A lot has happened in the past ten years. Some good. Some not. We’ve hashed and rehashed the dysfunctions the attacks revealed in our society and in the society of the world at large.
I don’t want to do that today. I ran across a story about one of the tenants of the World Trade Center that shows that life is what you make of the cards you are dealt. This company occupied the 101st through 105th floors of the North Tower. Over two-thirds of its New York workforce was at their desks that morning when those cowardly bastards flew an airplane into the building below them. Every one of those people perished in the resulting fire and collapse of the building.
The CEO of that company, Howard Lutnick, was on his way to work. He was arriving late because he wanted to drop his son off on his first day of kindergarten.
It would have been easy to walk away at that point and simply be thankful for having been spared. Lutnick is not that kind of man. He resolved to lead his company back from its devastation. Ten years later, we can see that he has been more than merely successful.
“What we had was secretaries that had lost their bosses, divisions of 86 who had only four remaining,” Lutnick said. “There were many divisions we couldn’t rebuild.”
But they returned to work, even as families and friends grieved for those who were suddenly gone, to get their systems running again.
Despite the profound disruption of its business, Lutnick and his colleagues dug deep within themselves and went to work.
“You were looking for friends, you were hoping and praying that people were just going to find their way and get in contact with you, and while that was going on we were working around the clock to bring back the systems,” he said.
The single most inspiring aspect of this story to me is the commitment Lutnick made to the families of those who lost their lives that morning.
“My goal after 9/11 was to take care of the families of the people we lost, and that was the most important thing,” Lutnick said.
Twenty five percent of the company’s profits for five years were set aside for the families of those lost and for other charitable causes – a total of $180 million.
“We all had to commit to doing something different,” Lutnick said. “It changed our outlook about what was important about business.”
The attacks “just created sort of that bang of what type of human being are you right here, right now,” Lutnick said. “I didn’t think there was a choice. Either we take care of our friends’ families or I’m not a human being.”
I salute Howard Lutnick and all of his colleagues at Cantor-Fitzgerald for working hard to make something positive come out of the depraved actions of a group of medieval madmen.
I had a Tedtam weekend. On Saturday I got in the car with Oldest Son at :710 AM in order to go to two Boy Scouts meetings. They go to his Eagle Scout badge down the road. They met at church and I was called the Friday night before to meet with a member of the stake presidency (clergy). He… Read more »
And one more:
facebook. com /pages/Magnolia-TX-Fire-and-Evacuation-Information/278194012191912
(sticks head out of LurkCave, sees that the *@#$^#^&* armadillo holes have not disappeared, despite lots of wishful thinking) Hello Hamsterousians! Slightly cooler these past couple days, yee-haw! For Texanadian, the sites I have found for up-to-the minute info on wildfires are the following (take out spaces to link to site, trying to fool Hal so this will post, add… Read more »
Alex Jones? Jim Jones? Hmmmm. Did you know he was a Branch Davidian? Hmmmm.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the cult of troofers?
I’m watching the Naudet brothers documentary on 9/11.
Wow.
A song for a Sunday.
But, but, but, Charles can make it fun.
I’m just back from a trip up to the Waller County Fair Grounds to deliver donations for the folks with animals taking shelter there. Spent a couple of hours this morning scrubbimg 10 sturdy Forta-Flex feed/water buckets and one feed pan that had been sitting idle in our feed room in the barn for several years, unused since our horse… Read more »
It would be like dissecting a vacuum.
I wanna see Charles Krauthammer dissect Paul Krugman in his next column.
#61 Bonecrusher, Well maybe some of the high spirited deep thinkers over in Egypt want to see if they can lose Sinai again. 🙂
Those peaceful mooooooslimes. Egyptian protesters pull down Israel embassy wall (Reuters) – Egyptian activists destroyed a wall around the Israeli embassy and set police cars on fire in Cairo on Friday after thousands demonstrated at Tahrir Square to push for a timetable for reforms and an end to military trials for civilians. Activists who spearheaded an uprising that ousted President… Read more »
Frankly, I’m not spending too much on 9/11. Yes, I’m sad for the losses, and angry at various people/factions for various reasons. But I’m not much for naval gazing. I’m finishing up my work here at the church, then I’m doing some bookkeeping, then I’m back down to our river property later to pick up my tools and see if… Read more »
#54 hamous This documentary is also very good. It was shot by two French brothers who happened to be making a film about a rookie New York fireman in Manhattan. They have the only footage I have seen of the first aircraft hit and the only from inside one of the buildings afterwards. Some of it is disturbing, but it… Read more »
#48 Hf Nothing derogatory meant by my “sportsy” question. I think your login name is sports-related, isn’t it? Although I would have to look it up to know who the “Hogs” are. I listened to some of the audio transcript you posted t’other day, maybe hear some more of it today. I watched 2 hours of rescues from the North… Read more »
I think even the NYT will realize the gravity and take down his filth, but they won’t fire him. I want it left up for all of America to see. I’ve posted it in its entirety.
They won’t take it down.
Kruggie will keep his job.
And the libs will cheer him on.
And the innocents will keep falling, as our enemies continue to despise us.
Steyn was right.
