Thursday, February 17, 2005
A reminder
Just a reminder of who, exactly, Churchill is talking about when he says that the 9-11 victims were Nazis who deserved to have an airplane driven through them (and when you read this post, bear in mind that Churchill laughed as he was reading the New York Times obituaries dealing with the 9-11 dead...)
First, a paragraph I have separated from the main article, dealing with Cantor Fitzgerald. I will post the entire article below this isolated paragraph:
Rabbi Charles Kroloff of Temple Emanu-El Reform in Westfield, N.J., which lost two congregation members and nine relatives of members, has been trying to help mourners “move toward closure” by holding memorial services and sitting shiva, a Jewish custom in which the bereaved pray and receive visitors at home.
Remember, these Jewish dead were, according to Ward Churchill, Nazis deserving of their fate...And now, the entire article, from 10-01-01:
Solemn tribute for Cantor Fitzgerald
More than 700 employees lost in World Trade Center attack
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
NEW YORK, Oct. 1 — In a solemn ceremony in Central Park Monday, thousands paid tribute to the more than 700 employees of securities broker Cantor Fitzgerald who were lost in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. Cantor occupied floors 101 and 103-105 of 1 World Trade Center along with sister firms eSpeed and TradeSpark. Together they lost every New York employee who was in the building — more than 700 of the roughly 1,000 who worked there.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani saluted those he called “quiet heroes, who work hard, support their families, and follow their dreams.”
Before and after the 90-minute service, friends and family read from six-foot banners inside two tents covered with tributes and photographs. Many of the snapshots were of young men and women.
In a letter, President Bush offered condolences to the company, the hardest hit of all the firms in the World Trade Center.
“All Americans have suffered as a result of the tragedies of Sept. 11,” the letter said. “But your loss has been particularly great.”
The Boys Choir of Harlem sang “God Bless America,” and singer Judy Collins delivered a solo “America the Beautiful” before the few thousand gathered under a giant tent.
A massive flag was draped over the back of a stage usually reserved for summertime concerts.
Cantor’s chairman and chief executive officer, Howard Lutnick, vowed he would do whatever he could to help grieving members of the Cantor “family.”
“They are a part of us, and they will remain a part of us,” Lutnick said.
Cantor resumed operations shortly after the attacks, relying heavily on its London office.
MOURNING WITH NO REMAINS
Friends and family of missing Cantor employees, like so many others, are having to come up with their own ways to mourn and remember, knowing that they will never get a body from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
With more than 5,200 people missing in the wake of the trade center attack, many of them literally gone without a trace, customary mourning rituals have been disrupted.Families are coming up with their own ways to say goodbye.
“My youngest sister was crying, saying how are we going to remember Mom and Dad? She kept saying we have to wait for a body,” said Pamela Trentini, whose parents perished aboard one of the planes that struck the trade center. “She really wanted something tangible. I said there would probably be no remains.”
So the children of James and Mary Trentini, a retired couple from Everett, Mass., made up new rituals. Seeds of forget-me-nots, Mary Trentini’s favorite flower, were handed out at a memorial service to be planted in a cemetery. A headstone was ordered, and the family plans to plant tulip bulbs in the graveyard before the frost this fall.
“It will be a place we can go to and remember, even though there are no remains,” Pamela Trentini said.
Mayor Giuliani has said that “given the nature of this implosion and the temperatures,” identifiable remains would not be found for all victims.
Each day, local newspapers run death notices with the following words: “Missing, presumed dead, in the World Trade Center attack.”
MEMENTOS FROM GROUND ZERO
Gordy Dodge, an American Red Cross psychologist who has been counseling families in New York, said some “are asking for ashes from the scene. It serves the normal emotional process they need by symbolically giving them something to bury.”
For now, all debris is taken to a Staten Island landfill and inspected for human remains or evidence, like airplane parts. But Giuliani pledged this week that any family wanting a memento would eventually get something.
