WTC 9/11 memorial

9/11, World Trade Center, WTC 9/11 memorial

Heroes, victims, and 9/11 equally forgotten at Mayor Bloomberg’s WTC memorial

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On Spetember 23, 2007, NYC Mayor Bloomberg visited Shankville's Flight 93 temporary memorial

On September 23, 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the temporary United Airlines Flight 93 memorial:

“It really was very moving,” he said during his fund-raising appearance in Pittsburgh, 80 miles away. “I thought to myself, ‘You know, there’s no difference between New York City, a big city of 8 million people, and Shanksville, Pa., a town of a few thousand.’ In the end, it’s all the same thing: We lose people, sadly, to protect those things that we love, and we’ve got to make sure this does not happen again.”

Mayor Bloomberg standing at Shanksville, PA, gazing solemnly at patches of rescue companies and stating “we’ve got to make sure this does not happen again,” is, excuse the expression, rich.

Here is the guy who, as chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, for the sake of “equality” will not allow the acronym “FDNY” nor the word “firefighter” to be used on the 9/11 memorial. In addition, all the victims will be identified with as little reference to 9/11 as they can get away with. In fact, without protest by the families, none of the passengers of Flight 93 would have been identified as such or listed together, as they died. Furthermore, as per the 13-member memorial jury, the $500 million, federally funded memorial cannot include any evidence of the attacks “in order to preserve the integrity of the memorial” from which visitors are not to gain any political or moral lesson.

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Author’s note: On 9/11, my brother, FDNY Capt. William F. Burke, Jr., of Engine Company 21 gave his life. I served on the family advisory committee for the memorial to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the advisory committee to the World Trade Center’s Museum and Memorial Center.

9/11, WTC 9/11 memorial

Piece of 9/11 damaged building falls; 2 FDNY injured

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Ten House Still Standing

The Associated Press reports that:

A 15-foot pipe fell off a skyscraper being dismantled near the World Trade Center site and plunged through the roof of a nearby firehouse Thursday, injuring two firefighters … Demolition work was stopped on the 40-story former Deutsche Bank building after the sprinkler pipe fell from the 35th floor onto Engine 10/Ladder 10. The firehouse was nearly destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Six of its firefighters were among the 343 killed responding to the burning World Trade Center, and a bronze memorial to all the firefighters who died is now affixed to the building.

The neighboring skyscraper, being dismantled floor by floor, was heavily damaged when one of the twin towers collapsed into it. Cleanup of toxic material in the building began in 2005, and work to dismantle it began late last year … Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries and released, fire officials said. The firefighters weren’t hit by the pipe, the department said.