{"id":315,"date":"2006-09-10T23:33:59","date_gmt":"2006-09-11T06:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=315"},"modified":"2006-09-11T00:07:17","modified_gmt":"2006-09-11T07:07:17","slug":"my-911-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/315\/my-911-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"My 9\/11 prayer . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Cathy and I watched The Path to 9\/11<\/i> on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year’s Day. The photo you see is my son crawling all over a bronze statue of a stock broker in Liberty Park, directly across from what was then the Merrill Lynch Building — on December 30, 1999.<\/p>\n

I lived in Manhattan for ten years, from 1976 to 1986. For quite a few of those years, I worked just across from Liberty Park, in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway. At the other end of that little brick park was the southeast entrance to the World Trade Center complex.<\/p>\n

I worked insane hours in those days, and, very often, when I got out of work, I would go sit at this tiny circular plaza plopped down between the Twin Towers. Not quite pre-dawn, still full dark, but completely deserted — and to be completely alone in New York City is an accomplishment. I would throw my head back and look up at the towers, the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony running note-perfect through my head.<\/p>\n

Everything I am describing was either destroyed or heavily damaged on September 11, 2001. Along with the lives of thousand of innocents. Along with the comfort and serenity of their families. Along with the peace of the entire world.<\/p>\n

I don’t believe in any heaven except for this earth, this life — the heaven we make every day by pursuing the highest and best within us. The World Trade Center had its faults. I can detail every one. But it was a piece of the sublime, a proud testament to how high, how good our highest and best can be. I don’t believe in heaven, but when I think of what was done that day, I pray there is an everlasting torment for the men who did it…
\n<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: 9\/11<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cathy and I watched The Path to 9\/11 on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year’s Day. The photo you see is my son crawling all over a bronze statue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-general","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1912,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1912\/my-911-prayer-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":0},"title":"My 9\/11 prayer . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me, this time last year:Cathy and I watched The Path to 9\/11 on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year's Day. The photo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4342,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4342\/my-911-prayer-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":1},"title":"My 9\/11 prayer . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"[This is me, from 09\/10\/2006. --GSS] \u00a0Cathy and I watched The Path to 9\/11 on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year's Day. The photo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16961,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16961\/my-9-11-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":2},"title":"My 9\/11 prayer…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"[This is me \u2013 Greg \u2013 fourteen years ago, when this blog was still a mewling baby. It astounds me to think that the children who were pre-conceptual on 9\/11 \u2013 aged 0 to 5 \u2013 are now the jihadis attempting to destroy Western Civilization from within. We need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17745,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17745\/overnight-news-humanity-at-the-precipice-you-can-vote-your-way-into-slavery-but-you-have-to-fight-your-way-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: Humanity at the precipice: You can vote your way into slavery, but you have to fight your way\u00a0out.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The headline is not quite true. The Hoplite Greeks who birthed our earliest ideas about human liberty won their freedom not in battle but in neglect: At the furthest fringes of a contracting empire, they were left without overlords \u2013 but a country boy can survive. The fathers banded together\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17298,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17298\/overnight-news-has-joe-biden-frolicked-things-up-just-in-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: Has Joe\u00a0Biden frolicked things up just in time?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Speaking of Joe Biden, Barack Obama said, \u201cDon't underestimate Joe's ability to [frolic] things up.\u201d Saturday, I said: \u201cI desperately wanted for this election to be about Marxism: \u2018You\u2019re what\u2019s for dinner!\u2122\u2019 Biden wanted for this election to be about Trump. Biden won.\u201d Guess what? Obama was right: Just two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9635,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9635\/speaking-of-liberty\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":5},"title":"Speaking of Liberty","author":"Don Reedy, San Diego, CA","date":"September 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For months now I have watched the political field of action, players, on-lookers, naysayers and pundits. Is there no clarity? My highest regard for that clarity sometimes springs from this very site, its authors, contributors and readers. 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