Pearl Harbor Day, Plus 75

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. This will not be a typical looking back seventy-five years to the sneak attack upon the US, which ultimately brought us into World War II, but a look forward. Most of my generation remember Pearl Harbor from the stories we heard from those who were there. The previous generation lived it. The next generation? Who knows?

Many of us have seen, with nervous laughter,  Jay Leno's Man on the Street, or Watter's World, where young adults and college students are asked very simple questions about historical events that most of my generation learned in grade school. Those interviewed appear clueless, sometimes not able to locate the founding of our country or the Civil War within a century of when they actually happened.

"Remember the Alamo!"

"Remember the Maine!"

"Remember Pearl Harbor!"

Each of those sayings stirred the soul of a generation at one time or another. Some fade more quickly than others. The veterans who served at Pearl the day of the attack are fewer in number every year. Soon, the last of them will be gone. Who will remember Pearl Harbor? Even our own president famously showed his own ignorance of the day, when he referred to Japan "dropping the bomb" on Pearl Harbor. Only twice in human history has a piece of ordinance been significant enough to be referred to in the singular, Those were the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. "The Bomb" is atomic. The bombs (plural) used on Pearl were conventional, not atomic. Details!

I suppose we could jump on the bandwagon and blame our constantly declining public education. Despite the bleating on the Left, throwing more money at the problem is not the solution, after trying it for decades.

So, what are we left with? An annual documentary or two on public television? A declining number of human interest features as we watch a declining number of veterans return to Pearl for an anniversary remembrance? It's unfortunate, but people who can't name even three Founding Fathers can name a half a dozen Kardashians. 54-40 or fight? Tippecanoe and Tyler, too? "From which country did we declare our independence"??? Might as well be speaking Klingon! (No. A few might actually understand Klingon!)

I will remember Pearl Harbor as a significant turning point in American and world history for as long as I live.  The tragic loss of life and the motivation it provided to the US to enter the war and take leadership of an alliance against the axis of evil of its day, teaches us lessons that ought not be forgotten. Unless, of course, they're never learned in the first place.

Will this generation learn from the lessons of history? Or are they doomed to repeat them?

Magic Eight Ball says: Outlook not so good.

November 22, 1963 - In Remembrance

From the archives (updated):



Today marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of a great man. One who left his mark on his country and his culture. One who is still quoted to this day. On November 22, 1963, the world little noted his passing in the shock and outpouring of grief over the assassination of JFK. That man was Clive Staple Lewis…oddly enough, like JFK, ”Jack” to his friends.

C. S. Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, was a contemporary and friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also an atheist who came to Christianity, in his own words, “kicking and screaming”, who became one of its strongest apologists.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

-Surprised by Joy

His books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold millions of copies over the years. Anthony Hopkins portrayed him in the movie Shadowlands (1993), the story of his romance with American poet Joy Gresham, who died of cancer a mere handful of years after they met.

His life was rich and varied. His sorrows deep and vast. His legacy is enduring.

In our remembrance of those who passed this day, one might do well to remember what can be accomplished with just a pair of Jacks!

Obama Draws a Red Line Around the WWII Veterans Memorial

Obama's shameful actions in regards to barring veterans from the WWII memorial is a play in three acts, with a prologue and an epilogue. In a series of moves that can only be characterized as petty and vindictive, his administration demonstrates that they are far more interested in inflicting maximum pain and scoring cheap political points, rather than serving the people they were elected to serve.



A charitable organization, Honor Flight, raises money and recruits volunteers to assist elderly veterans from the Second World War to visit the WWII veterans' memorial in Washington D.C.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight began organizing Tuesday's visit, their sixth trip, in May. Spokesman Wayne Lennep, a volunteer whose regular job is designing electrical systems for Arleigh Burke class destroyers at Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., said it cost $90,000 and hundreds of hours of planning to get the 91 vets, ages 84 to 99, to Washington.

They planned to eat a picnic lunch at the Air Force Memorial, because they heard the restrooms remained open there, and finish their day by laying a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery.

