Your name was William Reed Bethke. You were 36 years old, lived in Hamilton, New Jersey with your wife Valerie. You were a computer programmer for Marsh USA, working on the 95th floor of the World Trade Center and were excited about a recent promotion. Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to know bits and pieces, the barest shreds and scraps about you and your life. But all of the information I’ve collected, the snippets of your life that I’ve been able to glean tell me nothing about the most important thing… who you really were.

I don’t know whether in your heart of hearts you were a good person or bad. Whether you hoped to one day have children or not. Whether you voted Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green or whether you even voted at all. I don’t know what you dreamed of, what your future goals and aspirations were. I don’t know what you feared and loathed, what kept you up at night. I don’t know your favorite color, food, music, or whether you preferred spring, summer, winter or fall. The only thing I can say with any degree of certainty, is that when you awoke on the morning of September 11, 2001, you weren’t expecting to die.

Today is September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the horrific attacks that took your life and the lives of nearly 3,000 others. Like many, I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing as I watched the Towers fall. And just as the dust in New York, Washington D.C. and that field in Pennsylvania has settled and faded away, so too has the memory of that tragic day in the minds of many. The thousands of lives lost, the thousands more directly touched by that act of madness and hate have become a statistic, a bad dream, an abstract concept. In the five years since William Reed Bethke and the other 2,995 victims were taken from us, we’ve seen their memories reduced to fodder for political campaigns, their suffering reduced to sound bites.

I hear too many people say “We Will Never Forget” without having the slightest clue what that means. Never forgetting means remembering that the 2,996 souls that were taken from this world were made of flesh and blood and that they have loved ones who will forever have an empty spot in their hearts. Never forgetting means keeping each and every one of those 2,996 souls in our own hearts forever.

I don’t know you, William. The chances that we would have ever met were slim. But I say with all of the love in my heart that I hope your transition from this world to the next was painless, that with your last thoughts you found some semblance of peace. This country and this world continue to struggle to put the events of that tragic day behind us, to move forward, to learn and to heal. And I hope with all of my heart that one day we will be able to. But in moving forward, we will not leave behind the memories of you or of any of the 2,996 souls that we lost on September 11th 2001. I believe it will be in taking the memories of each and every one of you into our hearts that will lead to us finding peace, finding a way to come together and finding a way to heal.

I promise you William, that I will never forget. I will hold you in my heart forver. I hope that you at peace.



  

So as I sit here, still amazed at the results of that WaPo poll, a 9/11 Memorial Project has been brought to my attention. It's called the 2996 Project and really seems like a unique and worthwhile thing to get involved with.

The aim of the project is to enlist 2996 bloggers to post a tribute, one for every victim of the 9/11 attacks, on the day of the 5th anniversary (which 5% of our people couldn't tell you when that was). When I signed up, I was #1728, so obviously more people are needed. I was randomly assigned to pay tribute to a gentleman from New Jersey named William Reed Bethke who died in the Towers.

If you're interested in getting involved in this project, take a look and sign up via their website at the following URL...

http://www.jamulian.com/db911/

In this time of war, with this destructive political atmosphere all around us, When Ann Coulter can make a comment like this:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much."

... and have people agree with her, there is a problem.

The memories of the people, the victims of the terrorist attacks are being diluted, purged from our memories. The 2996 Project is a way to bring them back into focus, to help others remember that there were real people, flesh and blood, who had dreams, who had families, friends and loved ones that are gone forever.

When I see a "9/11: Never Forget" bumper sticker, I know that a lot of people have forgotten. Not forgotten that we were attacked, but forgotten the people who died that day. The 2996 Project is a special way to remember them all.

I also see this as a way of reclaiming the memory of that tragic day from these fearmongering, warmongering bastards that perpetually use 9/11 as a reason for the evil things they are doing. 9/11 has become the go-to explanation for launching their "pre-emptive" wars, for crushing civil liberties and for doing whatever the hell else they please. The tragedy of 9/11 belongs to us all and we should be remembering it as a people, as a nation, as a means of coming together, remembering all of the stories of selflessness, courage, heroism, reminding us of how good we can be. We should not let the memory of that day be a political cudgel used to beat us all into submission any longer.

So, if you are so inclined, I'd urge you to sign up for the 2996 Project.