“We will give to each family something from the World Trade Center, whether it’s from the ground, the soil or rubble, at some appropriate time,” he promised.
Normally it takes three years to certify a death without physical remains, but officials have streamlined the procedure to reduce it to a few days. A death certificate allows families to receive insurance money and other benefits, but it may also give some the evidence they need to move on emotionally.Judy Keane of Wethersfield, Conn., whose husband, Richard, is among the missing, said she would wait for a notice from the medical examiner before planning a memorial service.
“I keep the thought in the back of my head that he might pop up — who knows,” she said. “I really don’t feel comfortable until we have something legal saying that he’s gone.”
Keane said a local vigil by friends and neighbors “brought me the same type of comfort that a memorial service would. It was across from our home on the town green. It was very consoling and beautiful.”
Her husband — a father and grandfather, an active Roman Catholic in his parish church, and a senior vice president with Marsh Inc., a financial services company — didn’t work at the twin towers but was attending a meeting there when the plane hit.
DIM HOPE STILL ALIVE
Dodge said that for many mourners, “uncertainty is sometimes tougher than the certainty.”
“If someone has information which is convincing that their loved one is dead, they’re not going to deny the death,” Dodge said. “But some people do need to maintain hope or continue a denial of death longer than others. They need that protection time to accept reality.”
Rabbi Charles Kroloff of Temple Emanu-El Reform in Westfield, N.J., which lost two congregation members and nine relatives of members, has been trying to help mourners “move toward closure” by holding memorial services and sitting shiva, a Jewish custom in which the bereaved pray and receive visitors at home.
But he added that “traditions also have to be adjusted in order to help people get through this.”
In one case, a child drew pictures for her missing father, and Kroloff showed the drawings during the memorial service. Some families have made pilgrimages to the attack site; others are planning monuments or stone markers, whether or not remains turn up.
“Most people would like to have a physical place to come to,” he said.
Still, a grave without a body is not the same.
“When I go to the cemetery, there’s nothing there,” Trentini said. “I feel my parents are in New York.”
Solemn tribute for Cantor Fitzgerald
First, a paragraph I have separated from the main article, dealing with Cantor Fitzgerald. I will post the entire article below this isolated paragraph:
Rabbi Charles Kroloff of Temple Emanu-El Reform in Westfield, N.J., which lost two congregation members and nine relatives of members, has been trying to help mourners “move toward closure” by holding memorial services and sitting shiva, a Jewish custom in which the bereaved pray and receive visitors at home.
Remember, these Jewish dead were, according to Ward Churchill, Nazis deserving of their fate...And now, the entire article, from 10-01-01:
Solemn tribute for Cantor Fitzgerald
More than 700 employees lost in World Trade Center attack
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
NEW YORK, Oct. 1 — In a solemn ceremony in Central Park Monday, thousands paid tribute to the more than 700 employees of securities broker Cantor Fitzgerald who were lost in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. Cantor occupied floors 101 and 103-105 of 1 World Trade Center along with sister firms eSpeed and TradeSpark. Together they lost every New York employee who was in the building — more than 700 of the roughly 1,000 who worked there.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani saluted those he called “quiet heroes, who work hard, support their families, and follow their dreams.”
Before and after the 90-minute service, friends and family read from six-foot banners inside two tents covered with tributes and photographs. Many of the snapshots were of young men and women.
In a letter, President Bush offered condolences to the company, the hardest hit of all the firms in the World Trade Center.
“All Americans have suffered as a result of the tragedies of Sept. 11,” the letter said. “But your loss has been particularly great.”
The Boys Choir of Harlem sang “God Bless America,” and singer Judy Collins delivered a solo “America the Beautiful” before the few thousand gathered under a giant tent.
A massive flag was draped over the back of a stage usually reserved for summertime concerts.
Cantor’s chairman and chief executive officer, Howard Lutnick, vowed he would do whatever he could to help grieving members of the Cantor “family.”
