Special Edition: 9/11 Rising Above - Music & The Spoken Word

This Music and The Spoken Word which commemorated the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 if truly inspirational.  The songs by the Mormon tabernacle Choir and the narration by Tom Brokaw really set a tone.  I especially like "Homeward Bound."  This is followed by
Amazing Grace."  Between those two songs there is magic which makes your senses stand on edge with enjoyment.

Oakland Temple Reflecting Pools

I visited the temple with Miranda 9/11/2015.  The flag was flying half mast.  The new reflecting pool is very beautiful, especially with the waterfall running off the side of the building.

Documentary Review: From the Ground Up (9/11)

This documentary moved me to tears on several occassions.  It is so hard to get a grip around 9/11.  Why would anyone want to do such a thing to fellow human beings.  This film moves past that.  This documentary was produced ten years after the tragedy of 9/11.  It tells the stories of several widows whose fire fighter husbands died when the towers fell.  This movie is very compelling.   Each of these women had to find strength within to go on with life.  There are stories of several women who set up foundations, one to support orphaned children, another to run group homes for autistic children and yet another to support a community library.  There was a woman who traveled to Rwanda to help women infected with malaria; but while there she met widows of the Rwandan violence, and gained insight as to how they dealt with their loss.  The women involved have been to support groups with other survivors.  They all had their own story of strength.
The most moving scene was the marathon at the end.  over 2700 people died in 9/11; of them 343 were firemen.  The Stephen Siller foundation sponsors an annual run.  The entry fee supports the foundation.  The foundation uses the money for scholarships and other needs of children.  The run is now a very big deal.  It started with 2000 participates, but now has over 100,000 and 1000 volunteers.  They recreate Stephen's run.  Stephen was headed home when he realized something was wrong.  He turned his car around, but couldn't get though the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.  So he took his equipment (60 pounds), and ran through the tunnel.  As part of the day, the have placards for each of the deceased firemen which the participants run past.  The are help by firemen, with other firemen holding flags.  It is really great.

The Sealing Power, Church Video

This is the story of Elizabeth and Brady Powell.  Brady was killed at the Pentagon on 9-11.  Elizabeth tells their story of temple marriage.  This makes me cry.  I know the sealing power is real.  It has been restored to the Earth for our benefit.  It is an expression of eternal love.  This clip tells this story in a beautiful fashion.
When I think of Sheri's and my first son, I realize that even though we did not hold him in this life, some day we will hold him, and love him, and he will love us, because of this power, I am eternally grateful.
http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-03-121-the-sealing-power?category=old-testament/isaiah-malachi&&lang=eng
This movie was linked with this last week's Sunday School lesson.

Life in Manteca 53: Johnny's retaurant review, 9/11.

Yosemite and Main

The city of Manteca displayed their flags for 9/11.  They were also out for Labor Day.  Saw a group picking them up.  It was neat how they did it.

Sheri, Tony and I went out for Friday date to Johnny's Restaurant.   I liked the atmosphere, sort of reminded me of a restaurant from my growing up years--70s.  Sheri and I both had prime rib special.  It was served with prawns, and Sheri gave me her's.  Sheri had also ordered prime rib a couple weeks before at the Black Bear.  As a result Johnny's prime rib left us disappointed as it didn't stack up to the Black Bear.  I loved the prawns, and the clam chowder.  The mashed potatoes were also great, but the main course just wasn't as good as it should have been.

My 9/11

Taking the kids to seminary, the radio announcer KNBR was interviewing their stock market broker in New York trying to figure what was happening.  This was after the first tower had been hit, but before the 2nd.  The question was, whether or not this was a terrorist attack, or an accidental plane running into the World Trade Center.  They weren't even sure what size of plane it was, and there was speculation it may have been a small plane.  But in the back of my mind was this feeling it was a deliberate attack.  Just before getting to seminary about 6 a.m. on the pacific Coast or 9 a.m. in the East, the second tower was hit.  At that point everyone new it was a terrorist attack.

 I hurried home, and turned on the t.v. so we could watch the morning's events.  That is when I was presented with the gravity of the situation, and the horror.  When this even first happened, people could not get enough of watching the planes crash into the towers with the plume of fire.  It is hard to find this on the internet anymore.  The people so desperate that they were jumping from the buildings, that was a nightmare.

I had to tar myself away to go and pick people up from seminary, and then again to go to work.  The first tower had collapsed before I went to work.  That was so unbelievable.  Who could think that the towers would actually collapse.  I thought that there would be a fire, but they would remain standing, like when they were bombed previously.  I was  so convinced of the invulnerability of our country.  I had another thought coming.

Shortly after getting to work, we were evacuated to the mental health administration where we continued to watch the events.  It seems someone had made a bomb threat tot he hospital, and non essential services were moved.

