This day nine years ago I walked into my fire station at about 11:20 am Central Time and saw CNN on the news. I thought this unusual in that the Fire Fighter crews at my station at the time were not particularly news hungry. One more glance and I saw the clip of the tower falling.
Very bad thing to happen. In the days and years to follow, The fire service has woked hard to give meaning to a loss so great. Among the dead were 343 Fire Fighters.
In many cities across the country, Fire Fighters have now for nine years, memorialized those fallen by finishing the stair climb that those 343 knew that be their last.
9-11 Memorial Climb
Today the Austin Fire Department held the their annual commemoration.
Here is the text from the invitation:
Saturday, Sept. 11th @ 10:00 am
AFD Pleasant Valley Training Tower (517 S. Pleasant Valley
Dr)
Public is welcome to observe Austin Firefighters will to pay tribute to the 343 New York firefighters who lost their lives on 9-11 by climbing up and down the fire tower stairs until it equals the number of floors of the World Trade Center. Their goal each year is to complete the climb for the 343 NY firefighters who perished. This year marks the 6th anniversary of the stair climb. Each participating firefighter will wear a dog tag containing the name of one of the 343 New York Firefighters.
We went up in full turnouts, airpacks, and many of us carried hose bundles. By the time we finished, about 40 or so Fire Fighters from Austin and several surrounding departments had gone up and down 108 flights of stairs, 1764 steps. The heat index was over 100.
I haven't forgotten what happened. I also haven't forgotten what has been done, said, and written by a lot of people in relation to the event in 2001. Much of this I am not happy about.
Here is the IRS fire in Austin. One IRS employee murdered.
IRS after the fire, it could have been a lot worse.
IRS Fire in Austin
Evil is not exclusive to people in certain religions or geographic areas. My job is to be vigilant. Let us all here at Kos be vigilant in our duties to keep the United States safe from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Let us defend the entire Constitution, not just the ones we find that support our cause.
We all know many who would tear our country asunder for power. Stop them. Do something every day to promote justice and truth. Every voter is a hero. Don't let the bastards win.
I am not a very prolific or successful writer here. I just wanted to thank this community for my political education, for supporting many of the causes that I believe in, and for being the fighters that you are.