The WWII Memorial, if you're unfamiliar with it, is on the opposite side of the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. You don't need a key to get in, or a ticket, or a turnstile, because it's outside, in a park-like setting. The park police set up barricades around the memorial to keep people out, because the "government was shut down". Apparently, the only requirement to work in Obama's Interior department or White House is to have all the common sense found in a comatose gerbil. Shutting down the government, especially with a partial shutdown like this one, doesn't mean shutting down the country. (You did get your mail today, didn't you?) These barricades were put up, even though the administration had been informed that 91 elderly WWII vets were flying up from Mississippi to visit the memorial. The amount of Federal money required to make this visit happen, was to have the park police merely step to one side and let them in. In other words, virtually nothing.

And it wasn't just a matter of poor timing on the veterans' part. The prologue to this play, according to Rep. Steven Palazzo, was a request made to both the Department of the Interior and the White House to allow the veterans in. The first act of our play, gives us men who took the beaches at Normandy, who risked their lives far from hearth and home to defeat the Nazi threat, being undeterred by a few sawhorses and barricades. After their perfectly reasonable request had been denied, some principled representatives of the people, Palazzo, Steve King, and others, committed an act of civil disobedience to provide access to the Honor Flight vets.

The Obama administration drew a red line in the sand, not because it was going to cost any money, but because petty, vindictive, and small minded politicians would rather punish people for some perceived political gain than to honor those who risked their lives defending freedom, and some of those brave men don't have that many seasons left to see how their country has seen fit to honor them. The administration spent more money putting up barricades than they would have spent allowing four score and eleven veterans, elderly, some in failing health, to walk around the memorial.

Remember it was Obama who closed the White House to tours of school children, supposedly because of the sequester that he himself authored. Now he tries to deny our elderly and infirm veterans access to an open air memorial. Those who managed to make it there only through the generosity and kindness of strangers. The veterans "stormed" the park in their wheelchairs and walkers, and the park police took no action to eject them, as common sense and common decency would dictate.

Palazzo, a Gulf War Marine veteran who has participated in all five of the Honor Flights, blames the White House for making it harder on veterans and playing politics. “At first I thought it was a huge bureaucratic oversight,” Palazzo told The Daily Caller, “but having talked with the officials I can’t help but think this was politically motivated. Honor Flights, which bring WWII veterans to the nation’s memorials, are planned a year in advance and cost anywhere between $80,000 to $100,000. How low can you get with playing politics over our nation’s veterans?”

But, the story doesn't end there. This morning, Park police on horseback, the kind used for crowd control, showed up at the memorial. For an administration that doesn't have the money to keep an open air park open, they seem to have even more money for mounted patrols! Since then, I'm told, the Park Service has relented and will allow Honor Flights to visit the memorial. I think that the administration calculated that the sight of men on horseback trying to intimidate frail and elderly vets, would not provide the "optic" that Obama desires in his attempts to blame everything on the Republicans.

So we have yet another small victory for America's vets in the twilight of their years. But, what of the rest of America? Those same schoolchildren being banned from White House tours are now being forbidden to stroll through a park and catch a glimpse of what their grandfathers may have fought and died for. Does the lack of a budget mean that barricades must go up around all of America's treasures? Bill Clinton didn't think so! Over at Legal Insurrection, it is noted that during the government shutdown of 1995, Bill Clinton did not barricade the Lincoln Memorial, as B. Hussein Obama has chosen to do.

So why is he doing it? There is a concerted effort by the left, in order to preserve that precursor of Single Payer socialist medicine, Obamacare, at all costs. The Republicans have offered to pay for every other area of government, individually or collectively, only to be rebuffed by the ideologues who refuse to allow Obamacare to even come up for debate, even though Obama himself has changed the law repeatedly (and without Constitutional authority) to try to make it work. Obama likes to sneer at Congress for not doing their job, (well, he sneers at the Republicans. Harry Reid, whose Senate has not passed a budget in five years gets an exemption), but it is the job of Congress to amend the laws, not the president's.