We continued to watch the t.v. at the administration building, and before noon they finally told us we could go home.  What a day, and I was still glued to the T.V. watching any new tidbit I could get.  I watched the video of President Bush, being informed, but acting in such a way as not to alarm the children he was with, of the planes being scrambled, of the Washington D.C. being threatened, the president hidden away, both towers collapsing, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania, the loss of the first responders, the clean-up and so much more.

And then after all that, ten years of war, but through that ten years, no further attacks on our soil.  My son has been to Iraq, and who knows where he might serve in the future.  SO 9/11 is not a single even, but a series of events. 

My thoughts on the pat down situation.

 With the recent goings on in the media, full body and pat downs of regular citizens,no religious exception, unless you are Muslim. I don't understand.  It seems CAIR has us turned into knots.  It is time somebody stood up to CAIR, and we started using some common sense.  That would be nice.

I wrote this poem last year after the attack on Fort Hood.  This was a preventable attack, if we had been more worried about safety rather than political correctness.  I don't think the poem is very good, but the feelings were real, and I feel important in this debate.  It was also a reaction to the military general who talked about he importance of maintaining diversity in the military.

 

This Christmas, Your Son is Dead

This Christmas, your son is dead,

But don’t worry, diversity is alive,

Better for more sons to die,

Than for us to lose diversity in the military.

This year, your 80-year-old mother

Will be searched at the airport,

But it is random, we wouldn’t

Want to look like we are targeting anyone.

So the peaceful Muslim sitting next to you

Will not be searched, it’s the luck of the draw,

Islam is the religion of peace you know,

Don’t worry if he says his prayers, or makes threatening comments, or situates himself in such a manner as to be prepared for an attack, or shouts the name “Allah,”…….

He is a peaceful man.

Of course if you comment, or report him

Or do anything, I will think you are a bigot.

His is the religion of peace.

You are the hater.

This Christmas, your son is dead,

We were blind to all warnings

That this killer could be a terrorist,

Diversity is still alive.

Movie Review: **^Brothers, on Holy Ground

Finally a movie worth watching with regards to 9/11.  This movie was produced in 2003 by Engine House Productions.  It was filmed by Mike Lennon.  He was a fellow New York Fireman, and had filmed before his death in documentary fashion, one of the victims of 9/11.  He also interviewed others of the survivors, some of whom had survivors guilt.  It talked about the outpouring of condolences for the fire houses of New York, almost all of which were affected by this day with a lost comrade.  This movie brings home some of the tragedy of that day.

At one point the firemen below a certain floor were told to evacuate, and it talks of those who left the building worried about those who were above.  It also showed the reactions of wives and friends.  It was a moving expose.  I would recommend this movie.  I got it at the library.

Movie Review:*The 11th of September; Moyers in Conversation

boring, and some of the guests are really stupid
 
This movie presents the Bill Moyers show, and conversations he has with his guests following the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center.  It presents several different guests, with different views.  The first episode, I think the evening of 9/11 has a conversation with regards to the bravery of the firemen and police officers.  Everyone was going down and the rescue staff were going up.  Everyone was running away, but the police and firemen were running  towards the disaster.

The next week presented an individual talking of taking everything slow, and turning rage into I don't know what. He had written about a Japanese terrorist attack in the subway.   He commented that the U.S. were also terrorists, nuclear terrorists.  I don't know what point he was trying to make; he must have been an American hating citizen.  Bill Moyers seemed to agree with him.

He presented his own minister, a humanist it would appear, as well as people of the Islamic faith.  The point being even though Islam has its groups of extremists, so does Christianity.

And then another week he w=has a guest talking about the Crusades, and being careful with regards t our own religious views.  We have to look of ourselves as "The Devil."  Why do other cal us the devil and are willing to die killing us.

This was boring.  It does let you know why Obama won't use the work terrorist, or Islamic.  They are just people from diverse groups who want to kill us.

Movie Review: *September 11

September 11 was produced by Empire Arts in 2002. That means it was produced within a year of the tragedy of 911 when nearly 4000 people were killed on American soil by Islamic terrorists.   It is a documentary presenting the stories of September 11 from several different angles.
I must admit I was unable to watch it very closely.  Not because it was showing graphic material, but because it seemed to me like a propaganda piece trying to put the reaction of different societies into a different light.  It had the Iranian School teacher trying to get her children to understand the tragic event, it showed an interaction between and Egyptian film maker and a U.S. soldier killed years earlier in the bombing in Lebanon.  To me it was an attempt by different cultures to explain how they would be effected by 911 and that it wasn't going to be good.  It did not show the dancing in the street in some Muslim countries which was recorded the day the tragedy.  You can't wash over the tragedy by telling the story in a different way than it happened. 
I would not recommend this movie to anyone.  I got it from the library.  If you see it there just let it stay on the shelf rather than waste your time.