"Operation First Responder" Needs Your Help
I have previously posted on the topic of the upcoming symposium, The Underlying Roots of Terrorism. Find a detailed explanation here, and read about who is not sponsoring Operation First Responder, a recent initiative:
"America's Truth Forum has received a multitude of inquiries from first responder organizations across the country asking if there is a discounted rate for symposium tickets for their first responder personnel....Go here for additional information. Consider a donation even if you cannot attend the symposium.
"Whether you intend to join us on April 29th, 2006 in Arlington, Virginia for the symposium or not, you can help underwrite the admission of a first responder with your generous donation...."
I will give a full report on the symposium. I will be attending.
posted by Always On Watch @ 4/21/2006 09:34:00 AM
31 comments
31 Comments:
Good idea about donations for first responders. I just read your comment on Right Truth (my blog) and popped over here to check you out, heh. Very nice blog. Sounds like you and I have a lot in common. September 11, 2001 changed a lot of American citizens. Always on Watch is an excellent way to put it (and name for a blog). I'm going to read more.
Will you be attending the symposium? I would love to, but I just don't see how I can work it out.
Debbie,
I'll be there and taking lots of notes.
In many regards, our bios are quite similar. But my husband and I have four cats instead of three dogs.
p.s. I've blogrolled you so I'll be back
Sounds like an impressive event.
By the way, is the photo of your profile the emblem of Virginia? At first, I thought it Athena.
Hello, Shah. Nice to see you here.
Yes, my avatar is the state seal of Virginia. I can see why you thought it depicted Athena. Actually, it depicts Virtus, goddess of virtue, as a warrior. She stands victoriously atop the body of a dictator. So my avatar is an emblem of freedom.
The state motto, printed in very small letters, reads "Sic semper tyrannis," which means "Thus always to tyrants." In 1776, Virginia adopted this emblem in 1776m which designed by George Wythe, a famous signer of the Declaration of Independence.
I was born in Virginia and have lived here all my life. My father was also born here in Virginia and spent all of his 86 years living here. My mother came from Tennessee but lived in Virginia from 1934 until her death in 1987.
I will present a report from the symposium. I'll feel like a student there, with my pen and notebook!
I was fortunate (yes, fortunate) to be part of the response force to the Pentagon, arriving on 9/12/01 and coming home eight days later. Changed my life as well. Wish I could be there.
Yes - take lots of notes! I wish I could be there with you. Have a great time. It will be very interesting.
Truth Hurts,
I hope that people will consider sponsoring a responder. Many major corporations won't do so.
My cousin-in-law (federal law-enforcement) worked the Pentagon site for a full month following 9/11. Her job was to sort through the remains for forensics testing. She can't talk about what she saw. By "can't" I mean psychologically. She didn't sleep for weeks afterwards. Her colleagues had the same reaction.
The two people whom I personally knew at the Pentagon on 9/11 were on the other side of the building. But one of my friends was supposed to be in the very room which was absolutely obliterated. Thank God! He's a father with four children. For several hours, we didn't know he was alive. The relief!
I've been to all the 9/11 sites. Shanksville was the one which most affected me--sacred ground, IMO.
I can understand what she went through. My team had much the same feelings. I was OK until I got inside and looked at the personal items on desks...There are a lot of stories I wish I could tell, but cannot. I probably met your cousin. We sifted through the rubble for evidence as well, and turned it over to the FBI forensics team. It's amazing how much completely erroneous information is out there about that day, especially from the conspiracy whack jobs.
AOW,
Thanks so much for posting this. The way the requests for major sponsorships from the big corporations (which I generally admire) was nothing less than revolting.
Just a question for your symposium, since I can't go:
Imagine that the boondoggle of putting expensive nuclear weapon detection equipment in the hands of port security officials in every port in America gets implemented by Democrats and / or other kinds of people prone to unrelenting stupidity.
Imagine that one of these expensive nuclear weapon detectors finds a nuclear bomb in an American port, say Boston.
How long will it take first responders to violate the laws of physics and get a nuclear weapon out of the vicinity of Boston Harbor before it vaporizes Boston, the port, the boat carrying it, and the union lackey waving the geiger counter?
