- Certainly, we all vividly recall the events. And to
be sure, none of US, even the most avid conspiracy theory debunkers and
naysayers among US, are unfamiliar with the seemingly outrageous accusations
citing suspected government complicity. We know the details of the
events, are sickened by the horrific loss of life, and have played both
the actual scenes, as well as those conjured up, over and over again in
our minds. And in doing so, and forced into doing so by the continuing
parade of newly uncovered evidence, as well as the propagandized, official
denials and attacks upon both their interpretation and the expanding inquiry
by those seeking only the truth and facts, the events not only linger on
but are now emblazoned all the more in our daily consciousness.
-
- Who will honor those dead and forever lost to US? And
how are they to be honored? Are they to be honored by creatively designed
monuments, nobly adorned with shiny, embossed, non-corrosive gleaming metal
plaques affixed to granite or marble monuments and strategically erected
near the site of the loss or in some other geographically symbolic location?
Would this suffice to honor their lives and evoke our sadness over their
untimely departure, or would it once again arouse our anger, or our feelings
of helplessness, or an uncontrollable hatred and rage to be directed towards
those deemed responsible? Such memorials merely assist US in remembering
and somewhat recognizing these events, and at the same in effect, relegate
them to a level of acceptance by their having been caringly built. But
such monuments, erected to honor the fallen, over time, become merely commonplace,
and therefore cushion our sensibilities in terms of providing a much-desired
finality.
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- It is wrong for US, the living, to relegate their deaths
as either a commonplace occurrence or in any way acceptable when such finality
should be fervently avoided. Their deaths are not acceptable. Their deaths
are not a "tragedy," for the latter implies an air of unsuspected
unavoidability and ugly surprise, thereby fostering a sense of inevitability.
Citing a "tragedy" is indeed descriptive of a very unpleasant
and horrific event, but this term diminishes the magnitude and significance
of events which are becoming increasingly expected and commonplace. American
tragedies are now exploding in terms of daily, weekly and monthly events
of violence that seem unending in this once peaceful and freedom-sustaining
land. Decent Americans wishing only to achieve success at their vocations
and endeavors for themselves and their families are being deprived of the
joy, the freedom, and the life to do so. We no longer can live and let
live.
-
- What monument can be created and erected to signify this
loss? How do we erect a monument to honor the loss of joy, freedom, the
feeling of well-being, in addition to honoring the names of those lost
in the unending slaughter? What would be both significant and adequate?
Is it even possible that such a monument dedicated to the honor of these
astonishing losses can even be comprehended, let alone contemplated and
charged to the creative responsibility of a compassionate, saddened conservationist
seeking expression for our lost American character? Yet, to be sure, a
memorial must be dedicated.
-
- Let US therefore, now, upon the anniversary of those
lost on this day, April 18th, in the year of our Lord 1993, remember the
screaming children and babies, who were burned to death by the FBI and
our military, in blatant violation of the tenets of basic human decency
and compassion, as well as in blatant violation of the restriction upon
such hideous a massacre accomplished by employing our own military against
US as prohibited by the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act; and think of their horrific
suffering before their lives were terminated by the brutal criminals in
American government. Who has been charged with these horrible crimes and
who has been punished?
-
- And we have been desensitized also to the untimely departure
of those who desired only to get aboard an airliner bound for France, that
fine nation that so greatly assisted US in acquiring our freedom and independence
by having provided General George Washington their well-equipped, disciplined
army and their fine navy at Yorktown in 1783. Those onboard sought only
to travel to that country, possibly to visit family or friends, or just
to enjoy and personally experience the fine art, architecture and world
renowned cuisine. The passengers were horribly cremated in midair by either
a deliberate or accidental strike by a ground-to-air missile, the latter
witnessed by hundreds on the ground as well as an Air National Guard pilot
flying an aircraft in the immediate vicinity.
-
- A reporter addressing the FBI supervising agent in charge
of the TWA 800 investigation, the latter a James Kalstrom, asked a pointed
question during a well-attended press conference. His journalistic skill
was rewarded by Kalstrom who ordered that he be forcibly removed from the
meeting by two FBI thugs. The actual cause of the massive deaths was attributed
by American government to a faulty wire in a fuel tank, and so America's
greatest and most loyal airplane manufacturer was made the scapegoat; while
the real cause was neither established nor investigated. Who has been
charged with launching the missile, and who has been charged with the cover-up?
-
- And think of the worst perpetrated massacre in American
history. We have all been desensitized by all the honest and truthful
inquiry increasingly directed towards the events surrounding the collapse
of the two World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. We cringe
at the horrible loss of life. We shudder when we imagine ourselves on
a window ledge of one of those high, windy, upper stories, contemplating
the duration of freefall necessary, and the duration and intensity of pain
required, to be mercifully crushed to death to avoid being roasting roasted
alive as was the fate of those at the government massacre at Waco and in
the government cover-up that was flight TWA 800.
-
- And most of all, please take a moment now to visualize
the members of the greatest and most heroic American government agency
in the history of this nation during peacetime: the members of the New
York City Fire Department [FDNY]. Think of these brave American heroes,
racing up those smoke-filled stairwells, choking, being blinded by thick,
pluming billows of smoke, and chemicals burning their faces, nostrils and
eyes. Flight after flight, floor after floor, racing ever upwards, realizing
all the while that they were inside a towering inferno and might never
get back down. They were racing up those stairs, most carrying equipment:
Scott packs, axes, hooks, fire extinguishers, asbestos blankets, and gasping
for air to provide oxygen for their aching muscles, overcoming the pain
in their legs and lungs to reach and save people in harm's way. They were
in a state of total panic, not as concerns their own safety, but terrified
that their efforts would be in vain and that they wouldn't be able to accomplish
that which they were so mentally conditioned for and trained to do: save
lives!
-
- What higher calling can be assigned to an employee at
any of the varying levels of American government then risking one's own
life to save others? What can be more rewarding than rescuing the helpless
from burning to death? Even at Waco, firefighters were chomping at the
bit to charge the flames and get the people out. What a horrible way to
die! Firefighters know this, because they face death by fire so much more
than the average human. Have you ever experienced a serious burn? I knew
two human beings who survived their outside serious third degree burns,
but succumbed because their lungs had been roasted by inhaled flames and
smoke. How many firefighters are shown being treated at the scene? Firefighters
attack fire with a vengeance and urgency that resembles loss of sanity.
-
- So there they were, racing up those endless flights of
stairs, overcoming painful fatigue, burning eyes, lungs and skin, and panicking
in thinking that they may be too late to save a fellow human being. Now
think of the cool hand on that switch, the switch that ignited the strategically
placed charges of thermite and sulfur. Sections of structural steel were
blasted out of the buildings sideways like toothpicks; hardened steel-reinforced
concrete was reduced to powder and a choking, blinding dust; and structures
amazingly designed to withstand hurricane force winds, earthquakes, and
direct hits from large airliners collapsed perfectly and uniformly into
their own foundation's footprint at the virtual speed of gravity-pull freefall.
And the firemen were gone.
-
- Think of them. Think of them in terms of imagining yourself
in their place. Your family, your wife and kids, your mom and dad, your
comrades and fellow workers, your dog or cat, your house, that old '67
Goat you'd have been working on restoring, the boat you were going to buy
next summer - think of all that while you are able to imagine for
them what they no longer can.
-
- We owe them the greatest reward and honor we are able
to give them: we owe them truth and justice. It is by these that we can
also restore our freedom. God bless them, each and every one!
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- © THEODORE E. LANG 4/18/07 All rights reserved
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- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
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