The epilogue will be the backlash and the anger of all those who see through Obama's phony blame game and see just how vindictive he is toward those he himself is holding hostage, attempting to inflict the maximum amount of pain, in order to achieve political gains.

Palazzo asked, "How low can you get with playing politics over our nation’s veterans?" How low? Obama and his cohorts are lower than whale snot. (And twice as slippery!) But, in order to be fair and balanced, I will devote my next post to all of the principled things Obama has done for the good of our country...just as soon as he manages to do one.



Original art work by John Cox
Cross posted at LCR

In Memoriam: Sandra W. Bradshaw, Killed Sept. 11, 2001

As a part of Project 2996, I'm going to write to you about another individual I never met. I've never heard her name, either. I only knew her as a part of a group: The people who perished on 9/11.

Sandy Bradshaw: 38, Loving wife, mother of two, stewardess on Flight 93 on 9/11/01. Ten years have now passed*, and her two children are about to enter their teens. Her son Nathan was a baby, and her daughter Alexandria, at age three, little more than one when their mother was taken from them.

Sandy, along with four siblings, grew up on a chicken ranch, of all places, but she dreamed of "flying the friendly skies" as a stewardess. She first became a "stew" for US Airways in 1990, but was laid off five months later. She met the man who was to become her husband, working as a pilot for US Air. By December of that same year, she was working for United Airlines.

She'd been working as a stewardess for over ten years, but with the arrival of her babies, she was cutting back her hours to spend more time with them. She was only making two, two day trips a month, the minimum amount of time she could work, when she took off on that fateful day.

Phil Bradshaw got a phone call from his wife that morning:

"Have you seen what's happening? Have you heard?" She asked in a calm voice. "We've been hijacked."

And, in the typical, gutsy manner of those aboard Flight 93, She told her husband that she and the other attendants were boiling water to throw at the hijackers.

A brave lady, a loving mom, a beloved wife, a devoted daughter, a caring sister. The last moments of her life were spent making sure that Flight 93 did not become yet another aerial bomb to be used on helpless civilians. We honor her bravery and we honor her life.

Sandy is survived by her husband, a daughter, a son, and a step-daughter, her parents, three sisters, and her brother.

She touched many lives and those who were touched by her miss her. Ten years later.

If I may add the same sentiments I have before, though I never met Sandy Bradshaw, I mourn for her and grieve with her family. The craven cowardice of those who would commit war by attacking defenseless civilians has not gone unavenged. Many of those who sowed the wind on 9/11 have reaped the whirlwind.

But, vengeance can never restore loss. What was taken from Sandy Bradshaw's family can never be replaced. Nor that of the 2,995 other families who lost loved ones on that day.

But, we can remember them. We can hold them in our hearts. And we can vow that so much as is in our power, it will never happen again.

Our hearts go out to the family of Sandy Bradshaw today. I hope that in some small way I have captured a bit of her essence to share. Our hearts are with you this day.
Rest in peace, Sandy.

You can read more about Sandy here:

United Stewardess Sandra W. Bradshaw

Flight crew: Sandra Bradshaw

United Heroes

Sandra Bradshaw

*Originally posted 9/11/11

In Memoriam: Dwight David Darcy, Killed Sept. 11, 2001

As a part of Project 2996, I'm going to write to you about an individual I never met. I've never even heard his name. I only knew him as a part of a group: The people who perished on 9/11.

He was not a very imposing man, from his picture. I imagine you could pass him on the street and not think twice about it. Just like many of us. But, Dwight, if I may be so bold, had already lived through one World Trade Center attack before that fateful day.
He was there in 1993 when the WTC was bombed the first time. It made him a little jumpy. Sudden loud noises would startle him. For years, his wife, Veronica said, "Every time there was a bang, he would jump." But that did not deter him from returning to work.

Dwight was raising two sons, Kieran and Ryan, with his wife, living in Bronxville, N.Y., a little village about fifteen miles north of midtown Manhattan, home to about 6,500 people.