“They are a part of us, and they will remain a part of us,” Lutnick said.
Cantor resumed operations shortly after the attacks, relying heavily on its London office.
MOURNING WITH NO REMAINS
Friends and family of missing Cantor employees, like so many others, are having to come up with their own ways to mourn and remember, knowing that they will never get a body from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
With more than 5,200 people missing in the wake of the trade center attack, many of them literally gone without a trace, customary mourning rituals have been disrupted.Families are coming up with their own ways to say goodbye.
“My youngest sister was crying, saying how are we going to remember Mom and Dad? She kept saying we have to wait for a body,” said Pamela Trentini, whose parents perished aboard one of the planes that struck the trade center. “She really wanted something tangible. I said there would probably be no remains.”
So the children of James and Mary Trentini, a retired couple from Everett, Mass., made up new rituals. Seeds of forget-me-nots, Mary Trentini’s favorite flower, were handed out at a memorial service to be planted in a cemetery. A headstone was ordered, and the family plans to plant tulip bulbs in the graveyard before the frost this fall.
“It will be a place we can go to and remember, even though there are no remains,” Pamela Trentini said.
Mayor Giuliani has said that “given the nature of this implosion and the temperatures,” identifiable remains would not be found for all victims.
Each day, local newspapers run death notices with the following words: “Missing, presumed dead, in the World Trade Center attack.”
MEMENTOS FROM GROUND ZERO
Gordy Dodge, an American Red Cross psychologist who has been counseling families in New York, said some “are asking for ashes from the scene. It serves the normal emotional process they need by symbolically giving them something to bury.”
For now, all debris is taken to a Staten Island landfill and inspected for human remains or evidence, like airplane parts. But Giuliani pledged this week that any family wanting a memento would eventually get something.
“We will give to each family something from the World Trade Center, whether it’s from the ground, the soil or rubble, at some appropriate time,” he promised.
Normally it takes three years to certify a death without physical remains, but officials have streamlined the procedure to reduce it to a few days. A death certificate allows families to receive insurance money and other benefits, but it may also give some the evidence they need to move on emotionally.Judy Keane of Wethersfield, Conn., whose husband, Richard, is among the missing, said she would wait for a notice from the medical examiner before planning a memorial service.
“I keep the thought in the back of my head that he might pop up — who knows,” she said. “I really don’t feel comfortable until we have something legal saying that he’s gone.”
Keane said a local vigil by friends and neighbors “brought me the same type of comfort that a memorial service would. It was across from our home on the town green. It was very consoling and beautiful.”
Her husband — a father and grandfather, an active Roman Catholic in his parish church, and a senior vice president with Marsh Inc., a financial services company — didn’t work at the twin towers but was attending a meeting there when the plane hit.
DIM HOPE STILL ALIVE
Dodge said that for many mourners, “uncertainty is sometimes tougher than the certainty.”
“If someone has information which is convincing that their loved one is dead, they’re not going to deny the death,” Dodge said. “But some people do need to maintain hope or continue a denial of death longer than others. They need that protection time to accept reality.”
Rabbi Charles Kroloff of Temple Emanu-El Reform in Westfield, N.J., which lost two congregation members and nine relatives of members, has been trying to help mourners “move toward closure” by holding memorial services and sitting shiva, a Jewish custom in which the bereaved pray and receive visitors at home.
But he added that “traditions also have to be adjusted in order to help people get through this.”
In one case, a child drew pictures for her missing father, and Kroloff showed the drawings during the memorial service. Some families have made pilgrimages to the attack site; others are planning monuments or stone markers, whether or not remains turn up.
“Most people would like to have a physical place to come to,” he said.
Still, a grave without a body is not the same.
“When I go to the cemetery, there’s nothing there,” Trentini said. “I feel my parents are in New York.”
Solemn tribute for Cantor Fitzgerald
