CROSSFIT SUFFOLK *** Forging Elite Fitness
"Barbara"
Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
Rest precisely three minutes between each round.
Compare to 090526.
MY SENTIMENTS ON SEPTEMBER 11TH
By Lisa
Most have promised to "never forget", but for many it has become just a slogan. There are issues surrounding the events of September 11th 2001 that remain today yet they don't receive much attention. Specifically, they're are still people ill from working at Ground Zero and the landfill where much of the identification of the dead was done. Many have died from illnesses related to September 11th 2001–years later. There are even more "walking wounded" that have various medical problems from difficulty breathing to cancer as a result of participating in the rescue/clean up at Ground Zero.
We haven't forgotten the thousands of families who lost loved ones on that one day. While I love bag pipe music whenever I hear it now it brings me back to the far too many funerals I attended. The smell at Ground Zero–the smoldering of the "Pile" mixed with what I believed to be decomposition, randomly pops into my mind.
One close friend, a wonderful human being who would give you the shirt off his back spent months down at Ground Zero supervising the clean up. He looked after his people carefully making sure they didn't become overwhelmed and making sure they returned safely after a tour of digging. He is now one of the "walking wounded" too sick to be the active person he once was.
On this day I ask that you never forget there are still people suffering from the events of eight years ago. There are still people developing medical problems as a result of being exposed to what was left of the World Trade Center and as a result of attempting to piece together the lives of the fallen. For those rescue/clean up personnel September 11th 2001 is never over.
While holding onto anger is not healthy I do wish the rage Americans had eight years ago is remembered . Mostly I'd like the dead and the sick to be honored by lasting in our thoughts and prayers. Really…let's never forget.
Time To Rescue Our 9/11 Heroes
**************************************************************************************************************************
THOUGHTS ON SEPTEMBER 11TH
by George Demetriou
On September 11th my thoughts, like the the thoughts of millions of Americans, are on the attack from eight years ago and on the people who lost their lives.
I think of my brother and sister NYPD officers who were not obligated to enter the Twin Towers, but did so selflessly anyway because of a sense of duty and those who never came out.
I think of Detective Viggiano who was an Academy mate, winner of 3 close range gun fights with drug dealers, but was killed by enemies from afar, murderers who were already in hell by the time Viggiano lost his life.
I think about Sgt. Gillis, a childhood friend of my wife, who was on his way home, off-duty, when the attack occurred. Rodney went to the Towers anyway. All that was recovered was some of his equipment.
I think of the horrible images of seeing people jumping from the Towers and the one documentary where you could hear bodies hitting the building or the ground.
I think of standing before the "Pile", awestruck, looking for something that resembled a piece of office furniture, or anything that would connect the destruction to the fact that people worked here days before and seeing nothing, but smashed steel and concrete, trying to deal with the fact that the "pile" was once the World Trade Center.
I think of my wife, working in NYPD headquarters for her regular shift then walking down to the "Pile" because she had to "find my friends". She never did. She was diagnosed with something called RADS (Reactive Airway Dysfunction) shortly after working at Ground Zero.
I think of the people who paid the ultimate price just for showing up at work on a beautiful September day.
I think of the children who had their mother or father taken from them.
I think of Tommy from my hometown. We went to the Academy together, but Tommy left the Police Department and went to the Fire Department. He entered the Towers and like over 300 of his fellow firefighters, never made it out.
I think of the Port Authority Police Officers and the Court Officers, many who came from other locations or from home and paid the ultimate price.
But I also think of the way the people of New York came together to help others.
I think of the groups of people on the West Side Highway who would just stand there for hours cheering us on and thanking us whenever cops went by them.
I think of the response by volunteers from the suburbs, other states and Canada. They brought food, medical equipment, search equipment, search dogs, but mostly they brought love of their fellow human beings.
I think of volunteers, David Karnes and Jason Thomas, two retired Marine Corps Sgts., who continued to search after night fall and found trapped and injured Port Authority Police Officers.
I think of the response by our military, especially the work done by our Special Operations Command and the work they are still doing.
I think of the fantastic work done by my former co-workers of the NY office of the Joint Terrorist task Force, an awesome collection of NYPD Detectives, State Troopers, FBI Special Agents, Customs Enforcement Agents, Immigration Enforcement Agents, Port Authority Police Detectives, CIA Officers, NSA Officers, US Marshals, Coast Guard Officers and some I'm probably forgetting. I truly got serve in the company of heroes and am honored to have done so.
I think of Rick Rescorla. Rescorla was the VP of Security for Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter, the largest tenant of the World Trade Center. Rescorla served in the Army and fought in the Battle of Ia Drang, Viet Nam in 1965…the battle depicted in the book, We Were Soldiers Once…And Young by General Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway. Rescorla's photo graces the cover of the book. Rescorla was proactive as a security official. He would have the people he was responsible for practice evacuating the building. Seven years ago today he effectively evacuated nearly three thousand employees of Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter out of the World Trade Center. He saved the entire company except for himself and some of his staff who stayed behind to make sure they didn't leave anyone "on the field of battle". The entire time of the evacuation Rescorla kept everyone calm and moving along, while singing and stating, "Today is a day to be proud to be an American" through his bullhorn.
Mostly I think that Rescorla's last words to the employees of Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter are so true today as they were eight years ago.
