Desultory Thoughts

I stumbled upon this video today. I almost didn’t watch it because the title of the video was just about as exciting as the title of this blog post. It should be called “Unbelievable Flying Stunts and Skills!!” or something hyped up like that. Maybe that’s why I was surprised when I watched this video, expecting nothing. So now that I’ve over-hyped it and ruined it for all of you…check this out!!!

Most people aren’t morning people- especially when they know they have to go to jobs they don’t like.  Angelo Amaranto was not one of those people.  He woke enthusiastically every morning at three o’clock to catch the subway from Borough Park to his job at 2 World Trade Center.

Angelo’s janitor job was hard work, but he loved it. He was employed by Ebasco and worked on the 87th, 89th and 91st floors of the tower. He had worked at 2 World Trade Center since the towers opened in 1973, and he knew that building well.  His wife, Maria, says he would regularly go into work one or two hours early every day.  Sometimes he would even work the weekends.

Originally from Salerno, Italy, A young Angelo Amaranto fell in love with New York when he arrived in Brooklyn with his young Bride.  He got a janitorial job at the Nasdaq, where he worked until he took the World Trade Center job.  “He told me the pay was better and if they took him, he would have to work nights for a little while,” his wife, Maria, told Newsay. “He said it was worth it because it was a better building. He switched to days after two years or so. He loved those buildings.”

Angelo took great pride in providing for his family.  He had worked hard and honest his entire life.  But it wasn’t about the money.  “He used to say to us, ‘You know, a lot of people have money,’” his daughter, Emily recalls. “‘I have something better than money. I have grandchildren.”

It is my honor to pay tribute to Angelo Amaranto today.

You can read messages left by family and friends here.

Officially, Tony Coladonato is not part of my 2996 Project assignment, but I would like to take this occasion to post my thoughts on him as well. 

For me, four or five days ran together as one. Life had stopped in time. Cable news stations ran constant without commercials. The ins and outs of every day American life were shrouded in a dark cloud of confusion and anger. Nobody knew how to feel. People still went to work, still shopped for groceries. But everybody was quiet.

What exactly had happened and who was to blame? A busy day at work had shielded me from most of the initial reporting of planes crashing and towers falling. I had no concept of the magnitude of what had happened. Too consumed with wrapping my brain around the physical events of that morning, I hadn’t thought about the human aspect of the whole thing. It wasn’t until I got home that night and began watching the coverage that my heart was broken.

I remember the moment. I was watching the Fox News Channel, which was interviewing people who had lost family members. They held up pictures that they showed the world, begging for some kind of help in finding their loved ones. At the time, the human toll of the attacks was still up in the air. As far as Sal Coladonato knew, his brother Tony was simply missing.

It was Sal and another brother, I think. The despair in their voices was overwhelming. As she interviewed the brothers, anchor Linda Vester struggled to keep her composure. As the men spoke of their brother, her eyes welled up with tears. Her emotional threshold was reached. So was mine.

Sal Coladonato held a picture of his brother Tony, which, along with his name, was burned eternally into my mind and heart. Tony became my emotional tie to 9/11 and the focal point of my experience. Suddenly the how’s and why’s didn’t matter so much anymore. It was the people. It was Tony. a regular guy, an employee for Cantor Fitzgerald. I prayed then. Right there in front of the TV. Maybe even out loud. I prayed for Tony, but I also prayed for his family. I couldn’t fathom how I would have felt in their shoes.

I wanted so badly to help. To somehow get to New York and help in the search. But I could do nothing. The only thing I could do was watch the coverage, and pray. Time went on. Cable news stations started taking commercial breaks again. Life continued, but I was different. We all were. My heart was touched by the victims and heroes of that day. Despair eventually evolved into love and hope. I tried several times to contact the family of Tony Coladonato with no success. I posted comments on a few tribute websites that I can no longer find, but which I hope his family has read.

Though they never knew it, Tony and his family taught me priceless things and have helped change my life for the better. The websites refer to him formally by his full name- Anthony Joseph Coladonato. I will always remember him as Tony.

