Saturday, May 27, 2017

Trump's Memorial

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It is Memorial Day Weekend here in America and our American leader President Donald Trump is still on his first trip out of the country. Was it a wise decision to leave America now? How insulting is he to all the Veterans, First Responders during 911 and Patriots of America! When Obama was President, he spent this weekend here in America and in New York City in 2011. He spent his days visiting a still raw wound in America. He spent it here with Americans and held a  wreath where a bit of America died. We all shouted at the TV then and said, “We killed the bastard that killed you a few days ago; we miss you.“ Roughly in 2011 it was  10 years ago then as now in 2017, 9-11 had new meaning and we were angry and we were unified and we got little plastic things that even hung the American flags to our cars and every car had one. We were sad and angry and proud. We don't do the flag thing on the cars anymore and now our President isn't even in our country on Memorial Day Weekend. This week Trump did a sword dance with our enemy and his daughter got the Saudi's to contribute millions to her foundation.
In contrast, President Obama went to ground zero and Vice President Biden went to the Pentagon both carrying wreaths in memory of the tragedy’s that took place there roughly 16 years ago. In 2011 there wasn't any flags on any cars either. Unless the death of Bin Laden could bring back the lives lost and our too tall two buildings back to our skyline, we can’t be that happy.
Since Obama has been in office, in 2011 at the time he was President for only roughly  two years, things have changed remarkably.  In 2011 Obama did not visit our enemies in Saudi Arabia where the 911 bombers came from as Trump just did. Obama came to New York to visit firefighters, policemen, ground zero and a museum called the Memorial Preview Site at the time. At the time, Obama had not been to ground zero since 2008 but this is the first time he was at street level. Yes, the courts have ruled that construction can proceed and it proceeded rapidly. Obama did not have buildings going up for his personal wealth as Trump always focuses on. Whenever I look up at the next skyscraper being built, I look in awe and wonder why I can’t even clean out a closet as fast as the tallest buildings rise to the sky.
It is hard not to notice that Tower 1 has grown up a story per week in 2011. Those construction guys were fast. Tower 4 is now 64 stories high. Tower 1 is 105 stories high now. There was even a 8 foot tree that survived the disaster at ground zero that in ten years in 2011  grew to be 35 feet high. Now the tree is 50 feet high.  Obama placed the wreath in the shade of this tree. Will Trump place a wreath anywhere? Meanwhile, Biden placed his wreath near the bricks of the Pentagon where you see the different shade of brick color from the old and new bricks that had to be replaced on the wall.
Mark this day, it is not an anniversary. There weren’t any speeches. We still have soldiers serving  in Afghanistan and we spend Billions of dollars there each week. Obama did say, ”When we say we will not forget, we will not forget and we didn’t forget. We did what we said we would do.” Killing Bin Laden is not the end of Al-Qaida, the final withdrawal was not expected until 2014. Some Muslims now accuse Bin Laden of steeling Islam. Obama met with the Navy S.E.A.L.S. this weekend in 2011 that even  included a dog in the missions that he honored.
Each day brought new and different accounts of the events on 911. Now they say over 100 thumb drives were taken from Bin Laden that revealed on the 10th Anniversary in 2011, that September, that plans were being made to bomb the subway systems of America. Now in 2017 nothing has changed; in fact suicide bombers is a terrorist threat globally that frightens us all daily and they strike somewhere very regularly now. We planned in 2011 to open memorial pools in September and the Plaza was to be open to all, a Museum was scheduled to open a year later. We at least accomplished that Memorial now. Trump has no plans to respect that or visit the memorials. 
The courts have decided to allow some of the steel to be distributed to all as Memorial art. Hanger 17 at Kennedy Airport had been the home to this memorial steel from the buildings for the past seventeen years. In 2011 you could still hear the slicing of steel coming from this section of the Airport. Now the area is silent and our President Trump is silent too.
In 2011 Obama arrived in Manhattan with 12 dark SUV's and 20 motorcycle policemen . Not the open cars one saw through limo’s of days past. At the time, Obama paid tribute to the 345 firemen that died ten years ago. He visited F.D.N.Y. Engine 54 in midtown where 15 firefighters died on 911. Obama ate lunch with the firefighters. Trump eats lunch only in lavish locations and makes people visit him if they are rich or powerful enough. Obama went on to the 1st Police Precinct in lower Manhattan. There he greeted each cop at the precinct. 37 Port Authority Cops died on 9-11.
It almost seems that Obama had the events of 9-11 firmly etched in his calendar and made Memorial Day Weekend a priority. Mission Accomplished. We are finally moving forward even at the site of the disaster. It took 10 years for the courts to give permission for to divide and give the memorial steel to our communities and now we can dignify the people who died with beautiful memorials and a bit of closure and revenge. Too bad the present leader of the free world doesn't make the efforts of our volunteer armed forces a priority to respect.

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