $37,105,000
Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis) $5,207,668 $7,612,653
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif) $2,684,050 $6,260,000
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich) $2,469,029 $8,360,000
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) $2,000,002 $2,000,002
Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis) $1,365,004 $5,800,000
Rep. Kenny Ewell Marchant (R-Texas) $1,163,231 $1,163,231
Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) $1,000,001 $5,000,000
By Michael Cavlan RN, September 7, 2011 at 2:07 pm Link to this comment
Oh look. To quote from the Wizard Of Oz (or more like The Matrix) Toto, we ain’t in Kansas anymore.
So look away from the man behind the curtain.
See, nice bright shiney baubles. Look away from the man behind the curtain.
Man these folks are transparent, if nothing else.
Report thisBy Jimnp72, September 7, 2011 at 11:47 am Link to this comment
Can someone please explain to me how such incompetent rats’ assess from the Bush cabal pulled off 9/11?
Report thisMy own opinion is that if it were them, they would have screwed it up and the tragedy would never have happened.
By xerocada1, September 7, 2011 at 8:26 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Just as American television viewers were “protected” from seeing
desperate souls jumping from the WTC, only one television announcer,
Mike Barnicle, told the sad truth of Father Mychal’s death. He was not hit
by debris unless you consider a human body debris. He was killed when
a woman’s body fell on him.
Why that had to be sanitized I don’t understand. It is, however, part of
Report thisthe pattern. We engage in war but don’t see what war really looks like.
We promote a hegemonic foreign policy but no one is allowed to connect
that policy to blowback, whether that be in the form of aircraft hitting
office buildings or IUDs maiming young soldiers doing the bidding of old
men in Washington.
By Michael Cavlan RN, September 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm Link to this comment
I was a Nurse who treated some of the victims of the Pentagon attack, a week after the Sept 11 attack.
On Sept 11, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks I will be speaking at a rally at the Minnesota Capitol Building. Also speaking will be Professor Jim Fetzer, Kevin Barret and a professor at the Minnesota University of St Thomas.
Amy who?
As an aside, the focus of my speech will be the censorship and attempts to suppress those of us who have the courage and integrity to question what really happened that day.
Should be a barn burner of an event.
Report thisBy Michael Cavlan RN, September 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm Link to this comment
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
By James Hufferd, Ph.D.
Coordinator, 911 Truth Grassroots Organization
The biggest, most-significant gridlock in America is not that in Congress, or between the Obama White House and Congress, but between the powers-that-be and the truth. Truth is verboten. No truth whatsoever is permitted either in the halls of Congress, nor in the administration, nor in the major or 99+% of the minor news or information outlets nor the courts nor published books, or periodicals, nor, in so far as possible, the private market of thoughts. It is the ultimate banned substance, vying with courage these days for rarity. For, once it (truth) is let in, and the mere possibility of its relevance acknowledged, even a smidgen, well, who knows what mischief, what unraveling, would follow? The whole universe could come down! No! The Story As Told must be accepted, 100%! Otherwise, we’re finished! It’s chaos!
My proudest recruit to the 911 Truth cause to date is a splendid practicing neurologist, a gentleman and solid citizen and the nominee of one of the two major parties for Congress in my district a couple of cycles ago. In fact, I’m convinced he would have won handily, despite the money, but for his lack of name recognition at the time. I was convinced he was a good man, and he subsequently has proven it. He has to somehow get past his objecting life partner to come to our monthly meetings and other events, but, attend and contribute he often does.
A couple of days ago, I received an email from him, stating he had submitted a letter to the editor of a sizable metropolitan daily in the area, in response to an article urging readers to solemnly observe the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11 as a major benchmark of change in American life and culture. My friend and staunch fellow Truther ( and far more of a solid member of the community than I) submitted a reply noting that the vaunted American system had failed to properly investigate and prosecute the crimes, resulting in misappropriation of the blame, two tragic and bloody wars, and the curtailment of our Constitutional rights.
Report thisBy Michael Cavlan RN, September 6, 2011 at 7:49 pm Link to this comment
He shared with me that the opinion page editor – who he swears is “a nice guy” – contacted him offering to publish the letter if he would re-submit removing the reference to the government and media lying and covering up – likening that reference to the flap over Omaba’s birth certificate.
After receiving this information, I took the liberty of emailing the editor of the opinion page, asking him how he could justify denying especially someone of the known integrity and depth of my friend a voice on this all-important issue, especially given that polls have shown that over 40% of the American public tends to doubt that the government is telling the truth about 9/11. I asked him if he could come anywhere close to matching the scientific qualifications of my friend to render a meaningful judgment, and how he could justify dismissing and silencing such a highly-respected person as, allegedly, a fringe thinker. My friend told me my email would “just piss him off”. And that may be what happened, because I haven’t heard anything back.
The question that lingers in my mind about this episode is, “what ready-made conclusions and what thought processes caused that opinion page editor to respond to my friend, someone whom he clearly knew, in the manner that he did?” Relatedly, why would someone in as responsible a position as the opinion page editor of a sizable newspaper – no doubt both a newsman and a person of some intellect – steadfastly refuse to consider any actual facts or evidence pertaining to the central event of our time? Was it really because he thought he had every reason to believe that someone of the stature of my Truther friend would submit and harbor an absolutely preposterous judgment regarding something he had clearly studied enough to form a judgment about? That doesn’t seem likely.
Report thisBy Michael Cavlan RN, September 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm Link to this comment
Instead, I think the answer – in this case, and in numerous analogous cases of steadfast refusal to consider on the part of perfectly sane and intelligent people you have encountered as well, is that they simply refuse to own the consequences if we are correct.
Many people refuse to let register in their minds the consequences of someone being murdered or tortured or verbally or physically assaulted in their presence for the same reason – because anybody admitting to be in the presence of such an act automatically has heavy responsibilities that they will not shoulder. Hence, they check out mentally.
That, my friends, is where we are in America. All of the cover-up and disinformation that we continue to encounter daily only abets, only blesses the process. It’s a stupendous but classic case of co-dependency.
And so, we continue to beat our heads against the solid wall – a wall more solid than the Berlin Wall or the Great Wall of China or the Iron Curtain or Hadrian’s Wall ever were. We keep thinking, “if we can just make a break-through”. Let us guard lest the “break-through” we make is in our own head!
And, what is our best chance? In my opinion, it’s that one faction of the psychopathic/ sociopathic mass-murderous insiders or mass obstructers of justice will eventually “rat out” another faction and all the linkages and the story will come pouring out. We already have seen some glimmers of that. Let us be strong and ready to insist on justice!
Happy 9/11, everybody! And, thanks a million for taking responsibility!
Report thisBy mrfreeze, September 6, 2011 at 7:29 pm Link to this comment
Please forgive me for being so blunt, but since 9/11 I’ve lost a lot of loved-ones (e.g. my parents, my uncle, my cousin, my mother-in-law and a number of friends and acquaintances) and I’m tired of all the 9/11 stories.
My loved-ones deserve to be memorialized too, but apparently there was no “story” worth the Media’s time to cover their lives. I could say they were “heroes” (my father and Uncel were WWII Veterans, my cousin a Vietnam Veteran (etc.). Why is it so important for us to know about those killed in 9/11?
9/11 has become like XMAS to me: An over-sold, uber-annoyance that one simply can’t get away from in the U.S.. I’m surprised it hasn’t been turned into a national “holiday” so yet another cadre of profiteers can make billions of dollars selling trinkets to those who can’t move on.
Sorry for being so grumpy.
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