In 1974, there was a movie called "Network" in which Peter Finch plays a network news anchor, and when he can't take any more, he opens his window and calls out "I'm Mad as Hell and I'm Not Going to Take it Anymore!"
That's how I felt on Monday. Earlier, I had looked for Gloucester City's 9/11 ceremonies and I found nothing. Nothing on the Police web page, nothing on the citizen's web pages, nothing for Proprietor's Park. I read the city council meeting agenda and minutes - nothing!
There was no citywide acknowledgment or ceremony for the day when 2,977 Americans died when Muslims ran airplanes into the two towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth plane was supposed to crash into either the Capitol or the White House but that didn't happen. Everyone on the plane knew this could never happen. One man called his wife to say goodbye and then called, "Let's Roll." Very brave and gutsy passengers fought the hijackers and brought the plane down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, sacrificing their own lives to save the centers of our government.
And yet, Gloucester City chose not to acknowledge any of this.
That day, first responders ran into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, into certain death to help, to save those in need. That day, 343 first responders died. Since then, 341 other people who were working there at the time have also died - for the most part of cancer and/or respiratory illnesses.
And yet, Gloucester City chose not to acknowledge any of this.
A few years back, Gloucester City held a march for Black Lives Matters, even asking a woman along the path to remove a Trump sign. She complied, and it was probably better that she did. Who, in that march, showed the courage to run into a bombed and burning building, facing certain death, to save another? Our city was endorsing those who set the buildings on fire and assaulted the first responders.
There was a cartoon on the web the other day. "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do learn from history are doomed to repeat it because of those who didn't learn the first time."