The photo has changed. Who is she?
Shah,
Rosie is a very American symbol. She also represents the strength of women.
From Wikipedia:
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the six million women who manned the manufacturing plants which produced munitions and material during World War II while the men (who traditionally performed this work) were off fighting the war....
Although pay was not always equal (the average man working in a wartime plant was paid $54.65 per week, while women on average were paid $31.21 per week), and conditions were sometimes very poor, women quickly responded to Rosie the Riveter, who convinced them they had a patriotic duty to enter the workforce....
Rosie's original motto was "We can do it." I had Warren change the motto.
I am the daughter of an automotive mechanic, so I've always been fond of Rosie as she worked with mechanical tools. Now I'm not very good at swinging the wrench, but I used to be.
The story of how Rosie became my avatar is here. And there is additional information in the comments too.
Always...nice blog, honey chile'--found you on account of your list of books--I urge mah folks to read Whalid Pares' Furute Jihad. Eye-opening, ain't it?
Keep up yore effort, puddin'.
Aunty Belle,
I have a copy of Phares Future Jihad. I also have a review of the book ready to go.
Dr. Phares and I have corresponded a few times in the recent past.
You need to read this, if you haven't already. "ARE AMERICAN COMPANIES AIDING ISLAM?
Because It Sure Looks That Way"
http://www.warchick.com/
It's about the US companies that were hit on 9/11, but refuse to help in any way with the "Operation First Responders", or the seminar itself. You will be very surprised. I started to post on it, but decided you really need to.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
Thank you for this information. My site has been swamped with the comic-book article. Sheesh!
I'm going to leave "dog lover's" spam here. The irony is just too funny!
Allah's angels can not enter a home where dogs live.
Mr. Beamish,
You've been reading the comic book?
I read that comic a while back, but I had stumbled on the Islamic restriction on dog ownership while studying the Hadith.
Dogs are pretty powerful foils for Muslims. A barking dog can keep one of Muhammad's assassins from sneaking into your house at night and slitting your throat as you sleep.
Which is what I think the anti-dog thing was really about.
Of course, there might be some older "prejudices" and "symbolism" in it as well...
Plato, "Republic"
Then now we have a clear notion of the bodily qualities which are required in the guardian.
True.
And also of the mental ones; his soul is to be full of spirit?
Yes.
But are not these spirited natures apt to be savage with one another, and with everybody else?
A difficulty by no means easy to overcome, he replied.
Whereas, I said, they ought to be dangerous to their enemies, and gentle to their friends; if not, they will destroy themselves without waiting for their enemies to destroy them.
True, he said.
What is to be done then? I said; how shall we find a gentle nature which has also a great spirit, for the one is the contradiction of the other?
True.
He will not be a good guardian who is wanting in either of these two qualities; and yet the combination of them appears to be impossible; and hence we must infer that to be a good guardian is impossible.
I am afraid that what you say is true, he replied.
Here feeling perplexed I began to think over what had preceded.--My friend, I said, no wonder that we are in a perplexity; for we have lost sight of the image which we had before us.
What do you mean? he said.
I mean to say that there do exist natures gifted with those opposite qualities.
And where do you find them?
Many animals, I replied, furnish examples of them; our friend the dog is a very good one: you know that well-bred dogs are perfectly gentle to their familiars and acquaintances, and the reverse to strangers.
Yes, I know.
Then there is nothing impossible or out of the order of nature in our finding a guardian who has a similar combination of qualities?
Certainly not.
Would not he who is fitted to be a guardian, besides the spirited nature, need to have the qualities of a philosopher?
I do not apprehend your meaning.
The trait of which I am speaking, I replied, may be also seen in the dog, and is remarkable in the animal.
What trait?
Why, a dog, whenever he sees a stranger, is angry; when an acquaintance, he welcomes him, although the one has never done him any harm, nor the other any good. Did this never strike you as curious?
The matter never struck me before; but I quite recognise the truth of your remark.
And surely this instinct of the dog is very charming;--your dog is a true philosopher.
Why?