He was a Senior Attorney at the Port Authority of NY and NJ. He'd been with the Port Authority for 25 years. He was 55 at the time of the attack. A few years older than I was then. I few years younger than I am now.

He served on the parish board of the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Bronxville. He loved opera. He and his wife were frequent attendees at performances at the Met and the City Opera. He was a member of the New York Athletic Club.

He had a brother, Keith T. Darcy of Pound Ridge, NY, and a sister, Joan D. Sorgi of Darien, CT. who survived him, as well as an aunt, Claire Menagh of Manhattan, an uncle, George Kindermann of New London, NH, and several nieces and nephews.

A family man, with familial ties to other families. Much like you and I.

Here's what another 2,996 blogger said about Dwight three years ago:

Dwight was a Bronx native, graduated from Fordham Prep, Fordham University, and the Fordham University School of Law. He began his legal career as an Assistant D.A. in the Bronx in 1971, and joined the Port Authority in 1977. While at the Port Authority, Dwight specialized in labor relations, serving for many years as the Head of the Labor Relations Division.

Dwight was very active in charitable works in New York City. He served as president of the Catholic Big Brothers of NY, as well as, the president of the Parish Council of St. Joseph's Church in Bronxville. Dwight was also voted a life member of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of NY, and made an affiliate member of the Marist Brothers for his many years of service on the board of Mt. St. Michael Academy in the Bronx.

WHAT WAS DWIGHT LIKE?

"We kind of grew up together at the authority," said his friend and colleague Jeffery Green, the general counsel for the authority's legal team, made of up 75 lawyers. "He was very calm and logical and had a good sense of humor," Green said.

Outside of work, Darcy followed his favorite sports teams: The New York Yankees, the New York Giants and college basketball teams, Green said. "He was a devoted father and sports fan. He was a very big Yankee and Giants football fan. I would see him at the games."

Darcy had a way of winning people over. "Everyone who met him liked him. He took pride in his work and his family. He was a really good individual," Green said.

I received an email from someone who knew Dwight. They had this to say:

I first met Mr. Darcy in 1968. I was a Freshman at Mt. St. Michael Academy, a private Marist (Catholic) High School in the Bronx, NY. Although he had a Law degree, Dwight Darcy started his working life as an English teacher at the “Mount”. I had him for English 1 that year. I was very interested in history, and Mr. Darcy made it a point, during his lectures, to not only teach the fine points of English Grammar and Composition, but also expounded on American and World History, to which he added a large dose of Morals and Ethics. I was always fascinated by the breadth and depth of his knowledge, and made it a point to have discussions with him on these topics, even outside of class hours. He was an excellent role model, and I considered him an inspiration and mentor. He was a dynamic and dedicated teacher, and he had a profound effect on me. He is one of the few teachers I ever had, that I truly remember with fondness.

When I heard that he left teaching to practice law for the Port Authority, I knew that he was really following his true love, which he considered the true arena of human interaction. But I knew that future students would lose the opportunity to meet a truly remarkable person.

On 9-11, I was overwhelmingly heartbroken to learn that he did not survive the attack. It seemed like a horribly cruel injustice. Here was a man who was so kind, so dynamic, so profound, and so cognizant of the needs of others, who was caught up, with so many unfortunate others, in the effects of incredible madness and evil, and the result an overwhelming hatred of all mankind. I really could not believe it had actually happened. But I remember him with honor and respect, and with a deep sense of loss.

I hope this helps in illustrating the truly excellent person that he was.

Michael Cutrera

Dwight went to work September 11th, 2001, like he had on many other mornings, I would imagine, not dreaming of the horror and chaos that would await him. He worked on the 66th floor of the North tower. According to a co-worker, he'd had surgery on his foot several weeks before and was still in a cast. It would have made it difficult for him to take the stairs to flee the building.

