WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Ten years ago today, I was home from work with an "iffy" tummy and had gone into the living room to sip a cup of herbal tea, something I only drink when I'm feeling punk. I turned on the television and watched with my mouth hanging open what was happening in New York City. I watched in horror throughout the day, cried a lot and worried a lot about my sister who was, at the time of the attack on the Pentagon, en route into D.C. for work and, as it happened, at the Crystal City train stop just as the planes hit! It was several hours before I could ascertain that she was okay.

As the day went by, I watched in amazement as the formerly uber-partisan Congress acted like patriots and supported our President wholeheartedly, if only for a short while. I thanked God multiple times that Albert Gore, Jr. had lost the Florida recount and thanked God for the blessing of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney heading the Executive Branch.

I listened in amazement at some of the truly stupid comments made - such as Rosie O'Donnell's assertion that it was the "first time in history" that fire had melted metal - an utterance that would have astonished my late grandfather who worked in the Carnegie Steelworks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! The boundless reach of celebrity stupidity still amazes me, and you have to remember, I was a lot younger then - only 59 years old!

I continue to consider this the greatest nation on earth and I still mourn the loss of those3,000 souls on the planes and in the buildings and in the field in Shanksville. I still have a vivid memory of the oft-maligned, but still magnificent, Donald Rumsfeld rolling up his sleeves and helping to evacuate the injured from the Pentagon. We frequently failed to appreciate this exceptional man.

As the ceremony in New York looms, I continue to be completely flummoxed by Mayor Bloomberg's decision, facilitated in large part by the mainstream media's silence on the matter, to exclude First Responders and Clergy from the program! You stupid, stupid man, one who will be remembered as an overly interfering proponent of the nanny state and the ham-handed moronic planning you espoused and permitted! Dumbshit! Bloomberg, you may be rich and you may be the Mayor of New York but you aren't Rudy Giuliani and you never will be!

There were some egregious villains involved in the 9/11 attacks but many marvelous and praiseworthy heroes who were little noted and who shunned that notice pretty thoroughly. Their humility and heroism is duly noted by the Ultimate Judge whose presence is apparently not required at the remembrance in New York. And Who, Mayor Bloomberg, is responsible for the fact that the death toll wasn't higher? Who, dummy, who?

Shit, I've lived too long and grieved too much. But my young friend Jillian put it best at the age of 2 when on 9/11/01 she opined that someone should do something to those people "who broke our stuff"! A patriot in the making, that one. At 12 she is incredible and I love her. So happy birthday doll girl. I love you very much.