Two Anniversaries

Today is one of those strange days. The weather is perfect, a canopy of undistrubed blue over a temperate day that is entirely too reminiscent of five years ago, when under the same canopy, with the same perfect temperatures, two planes commandeered by terrorists, crashed into and distroyed a huge part of the northeastern seaboard culture - the Twin Towers.

I sent an e-mail to someone I know who was there and also fought in Iraq. He had shared some things with me about it some time ago and so yesterday I was thinking of him. So I sent him an e-mail to thank him for fighting for us and for all that he did. And here is the response:

"I often ask people if they can name one actor on "Friends" or the "Sopranos" and they usually can...........but then I ask them if they can name ONE......of the 37 hero cops that died that day.

Not one has to this day..............

Thanks for your thoughts......."

Embarrassingly, he's right. Certainly when I thought about it, I had to admit with no small sense of shame that I did not know a single person's name who perished 5 years ago going into the area to get people out. I don't know the actors from "Friends" but how bad is it that I can name a fair percentage of the actors in "The Sopranos" - people who are just actors? Not that I don't have great respect for people who have that (or any special ability, really) but actors can't save lives. And what's worse, this is a show where not only are the characters not saving anyone, they are all regularly breaking a ton of laws AND killing people!

Not a very promising sign of our culture, is it?

Here are some facts to know:

Initial estimate for clean-up: $2 billion - City of New York

Actual cost of clean-up: $650 million - City of New York
Final cost to build the Twin Towers in 1972: about $1 billion - NOVA: Why the Towers Fell
Date of ceremony marking end of clean-up: May 30, 2002 - Great Projects Film Company
Agency in charge of recovery and clean up: NYC Department of Design and Construction
Tons of debris cleared: 1.8 million - City of New York
Weight of each tower: 600,000 tons - NOVA: Why the Towers Fell
Number of truckloads of debris: over 100,000 - City of New York
Man-hours spent during clean up: 3.1 million - City of New York
Office space destroyed or temporarily useless: 15 million square feet - Century Foundation
Number of construction firms assigned to clean-up: 4 - Great Projects Film Company
Number of workers involved in clean-up: about 3,000 - Great Projects Film Company
Number of buildings completely destroyed: 8 - Great Projects Film Company
During clean-up, number of firefighters per shift: 100 - The New York Times
Feet of subway tunnel crushed: 1,300 - Century Foundation
Number of people killed in the attack at the WTC: 2,823 - The New York Times, 6/25/02
Percent of victims who have been identified: 42 - The New York Times, 6/25/02
Number of firemen killed in the attack: 343 - The New York Times, 5/30/02
Total Firefighting force in NYC: 14,000 - The New York Times, 5/20/02
Number of New York Police Officers killed in the attack: 23
Number of workers who died during the construction of the World Trade Center: 60
Number of workers who died during the clean-up: 0
Number of people critically injured during the clean-up: 0

Type of plane that hit the Twin Towers: Boeing 767, 137 tons - U.S. Department of State
Estimated cost of rebuilding WTC site: $26-29 billion - Century Foundation
Estimated cost of rebuilding subway damage: $1.7 billion - Century Foundation
The Twin Towers were designed by American architect Minoru Yamasaki - Great Buildings
Groundbreaking for the Twin Towers was August 5th, 1966 - Great Buildings
The first tenants moved into Tower One in December, 1970; occupancy of Tower Two began in 1972 - Great Buildings
The Twin Towers, 110 stories high, were the tallest buildings in the world until surpassed by Chicago's Sears Tower in 1976 - Great Buildings
The Towers were designed to sway as much as 3 feet in high winds - NOVA: Why the Towers Fell
On Friday, February 26, 1993, a massive bomb was detonated by terrorists in the Center's parking garage; 6 persons were killed, and more than 1,000 injured - Great Buildings

I also found this article:

"Rescue and Recovery:
Rescue and recovery efforts took months to complete. It took weeks simply to put out the fires burning in the rubble of the WTC, and the clean-up was not completed until May 2002. Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks. The task of providing financial assistance to the survivors and the families of victims is still ongoing.

A small number of survivors and surprisingly few intact victims' remains were found in the rubble of the WTC. The forces unleashed by the towers' disintegration were so great that many of those trapped in the buildings were pulverized in the collapse. Some victims had to be identified by a few scraps of flesh or individual teeth. Most bodies were never found, presumably because the heat of the fires incinerated them. On January 18, 2002, the last hospitalized survivor of the World Trade Center attack was released from the hospital. As late as April 2006 [11], small fragments of human remains were still being found on adjacent buildings in New York.

Fires burned amidst the rubble of the World Trade Center for weeks after the attack.

Over 1.5 million tons of debris produced by the collapse of the WTC posed unique problems for the cleanup effort. A fully occupied skyscraper had never collapsed before, and the environmental and health consequences of such an event were unknown. About 100 tons of asbestos used in the construction of the WTC had not yet been fully removed [12]. The attacks released dense clouds of dust containing pulverized cement, glass fibers, asbestos, and other airborne contaminants.

By 2004, nearly half of more than 1,000 screened rescue-and-recovery workers and volunteers reported new and persistent respiratory problems, and more than half reported persistent psychological symptoms. [13] Because of the long latency period between exposure and development of asbestos-related diseases, exposed Manhattan residents, especially rescue-and-recovery workers, may suffer future adverse health effects. The January 6, 2006 death of NYPD James Zadroga was ruled by a coroner as directly due to clean-up at the WTC site."

I have been searching extensively but cannot successfully find a list of the names of the policemen killed in the Twin Towers attack. Something tells me that if I did a search on James Gandolfini, I'd find an endless amount of information...

Thank you to all who gave up their lives and those who worked tirelessly after to do all that they could. A HUGE thank you. You make our freedom possible.

I did say that there was another anniversary today and that is the two year wedding anniversary of Tom and Alayna, very near and dear friends of ours. Out of any sadness and anguish should come joy and I prefer to reflect happily on their wedding day more to remember 11 September as more than the day that so much tragedy occurred. So for them it is that I smile and remain my happy imperterbable self. They - and others - contribute to making this a happier date and a better day to recall!

Happy Anniversary to all. Good and bad. Out of all sadness does come joy. Always hold onto that as your thought and nothing else!