He died at the hands of terrorists who did not care that Dwight was president of the Catholic Big Brothers of NY, where he helped disadvantaged youths. They did not care about the grieving widow and sons he would leave behind. The brother and sister, aunt and uncle left with a sense of terrible loss. The friends and acquaintances who would miss his kind words and encouragement. His death was not meaningless, because there is still meaning even when evil men commit evil deeds. His death was tragic in that it cut him off from whatever productive years he had left , the communion he spent with family and friends and the good deeds he would have done had he lived.

And though I never met Mr. Darcy, I mourn for him and grieve with his family. The craven cowardice of those who would commit war by attacking defenseless civilians has not gone unavenged. Many of those who sowed the wind on 9/11 have reaped the whirlwind.

But, vengeance can never restore loss. What was taken from Dwight Darcy's family can never be replaced. Nor that of the 2,995 other families who lost loved ones on that day.

But, we can remember them. We can hold them in our hearts. And we can vow that so much as is in our power, it will never happen again.

My heart goes out to the family of Dwight Darcy today. I hope that in some small way I have captured a bit of his essence to share with others. Our hearts are with you this day.
Rest in peace, Mr. Darcy.


"Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times
Paid notice NYT
A Step in the Right Direction

Originally posted 9/11/09

9/11 - A Day of Remembrance

It's 9/11. Eleven years ago, the United States was attacked by those who thought we were soft. Those who thought we would accede to their demands if they brought us harm, with the threat to do more. They thought they had seen it before. They were wrong.

So, today, no partisan politics, no matter how egregious the provocation. This is a day of remembrance. Tomorrow is another day. But for 2,996 of our citizens, tomorrow didn't come, on this date, eleven years ago. Most of them were not heroes. Some of them were.

And today, we pause to remember them, and to consider the evil of our enemies, who kill men, and women, and children with equal dispassion, to acknowledge once again the cowardice of those who would wage war against us, but were too cowardly to attack our military, attacking unarmed civilians instead.

And we pray for the souls of those lives cut short, and for the lives of those first responders who, even now are seeing their lives cut short by illness brought about in the hell of the dust and smoke.

We should remember what happened that day, and why it happened, and vow that, if it be within our power, that it never happen again.

Remember Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941

Today is the 70th anniversary of the December 7th. attack on Pearl Harbor, which then President FDR called, a "Day which will live in Infamy".

The number of people who lived through the day and those who lived through the attack decreases every year. The day will come when only a very few historians will remember the attack on Pearl Harbor, but this is not that day.

Over 300 planes from six aircraft carriers attacked Pearl Harbor that day. Some 2400 Americans lost their life in the attack and more than 1200 were wounded.

America in 1941 was steeped in isolationism. The unexpectedness and seeming treachery of the attack galvanized America into action. The US declared war on Japan December 8th. Italy and German declared war on the US three days later and the US reciprocated. The US was committed to, what would become known as, the Second World War.

Bill Clinton on Flight 93 -video

It sure says something, when conservatives long for the good old days of Bill Clinton! Mr. Clinton acquits himself admirably here in honoring the memory of those who perished on 9/11.

H/T Vocal Minority

Budweiser 9/11 Tribute (video)

I saw this on TV this AM. An oddly touching tribute to 9/11 in a beer commercial.

Images of 9/11

In Memoriam: Sandra W. Bradshaw, Killed Sept. 11, 2001

As a part of Project 2996, I'm going to write to you about another individual I never met. I've never heard her name, either. I only knew her as a part of a group: The people who perished on 9/11.

Sandy Bradshaw: 38, Loving wife, mother of two, stewardess on Flight 93 on 9/11/01. Ten years have now passed, and her two children are about to enter their teens. Her son Nathan was a baby, and her daughter Alexandria, at age three, little more than one when their mother was taken from them.

Sandy, along with four siblings, grew up on a chicken ranch, of all places, but she dreamed of "flying the friendly skies" as a stewardess. She first became a "stew" for US Airways in 1990, but was laid off five months later. She met the man who was to become her husband, working as a pilot for US Air. By December of that same year, she was working for United Airlines.