Why, because he distinguishes the face of a friend and of an enemy only by the criterion of knowing and not knowing. And must not an animal be a lover of learning who determines what he likes and dislikes by the test of knowledge and ignorance?
Most assuredly.
And is not the love of learning the love of wisdom, which is philosophy?
They are the same, he replied.
And may we not say confidently of man also, that he who is likely to be gentle to his friends and acquaintances, must by nature be a lover of wisdom and knowledge?
That we may safely affirm.
Then he who is to be a really good and noble guardian of the State will require to unite in himself philosophy and spirit and swiftness and strength?
Undoubtedly.
-FJ
FJ,
That was very Cynical of you to quote.
;-)
BLD,
Warren designed my avatar. I had him add the words "Wake up!"
I will give a full report on the symposium.
Warren has done well with these avatars. Iran Watch has a much better avatar.
The best is still the classic Gasmask. I will be writing the next episode of Jihadi Toy story.
Anum has incurred my wrath by accusing the Jews of Blowing up the WTC.
Beak,
Anum has incurred my wrath by accusing the Jews of Blowing up the WTC.
Hearkening back to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, perhaps?
Why are Muslims so paranoid? Sometimes I think the paranoia is genetic, sometimes ideologically based on the Koran.
Whatever the case, it gets mighty tiresome.
My avatar is just a stolen pic from the web, transfixed for personal usage. The milblogger Citizen Smash has a gasmasked avatar and has since before I was a blogger, but I've used the gasmask pic longer than I've known about Citizen Smash, if that makes sense.
My presidential portrait pic took a little more work. I may change that to my avatar and put up something new for May Day.
gwG to your symposium.
Plato, "Symposium"...
APOLLODORUS: Well, the tale of love was on this wise:--But perhaps I had better begin at the beginning, and endeavour to give you the exact words of Aristodemus:
He said that he met Socrates fresh from the bath and sandalled; and as the sight of the sandals was unusual, he asked him whither he was going that he had been converted into such a beau:--
To a banquet at Agathon's, he replied, whose invitation to his sacrifice of victory I refused yesterday, fearing a crowd, but promising that I would come to-day instead; and so I have put on my finery, because he is such a fine man. What say you to going with me unasked?
I will do as you bid me, I replied.
Follow then, he said, and let us demolish the proverb:--
'To the feasts of inferior men the good unbidden go;'
instead of which our proverb will run:--
'To the feasts of the good the good unbidden go;'
and this alteration may be supported by the authority of Homer himself, who not only demolishes but literally outrages the proverb. For, after picturing Agamemnon as the most valiant of men, he makes Menelaus, who is but a fainthearted warrior, come unbidden (Iliad) to the banquet of Agamemnon, who is feasting and offering sacrifices, not the better to the worse, but the worse to the better.
I rather fear, Socrates, said Aristodemus, lest this may still be my case; and that, like Menelaus in Homer, I shall be the inferior person, who
'To the feasts of the wise unbidden goes.'
But I shall say that I was bidden of you, and then you will have to make an excuse.
'Two going together,'
he replied, in Homeric fashion, one or other of them may invent an excuse by the way (Iliad).
Unlike Aristodemus, I won't be at the Symposium, but like Glaucon, will wish to hear your report.
-FJ
Cocktail party tonight, classes tomorrow.
I spent this morning designing and printing "my card," with the Rosie logo.
I don't often go to symposiums. The last one I attended was in Fall River Massachusetts in 1982--The Lizzie Borden Symposium. I took pages and pages of notes, and passed some of them along to a student (not my own, one who found me online) who wanted to write an essay on Lizzie. Prior to the Lizzie symposium, almost all the the others I attended were related to education, usually specific to learning differences.
I'm sure that I'll get writer's cramp tomorrow and will try to keep taking notes even while my jaw is dropping.
I've taken Monday off (Oh, the joys of self-employment!) and hope to post at least a short report that day.
I wish that some of my fellow bloggers and commenters were attending. Well, maybe they ARE but I don't know it.
Nanc,
Security will be very tight. Has to be as Robert Spencer is under a death threat from practitioners of the "religion of peace."
Post a Comment
<< Home