John Hayward accurately describes the disgusting piece of human refuse known as Paul Krugman: “I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.” Of course not. What a miserable, stinking coward. He was too busy pounding out this sick little screed to even spell-check it. As of this writing, the link to Krugman’s post is still working.… Read more »
I know I bring this up every year but I’ll keep doing it. In addition to the transcripts Hogfan links, the History Channel has what I consider the most important piece of documentary film made on the events of the day. Actually it’s a collection of film, with no production by television types, taken throughout the event. No editorial. No… Read more »
😀
That DC10 firefighting plane is freaking awesome!! On it’s way home for the day stops by to put out a potential disaster in the Conroe area. Crews requested additional help and Cut and Shoot responded with a booster truck. The Texas Forest Service was also requested. A spotter plane flew overhead. Unknown to firefighters is what happened next. The DC-10… Read more »
Mark Steyn responds, in a manner of speaking, to Krugman.
#44: Thanks but we are good. We have our mobile bunker and a new set of vunrables. Lose some – gain some. Hanging out on a friends ranch across 290. Sure do need some good information though. Just did the net search and still nothing worth while.
47
It’s amazing this guy isn’t punched out on a regular basis.
mh42
Nothing sportsy today
A repost of my link from Friday. Listen to the voices of those that were there instead of the talking heads on TV.
9-11 Audio Transcripts(red titles are the audio files)
Checking in on The Day of Days as Hogfan put it. (I trust that means 9/11 and not something sportsy that I know nothing about.) Drinking coffee and doodling around on Drudge, I came across Paulie K Puke’s very short column, which ended with:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/the-years-of-shame/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto
Hope there’s a cover on the couch.
Good morning Hamsters on this Day of Days.
Do y’all need anything, texanadian?
Good morning all. Another of sitting and wondering when we can return home. The lack of information coming from official sources in Waller county is staggering. Everyone knows someone working the fire so some information gets out, but it is sketchy and frequently contradictory. There is a meeting at the Waller high school this afternoon. My guess is around nine… Read more »
#41 Dave
From your link:
The D’s are deluded if that’s how they saw Obammy’s “Pass This Bill Right Now!” speech. Someone has already compared that speech to an SNL comedy sketch.
Nite all. Turning off my sprinklers and sacking out now.
Oops, trouble in paradise? Democrats Fret Aloud Over Obama’s Re-election. Say it aint so. Yanno’ it would be funny if not so DANG serious. 🙁
KatFish
Dang Dammit! 3:45 in the morning?! I was pi$$ing and cussin’ about having to get up @ 5 to be at work @ 6 so I could work 12 hours and get off before it got too dang late. Bless you Brother. 😉
Evenin Yall – whatta long but fruitful day! Rolling west out of Katy this morning @ 0345 was blessedly cool, dry, and comfortable and I swear I -10 west was the emptiest I have EVER seen it in 42 years of 2-wheeled travel – a new chapter ‘prospect’ having recently received ‘all clear’ on his fingerpint & NCIC background check,… Read more »
Well as I was stumbling through the TV channels, I saw a pretty good ad from State Farm that had a bunch of kids singing in front of a NY Fire Station, and it reminded me of one of the greatest commercials of all time, The Budweiser Clydesdales, going from St Louis to NY City to give tribute to the… Read more »
Yup. Lots of “How do you feel about…” questions.
Looks as though the male sideline reporter in college and pro football has been added to the extinct species list.
(sticks head out of LurkCave, finds a whole bunch of *#@*&%!&* armadillo holes in yard) Good starting post, I know friends who lost people then. Too many. Let us continue in the spirit of moving forward. REPOST: (from http:// http://www.facebook.com/plantersvillestoneham , take out space after // to link) Sept. 10, 2011 QUOTE: Gail Starrett Most of the restaurants are/were closed… Read more »
My wife knows me too well. She walked into the kitchen and switched the T.V. in time to see R. Lee Ermey say “Gentlemen, start you engines!”. Cool.
For the sake of the eyes of those who can see, that woman needs to wear clothes. Now how do I bleach that image out of my brain?
Hey, that butt-nekkid woman has kilt Hammy’s blog!!
Waal, I dunno about you Tim, but that gal has a chain-link fence around her yard. And that’s why she should wear clothes when she is out in her back yard.
Why would you wear clothes in your backyard?
#26 ST
I hope that plan to drown out Mr Stripey Pants Mayor Bloombooger with a hymn works out tomorrow!
#25 SD
Aw, I looked at that yesterday. Seemed to me she was at her back door. Does the Google Streets spy-wagon drive up and down alleyways? (Don’t think a sane person would be outside naked in the back yard, either.)
BTW: Here’s a fire scanner, in case anyone is interested. They just made another dump in Magnolia. What I liked best was the plane was having problems getting fuel. One guy said: We’ll make it happen. Also, 40 firefighters are need of nurishment. They’ll make it happen. Dang, I love Texas!!! I must get back to work or I’m gonna… Read more »
Speaking of Bloomberg: Kuddos to these folks! Please help spread the word!!! PLEASE HELP US GET THIS VIRAL FAST! All of you in attendance at Ground Zero for the 9/11/11 Memorial Service. When Mayor Bloomberg begins to speak let “Amazing Grace” FILL THE AIR” The Mayor can keep our Clergy out, but he can’t keep ALL those in attendance from… Read more »
Google Street View Camera Captures Naked Miami Woman On Her Front Doorstep.
Click if you dare, but remember you’ve been warned.
Heh. Toledo leading The Ohio State University.