As part of the 2996 Project, Kate has a full tribute to Tony.

Her liberal fan base lovingly refers to her as the “Peace Mom.”  I call Cindy Sheehan a raving lunatic.  Sheehan became the poster child for the Angry Left after her son, a U.S. Army Specialist, was killed in Iraq.  At first she was just another grieving mom.  Americans of all political ideologies treated her tenderly, as we would any grieving mother.  We felt for her and wished her the best. 

But as time went on, Sheehan morphed from all-American mother into a radical Left hate machine.  First came the anti-Bush rhetoric.  Then came the anti-America rhetoric.  Then came her budding career as a professional activist.  For her husband, this was the last straw.  He promptly filed for divorce.  Her family, utterly embarrassed by her antics, publicly denounced her.  Since then she’s buddied up with radical groups like Code Pink and gotten into bed with the likes of Hugo chavez.  She calls Bush a terrorist and praises her son’s killers as “freedom fighters.”  She calls John McCain a liar and Hillary Clinton a closet conservative (now she’s gone and offended me).  Even John “I Have the Hat” Kerry isn’t liberal enough for her.  Google her and you would be hard pressed to find anybody she doesn’t hate.  Unless you are 1) an insurgent terrorist, 2) a tyrannical dictator, or 3) a Communist front organization, chances are Cindy Sheehan hates you.

But skim through a few left wing blogs like daily kos (sorry, no direct link from me) or the New York Times and you’d think she was Mother Teresa.  Kos kids, MoveOn libs, and Big Media swoon over Sheehan like she was Christ incarnate- the very essence of peace and purity in human form.

Now the Kum-ba-yah queen has written a book, in which she admits fantasizing about travelling back in time to murder the infant George W. Bush.

Yet she is against the killing- even the detention of terrorists.  Wouldn’t want to violate any human rights.  “Peace Mom”…”Religion of Peace”…  Seems the word doesn’t mean what it used to.

Here’s an idea, Cindy- instead of going back in time to kill Bush as an infant, go back just a bit further and abort him!  Why face the potential guilt of murder when you can simply abort him and not give it a second thought?

Note to Democrats, liberal activists, and protesters:  Making Cindy Sheehan your icon has not helped you in your quest to convince the American public that you should be taken seriously.

Well, it’s been an eventful week! Our protest coverage generated a variety of responses. Seems we made a lot of people laugh and a lot of people really mad. It’s natural. Politics is a polarizing topic that tends to cause passions to bleed to the surface. A nice political debate is invigorating and good for the soul.

So Today I thought I’d highlight a few of the responses we’ve recieved on the topic of last week’s protests. I will excerpt several notes we’ve recieved and respond to them (some of my responses here will mirror those I’ve posted in the comments section- I apologize for the redundancy). This post is directed to those peace-loving regular every-day folks at the protests last week. Both separate protests, that is. Because heaven knows we wouldn’t ever want to lump Leftists and Israel haters into the same group.

My main argument is that protesting is just plain stupid. There are so many better and more efficient ways of getting your point across than by staging a protest.

Example: You spent time and money making a sign/outfit/bucket, took the day off work (wink, wink), made the pilgrimage to Rocky’s Castle, and spent the day demonstrating. I wrote a 3-paragraph blog on my lunch break. And I pissed off a lot more people than you could have ever dreamed of. Why? Because nobody takes protests seriously. Anybody who gives a rat’s butt what you have to say is already there with you. This includes any kind of protesting, by the way. Conservative protests (though extremely rare) are just as stupid as liberal protests. Please don’t stop though. It’s extremely amusing.

So let’s go down the list. First up is is actually a thoughtful comment from Unbiased Observer, who writes:

I would like to say that some of you seem to have no idea about the atrocities committed by both Muslims and Jews in this region. You seem to have very little awareness of what is going on over there and if you had, you wouldn’t be so glib with the comments you make.