She'd been working as a stewardess for over ten years, but with the arrival of her babies, she was cutting back her hours to spend more time with them. She was only making two, two day trips a month, the minimum amount of time she could work, when she took off on that fateful day.

Phil Bradshaw got a phone call from his wife that morning:

"Have you seen what's happening? Have you heard?" She asked in a calm voice. "We've been hijacked."

And, in the typical, gutsy manner of those aboard Flight 93, She told her husband that she and the other attendants were boiling water to throw at the hijackers.

A brave lady, a loving mom, a beloved wife, a devoted daughter, a caring sister. The last moments of her life were spent making sure that Flight 93 did not become yet another aerial bomb to be used on helpless civilians. We honor her bravery and we honor her life.

Sandy is survived by her husband, a daughter, a son, and a step-daughter, her parents, three sisters, and her brother.

She touched many lives and those who were touched by her miss her. Ten years later.

If I may add the same sentiments I have before, though I never met Sandy Bradshaw, I mourn for her and grieve with her family. The craven cowardice of those who would commit war by attacking defenseless civilians has not gone unavenged. Many of those who sowed the wind on 9/11 have reaped the whirlwind.

But, vengeance can never restore loss. What was taken from Sandy Bradshaw's family can never be replaced. Nor that of the 2,995 other families who lost loved ones on that day.

But, we can remember them. We can hold them in our hearts. And we can vow that so much as is in our power, it will never happen again.

Our hearts go out to the family of Sandy Bradshaw today. I hope that in some small way I have captured a bit of her essence to share. Our hearts are with you this day.
Rest in peace, Sandy.

You can read more about Sandy here:

United Stewardess Sandra W. Bradshaw

Flight crew: Sandra Bradshaw

United Heroes

Sandra Bradshaw

"Remember Pearl Harbor"

USS Arizona memorial

On this day in history in 1941, the naval facility at Pearl Harbor was attacked, bringing the US into WWII.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt would call it a "Day that would live in infamy".

November 22, 1963 - In Remembrance

From the archives (updated):



Today marks the 47th anniversary of the passing of a great man. One who left his mark on his country and his culture. One who is still quoted to this day. On November 22, 1963, the world little noted his passing in the shock and outpouring of grief over the assassination of JFK. That man was Clive Staple Lewis…oddly enough, like JFK, ”Jack” to his friends.

C. S. Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, was a contemporary and friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also an atheist who came to Christianity, in his own words, “kicking and screaming”, who became one of its strongest apologists.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

-Surprised by Joy

His books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold millions of copies over the years. Anthony Hopkins portrayed him in the movie Shadowlands (1993), the story of his romance with American poet Joy Gresham, who died of cancer a mere handful of years after they met.

His life was rich and varied. His sorrows deep and vast. His legacy is enduring.

In our remembrance of those who passed this day, one might do well to remember what can be accomplished with just a pair of Jacks!

Remember the Fallen

Got this in an email from Ranger Up.

In Memoriam: Dwight David Darcy, Killed Sept. 11, 2001

As a part of Project 2996, I'm going to write to you about an individual I never met. I've never even heard his name. I only knew him as a part of a group: The people who perished on 9/11.

He was not a very imposing man, from his picture. I imagine you could pass him on the street and not think twice about it. Just like many of us. But, Dwight, if I may be so bold, had already lived through one World Trade Center attack before that fateful day.
He was there in 1993 when the WTC was bombed the first time. It made him a little jumpy. Sudden loud noises would startle him. For years, his wife, Veronica said, "Every time there was a bang, he would jump." But that did not deter him from returning to work.

Dwight was raising two sons, Kieran and Ryan, with his wife, living in Bronxville, N.Y., a little village about fifteen miles north of midtown Manhattan, home to about 6,500 people.

He was a Senior Attorney at the Port Authority of NY and NJ. He'd been with the Port Authority for 25 years. He was 55 at the time of the attack. A few years older than I was then. I few years younger than I am now.

He served on the parish board of the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Bronxville. He loved opera. He and his wife were frequent attendees at performances at the Met and the City Opera. He was a member of the New York Athletic Club.

