Phil Rosenzweig (and 2,748 others - including 343 firefighters)
died 3 years ago today. Phil was on American Airlines Flight 11 - the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. I wouldn't call Phil a close friend, but we knew each other from attending meetings together. I knew him as a very likeable and competent manager of a SunSoft (Sun Microsystems software) group based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
Phil was on that BOS-LAX flight that would never arrive; it was a routine business flight that turned into disaster. I'm guessing he never knew what hit him, since
it wasn't an obvious conspiracy until the 2nd plane hit Twin Tower #2. I suspect the hijackers told the passengers that they were "returning to the airport" and that this would be all One Big Inconvenience. Actually, the government most likely
did know that this was a conspiracy sometime before plane #2 crashed (read Wood/Thompson's article, below).
Today, I thought of Phil as I searched the web for a simple timeline of the 9/11/01 events, and wandered across Allan Wood and Paul Thompson's detailed article, published last year:
An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11, which I hereby classify as a
Must Read by anyone planning to vote in November.
After reading it, ask yourself if we can stand 4 more years with Mr. Decisive in office. Note that "
an interesting day" are W's own words to describe 9/11, almost four months later (presumably after he digested "The Pet Goat" story being read to a classroom full of second graders).
By the way, I'm willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt when there's an occasional verbal faux pas, but there are well-documented daily quotes showing that W doesn't have the brains to make ice, much less foreign policy.
Last Saturday's gaffe shows that he can't even count to 3 without screwing up ("Four years ago -- well, none of us will ever forget that week when one era ended and another began. On September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers. It's a day I'll never forget. -- George W. Bush, September 4, 2004")
For more of W's gaffes, see either Yahoo or Google (the ranking of the results are interesting, by themselves, but that's another topic).
(now back to those Powerful Second Graders:) When the President of the United States puts more weight on a photo opportunity than defending our country, he has shown me the extent of his moral character (or lack thereof). This is simply inexcusable; he should've been tried for treason and not allowed to remain in office. However, that would've left us with President Dick Cheney (the same one who is
now backpedaling from his reprehensible quip that if Bush is not re-elected, al-Qaeda will strike us again).
The GOP then had the
audacity to deride Senator Kerry about voting against an appropriations bill that would have given a no-bid contract to defense suppliers (think: "sole source" and Halliburton (Cheney was CEO there before becoming VP) and you'll get the picture).
The more I read, the less I think of this as "the Bush administration" than I think of it as "the
Bush regime". Welcome to America; please think the way we tell you.
Rest in Peace, Phil. I'm still thinking about you. Come November, I will do the right thing.