Oh believe me, I am well aware of the atrocities committed by Muslims in this region. What I must be less aware of are those committed by Israel. Pray tell, what atrocious acts has Israel committed against Muslims lately? Sawing people’s heads off? Kidnapping journalists, abusing them, and forcing them to convert to Judaeism at gunpoint? Strapping a bomb to themselves, boarding a crowded bus and blowing everybody to shreds? Hiding weapons caches in civilian homes? Setting up HQ in synagogues?

I didn’t think so. You want glib? Google the Nick Berg beheading or the United Flight 93 cockpit recordings and then come back here and tell me again how evil Israel is.

Seriously, if you can come up with some atrocities committed by Israel that are even in the same ballpark as those committed by their Muslim neighbors, I would love to hear them.

Next up is Tracy, who I must say is the queen of potty smack!

First of all, I love how so many of you right-wing bloggers love to imply that those who were protesting don’t have jobs…the rally was held during lunch and many used their lunch breaks to attend. The place was crawling with business attire and cell phones (Not that you would show your readers pictures of those people, though I have some, if you’d like).

Ok, ok. So some of you have jobs. I guess libraries, Starbucks, and Wild Oats have to get their people from somewhere!

Well Tracy, your lunch break must be longer than mine. I barely had time to pop over and make a few observations. There’s no way I would have had time to don my protest gear, grab my “Bush is a Terrorist” sign, and partcipate in the protest. I’d only be able to chant half a hateful epitaph before I’d have to get back to work. Maybe I should get a job with your employer!

Incidently, The only suits I saw were worn by Rocky Anderson and the paper mache Bush (which, unintentionally I’m sure, actually looks a lot like Rocky Anderson). And quoting Sickboy’s reponse, “The fact that you have a cell phone and own a pair of Dockers does not excluded you from Moonbatism.”

Next up is Elizabeth, who challenges me on my rhetoric:

Where is the “Death to Israel” sign? I don’t see it.

Clever! Since there was no sign at the “Death to Israel” rally that said “Death to Israel,” I shouldn’t be so critical of them. Nice try. If Robert Breeze were to have actually had a sign that read “Death to Israel,” 1) do you think he could have suckered even Utah’s homeless into holding them? 2) Would he not have had the crap kicked out of him?

Do the signs need to say “Death to Israel” to be offensive? Seems to me they were pretty offensive as they were. The permit itself said “Death to Israel.” That’s what the dude wanted his group to be called.

Poking around your blog, I think it’s safe to say you’re not too big a fan of Israel yourself. Too bad you couldn’t have been out here standing with Breeze and his band of bums. It would have definately made things more interesting for Tyler and I.

Rob Banks of guerrillafolkpunx.org chymes in:

hey! i’d just like to say that almost all of us were not with the “death to israel” people. I had no idea that any of that type of thing would be present at this. (I really don’t know much about that whole conflict. I know, I should learn more about current events. I am sorry.)

Yes, you should.

And anybody with half a brain understands that the anti-Bush demonstration you were part of was not affiliated with the lone ranger across the street. I clarified that until I was blue in the face and I’m done.

Your signs were indeed rad. And I think the handkerchief “outlaw” look was very effective. Still not quite sure what you stand for (specifically, how the words ‘anarchy’ and ‘peace’ can be used in the same sentence), but you made an impression. I do have a suggestion for you though- as long as you’re sporting the black outfits, use a different color sidewalk chalk other than pink to scrawl out your messages. Come on, Pink? Black chalk would have been much more effective. Anything but pink!

As a political junkie, I understand the Israel-RestoftheWorld conflict very well. I also understand the reasons behind the anti-Bush protest. Rest assured, I dislike you for the correct reasons;)

Just kidding, man. I checked out your website and while you’re definately jacked up, I’ve seen much worse.

That’s all for this time. We of course welcome any and all comments. For those of you I’ve mentioned today, I would love to hear from you again. If I am wrong on anything, I will happily stand corrected.