He had a brother, Keith T. Darcy of Pound Ridge, NY, and a sister, Joan D. Sorgi of Darien, CT. who survived him, as well as an aunt, Claire Menagh of Manhattan, an uncle, George Kindermann of New London, NH, and several nieces and nephews.

A family man, with familial ties to other families. Much like you and I.

Here's what another 2,996 blogger said about Dwight three years ago:

Dwight was a Bronx native, graduated from Fordham Prep, Fordham University, and the Fordham University School of Law. He began his legal career as an Assistant D.A. in the Bronx in 1971, and joined the Port Authority in 1977. While at the Port Authority, Dwight specialized in labor relations, serving for many years as the Head of the Labor Relations Division.

Dwight was very active in charitable works in New York City. He served as president of the Catholic Big Brothers of NY, as well as, the president of the Parish Council of St. Joseph's Church in Bronxville. Dwight was also voted a life member of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of NY, and made an affiliate member of the Marist Brothers for his many years of service on the board of Mt. St. Michael Academy in the Bronx.

WHAT WAS DWIGHT LIKE?

"We kind of grew up together at the authority," said his friend and colleague Jeffery Green, the general counsel for the authority's legal team, made of up 75 lawyers. "He was very calm and logical and had a good sense of humor," Green said.

Outside of work, Darcy followed his favorite sports teams: The New York Yankees, the New York Giants and college basketball teams, Green said. "He was a devoted father and sports fan. He was a very big Yankee and Giants football fan. I would see him at the games."

Darcy had a way of winning people over. "Everyone who met him liked him. He took pride in his work and his family. He was a really good individual," Green said.

I received an email from someone who knew Dwight. They had this to say:

I first met Mr. Darcy in 1968. I was a Freshman at Mt. St. Michael Academy, a private Marist (Catholic) High School in the Bronx, NY. Although he had a Law degree, Dwight Darcy started his working life as an English teacher at the “Mount”. I had him for English 1 that year. I was very interested in history, and Mr. Darcy made it a point, during his lectures, to not only teach the fine points of English Grammar and Composition, but also expounded on American and World History, to which he added a large dose of Morals and Ethics. I was always fascinated by the breadth and depth of his knowledge, and made it a point to have discussions with him on these topics, even outside of class hours. He was an excellent role model, and I considered him an inspiration and mentor. He was a dynamic and dedicated teacher, and he had a profound effect on me. He is one of the few teachers I ever had, that I truly remember with fondness.

When I heard that he left teaching to practice law for the Port Authority, I knew that he was really following his true love, which he considered the true arena of human interaction. But I knew that future students would lose the opportunity to meet a truly remarkable person.

On 9-11, I was overwhelmingly heartbroken to learn that he did not survive the attack. It seemed like a horribly cruel injustice. Here was a man who was so kind, so dynamic, so profound, and so cognizant of the needs of others, who was caught up, with so many unfortunate others, in the effects of incredible madness and evil, and the result an overwhelming hatred of all mankind. I really could not believe it had actually happened. But I remember him with honor and respect, and with a deep sense of loss.

I hope this helps in illustrating the truly excellent person that he was.

Michael Cutrera

Dwight went to work September 11th, 2001, like he had on many other mornings, I would imagine, not dreaming of the horror and chaos that would await him. He worked on the 66th floor of the North tower. According to a co-worker, he'd had surgery on his foot several weeks before and was still in a cast. It would have made it difficult for him to take the stairs to flee the building.

He died at the hands of terrorists who did not care that Dwight was president of the Catholic Big Brothers of NY, where he helped disadvantaged youths. They did not care about the grieving widow and sons he would leave behind. The brother and sister, aunt and uncle left with a sense of terrible loss. The friends and acquaintances who would miss his kind words and encouragement. His death was not meaningless, because there is still meaning even when evil men commit evil deeds. His death was tragic in that it cut him off from whatever productive years he had left , the communion he spent with family and friends and the good deeds he would have done had he lived.

