Thursday, September 11, 2008
Joseph Vitale, one of 2996
Reprinted from 9/11/06 and 9/11/07. My very small part in bloggers' tribute to the 2996 is posting Joshua Vitale's profile originally published in the NYTimes on 10/28/01.
Joshua Vitale and Ina Weintraub had been best friends since they were seventh graders in Syosset, on Long Island. Two years ago, when they were 26, Mr. Vitale made a confession as they left the movies. " He said he'd been in love with me for many years and that if he didn't tell me this now he would always regret it," Ms. Weintraub said. "I was so blown away I didn't talk to him for three months. "When the dust settled, the couple's life together quickly fell into place. They got engaged and moved into an apartment in Great Neck, N.Y. Mr. Vitale, who had been a wanderer, a party animal and something of a lost soul for much of his 20's, got a job at Cantor Fitzgerald's trading desk."Once we got together it was like we were shooting for the stars," Ms. Weintraub said. "We were so happy."

Two days before Sept. 11, [2001,] the couple tried to get tickets to the United States Open tennis tournament, without success. Josh said: 'Forget the Open. Why don't we go to the zoo?'" Ms. Weintraub said. The couple communed with the gorillas at the Bronx Zoo, and then Mr. Vitale, his wandering instincts intact, found a path where they had a picnic together. "There was nothing left unsaid between us," Ms. Weintraub said. " He knew how much I loved him and I will always know how much he loved me."

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 8:23 AM

9-11





....If only I knew what I know today
I would hold you in my arms, I would take the pain away
Thank you for all you’ve done, forgive all your mistakes
There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to hear your voice again
Sometimes I want to call you but I know you won’t be there…

If I had just one more day
I would tell you how much I’ve missed you
since you’ve been away....

from “Hurt” by Christina Aguilera

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 12:01 AM

Monday, September 10, 2007
WW IV
I've said many times that I think the last part of the 20th century - and perhaps the 1st half of this one - will be seen as a long, drawn-out 4th world war. Now, thanks to Laura's link to a thoroughly thought-provoking article by Mark Steyn (does he ever write badly or trivially?), I learn that Norman Podhoretz thinks so, too, to such an extent that it's the fulcrum of his new book, World War IV. It certainly makes me feel astute and fortunate for being in such exalted company. But it's also depressing and sad because the current thinking in America is so hell-bent on blaming various entities of ourselves - based, I suppose, on the "well I would never go out at 4:00 a.m. in a bikini so it couldn't happen to me" theory that we city-dwellers sometimes turn to for solace after a crime. But as Steyn points out, all the suing and blaming of entities who could've and should've seen 9/11 coming (according to some of them and as if it isn't actually a cultural and religious clash) . . .
. . . invariably misses the forest for the trees. Sen. Craig should know that what matters is not whether an artful lawyer can get him off on a technicality but whether the public thinks he trawls for anonymous sex in public bathrooms. Likewise, those 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child's death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth.
Amen and may people come to their senses and may it not take another horrible event to wake people out of their "if only we had . . . " constructs.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:16 AM