September 11 – When the morning of September 11 dawns in this country, many of us remember exactly where we were the day the plumes of smoke came out of the Twin Towers in New York City where almost 3,000 people lost their lives.
And subsequently, another plane was downed in Pennsylvania.
Surprisingly, today, there weren’t many headlines talking about this momentous anniversary.
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM noted, “It would be a bunch of useless cowards that would fly planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, heroes would divert flight 93 to a field in Pennsylvania in Shanksville, and it’s Never Forget. I was shocked to take a look at some of the local TV stations out of Harrisburg earlier this morning not seeing anything on their sites regarding 911. There’s a little trickle on that starting to happen on some of their news websites, but then not seeing it splashed across the front page of the Wall Street Journal either. I guess never forget is something that’s important that we ring that bell on. But I’m shocked at some of these news stations and shocked at the Wall Street Journal.”
Attorney Clint Barkdoll agreed, “Me too and it is troubling because is this just another one of these things with the passage of time, everyone forgets about it? I surely hope not. I was also struck by today’s print edition of the Journal, not a thing in there about 911. Now apparently the networks, they’re going to televise some of the memorial services this morning that are happening all around the country.”
There are apparently initiatives around the country to add 911 into studies in school.
Barkdoll said, “I know there’s something being proposed right here in Pennsylvania that would mandate 911 teaching as part of civics, social studies curriculum in public schools. I think this discussion supports that idea because if we start to lose the commemoration of this year after year, we certainly don’t want to get into a scenario where younger people just don’t even know what this was. So it is surprising to me though, because I feel like last year and certainly in previous years, there was a lot more happening on this day around the country that would talk about 911, would follow up things about 911. Just last week, two more bodies for 911, 23 years later, they identified two more people that died from 911. So this is still very much and should very much be in our culture and things that we think about constantly.”
Jim Kercheval, executive director of the Greater Hagerstown Committee, said, “I think we were the closest, as a country as we ever were. The flags were on everybody’s car and everybody was trying to help wherever it was, whether it was locally or trying to get stuff up to New York, and DC. I tend to remember, the way the whole world came together, the whole country came together to try to support those families.”
Paul Frey, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, said, “Today with the commemoration of what happened on 911, 22 years ago, we can’t forget the folks who came to our rescue that day and have since tried to protect us.”
With the lack of coverage for this event, Ryan suggested, “What do you expect when you’ve got the president who is traveling back from a trip overseas, the G20 In India, and he stumbled and bumbled his way around the end of a press conference yesterday, which is absolutely disgraceful and hilarious at the same time, but what do you expect out of this president?”
President Joe Biden is currently in Alaska for the 911 ceremony and Vice President Kamala Harris is in New York City.
Ryan noted, “Put Kamala someplace else, far away from anybody that should be paying any attention to anything she has to say, but on this particular day, tucking her away someplace else would probably be in everybody’s best interest. What do you expect with Biden departing from 911 traditional observations?”
Barkdoll said, “That press conference yesterday, and it’s not getting enough attention, his handlers basically gave him the hook off the stage. They cut his microphone and put the music on to get him off of that podium because he was just getting into all of these sorts of rabbit trails that were not germane to the questions that he was being asked.”
Biden quoted old John Wayne movies, including the Robin Williams film Good Morning Vietnam.
Barkdoll said, “You watch that, and you think here we are in a presidential campaign season and this guy wants four more years on the national and international stage. You watch that press conference, being as neutral as you can, I think you’ve got to conclude that this guy really has some issues. We’ve suspected for years now that his handlers keep this bubble around him and I think that was really illustrated yesterday. When they saw things were getting off the rails, they cut the mic and just pulled him off the podium.”
Ryan pointed out, “Remember, in Philly, it’s the AFL-CIO. That’s their guy. That’s their guy. They should play that clip over and over and over and some more and anybody that thinks that’s your guy, the worst president in the history of this country, and they want more of that.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM added, “It’s just amazing to me, because I think trying to be as objective as possible as much as Trump was criticized for some of the ways he handled foreign policy, oh, he’s a cowboy. Oh, you never know what he’s going to do. He’s got a twitchy eye. We also know for a fact that looking weak on the world stage like Biden does, consistently, is also a grave danger to the United States as far as its security and international security because we do have enemies and we do when you look as weak as Biden with everything that’s going on in our country, with the economy failing, with all kinds of problems, social problems here, this is a recipe for enemies taking actions that we may not want to have to face the consequences of.”
Barkdoll said, “I think back to the late 80s and when Reagan left office, there were whispers about cognitive issues. It was years later that we learned that when he was at peace talks in Reykjavik, Iceland, with Mikhail Gorbachev, in the middle of these talks, Reagan, he got into the play by play of a 1940s Chicago Cubs game and of course it wasn’t until many years later, we learned that he was in early stages of Alzheimer’s and they kept this bubble around him. The public was none the wiser. I wonder if we’re seeing a similar thing happening right now, that years from now books are going to be written about private stories. What’s Biden doing in these summits that are closed to the public? We see these things that happen in public display. I’ve had reporters, some old colleagues in Washington, say there’s this conspiracy of silence. They think among the press corps that people close to Biden know that he’s got these very serious issues, but no one talks about it. There’s no reporting about it, and I have a feeling in a few years you’re going to see books come out, and the public is going to be just shocked at the level to which the staff is essentially running the day to day operations for him.”