And though I never met Mr. Darcy, I mourn for him and grieve with his family. The craven cowardice of those who would commit war by attacking defenseless civilians has not gone unavenged. Many of those who sowed the wind on 9/11 have reaped the whirlwind.

But, vengeance can never restore loss. What was taken from Dwight Darcy's family can never be replaced. Nor that of the 2,995 other families who lost loved ones on that day.

But, we can remember them. We can hold them in our hearts. And we can vow that so much as is in our power, it will never happen again.

My heart goes out to the family of Dwight Darcy today. I hope that in some small way I have captured a bit of his essence to share with others. Our hearts are with you this day.
Rest in peace, Mr. Darcy.


"Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times
Paid notice NYT
A Step in the Right Direction
Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama and 9/11: Oil and Water

Politico has a piece on the dilemma Obama faces on this coming September 11th: How to commemorate the day?

Every year it’s a challenge for the White House: how to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year is especially awkward, given the controversy around President Barack Obama’s remarks in support of an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned for a neighborhood near ground zero in lower Manhattan.

The White House has not yet announced the president’s plans for next week, though a source familiar with the matter was doubtful Obama would travel to New York.

Our Commander-in-Chief's record on this has not been sterling, even given his short time in office. Remember last year, when he proclaimed the Labor Day weekend to be days of "Prayer and Remembrance" As I posted on Sept. 7th, 2009 Obama's 9/11 Chutzpah:

Instead of commemorating 9/11 on say...9/11, the White House has proclaimed Friday, September 4, through Sunday, September 6, as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance. Did you get that? Have you even heard of it before now? The last three days are when you are supposed to remember 9/11.
Missed it? Too bad! Obama's got other things planned for the real 9/11!

He then tried instituting some "National Day of Service" for 9/11. (Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Day of Service on Labor Day, remember 9/11 on 9/11?)

And now, having stepped in it on the question of building the Ground Zero mosque by occupying exactly both sides of the fence, what does Obama do for Act II?

It is clear from his actions last year, that he does not have a sincere desire to elevate this remembrance in the eyes of the nation. It's a little late for him to show up at Ground Zero with a bullhorn and rally the citizens of the land he is entrusted to lead.
And after his flip flops on the Ground Zero mosque, I doubt that anything he might say would be accepted as either sincere or heartfelt.

What's a President to do? Hide in the White House? Go golfing?? Personally, I think he will sneak off to Camp David with Michelle and the kids so that he can avoid reporters and leave it to Robert Fibbs to put some kind of spin about his "private reflections of the day".

H/T Memorandum

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything

The Four Chaplains

During her appearance on Troopathon 2010, Michelle Bachmann referenced an incident from WWII, the sinking of the USAT Dorchester. I remembered the stamp from my childhood stamp collection, that was issued as a memorial to their self sacrifice. If you are not familiar with their story, it can be found here.

The Star Spangled Banner

Ronald Reagan on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day

A stirring tribute to the heroes of D-Day. Maybe the best thirteen minutes you'll spend all day!

H/T Weasel Zippers
Cross posted at Lady Cincinnatus, Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

Taps for Veterans

Chris Wallace interviewed Tom Day, the founder of Bugles Across America on Fox News Sunday today. Believing that having a live human being play Taps to show respect at the grave of the fallen, as opposed to a recording, Tom Day has made it his mission to make this happen.

From their website:

Bugles Across America, NFP was founded in 2000 by Tom Day, when Congress passed legislation stating Veterans had a right to at least 2 uniformed military people to fold the flag and play taps on a CD player. Bugles Across America was begun to take this a step further, and in recognition of the service these Veterans provided their country, we felt that every Veteran deserved a live rendition of taps played by a live Bugler. To this end, we are actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

According to his interview with Mike Wallace, Bugles Across America, even with all the contributions they receive, still falls short about $10,000 annually, which Tom Day makes up out of his own pocket.

Tom Day saw a need and sought to fill it.

http://buglesacrossamerica.org/

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything