Robert Friedlander has some mad on Valentine’s Day 2022. Citizens of New York’s Whitesboro Village are not feeling the love this Valentine’s Day as Mayor Robert Friedlander gave away land, fire engines, and equipment belonging to local taxpayers in a move some experts call “questionable…at best.”
“In other municipalities where an elected official unilaterally gives away city equipment it prompts outside investigations to see what the elected official is receiving for that decision,” said Kathryn Morales, Chief Operating Officer for the September 11 Foundation.
She continued, “these moves almost always cost the taxpayers in the long run either due to corruption or incompetence.”
In jurisdictions in other states like Arizona and Texas there have been significant financial impacts on the municipality when elected leaders choose to give away taxpayer resources. In this case, a building, the land it sits on, and fire apparatus and equipment were all given away.
There is also an underlying concern that this might be a preliminary move to dissolve the village itself by making it financial unsustainable. Currently the Village of Whitesboro relies heavily on income from fire services and levies.
Robert Friedlander Leadership
Friedlander has not responded to a request for comment or clarification, but he is up for re-election in 2022.
Whitesboro citizens would have to rely on outside investigation though as former Police Chief Jason Buley passed away last year and Mayor Friedlander has still not appointed a replacement.
The attack on Pearl Harbor happened eighty years ago today. Prior to the 9-11 attacks, this was the deadliest foreign attack on the United States.
Immediately prior to 9:00 AM on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the United State Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. They managed to destroy or damage nearly twenty American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over three hundred aircraft.
More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
Pearl Harbor
While we are dedicated to never forgetting 9-11 or the tragedy of September 11, we also remember America’s greatest generation and the strength and willpower that helped America defeat fascism.
Welcome To The Rock is the opening of the Broadway play Come From Away. We mention them because when September started, we began posting a list of ways to remember September 11.
The full list of suggestions is below. However, we want to make sure we all never forget our neighbors in Canada who responded through difficult circumstances.
One of our board members noted, Come From Away is the “perfect narrative of the hospitality, generosity, and inclusiveness we can all show when we choose to do so. It brings tears to my eyes that it takes a tragedy to come together.”
Come from Away is a the musical tale written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
It is set in the week of the Tuesday 9-11 attacks and tells the true story of what transpired when thirty-eight planes were re-routed to the small Newfoundland town of Gander.
The characters in the musical are based on (and in most cases share the names of) real Gander residents as well as some of the 7,000 stranded travelers they housed and fed.
This powerful musical returns to Broadway on September 21st. It is also touring nationally. We hope you will also remember 9-11 by buying a ticket to both keep September 11 alive in our memories and support the arts as they return to the theater.
The production runs in a single act over approximately one hundred minutes without intermission.
Welcome To The Rock And More Ways To Remember 9-11
The 9-11 Foundation supports everyone remembering September 11. We hope this list is of assistance to teachers, community groups, and others who seek a formal process to remember that day’s events.
Today, the 9-11 Foundation asks you to share your experience with September 11 so we all with never forget that day, its challenges, or its heroes.
September 11 isn’t just about tragedy, but about the spirit of America coming together, unified, to assist and help one another. 9-11 while horrible was a shining example of what America can do when it comes together.
Today we ask Americans to share their experiences and their support for us.
Go to Facebook and follow us there. Share your personal story about that Tuesday in September or your donation.
We are also on Twitter and while there are fewer characters to work with we welcome your mentions of our work or lists like this which we think empower our friends and neighbors to take action.
Our Instagram account is relatively new, but we hope you will engage us there too if that is the platform for you.
If you can donate today to our mission we are grateful, but if not we would ask you to consider shopping using an Amazon Smile account which donates funds to us through your every day purchases.
The quickest way to make a difference is spread that message on social media to your friends. It costs you nothing and makes an enormous difference.
Tell your local schools that you want 9-11 responders speaking to your local students. Every year we speak to hundreds of school students about September 11 and how they can make a difference in their community.
We are not pushing an agenda other than the values of teamwork, family, self respect, good decision making, and the importnce of pursuing excellence. If those are lessons you want taught in your community let’s discuss how we can get into your classrooms.
We know America is better when we overcome our own differences whether they are skin color, sex, marital status, religion, and even political identification.
Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Share Your Experience and Support
We should never forget 9-11, but we should also never forget we can make a major difference in someone else’s life donating blood today while remembering yesterday.
Donate today and support our mission to remember 9-11 and educate the next generation about the heroism and lessons from that day.
This sounds like a bad fundraising request, but the 9-11 Foundation was formed to never forget 9-11 which means keeping that day alive in the minds of school children not alive for the events that day.
We do that by making September 11 connect to their lives today with lessons on overcoming adversity and challenge, unity, and leadership using skills on display on September 11: family, teamwork, self respect, intelligence, and passion for excellence.
Our speakers have traveled the country speaking to tens of thousands of school students on how they can apply lessons from two decades ago to their lives now.
Donate To 9-11 Foundation
Your tax deductibe contribution is well used. We have earned the Guidestar Gold Seal of Approval for financial transparency and appropriate use of donor funds.
We also know not everyone can contribute. For this we have set up a Smile account with Amazon allowing a percentage of your ordinary purchases to support our mission.
Your support matters whether it is a contribution through our donation portal, an Amazon purchase using Amazon smile, or participating in donor events like North Texas Giving Day, where donors have provided matching funds to money raised in September.
First and foremost, when you contribute to our shared you are making the world a better place. We will help children feel supported and understand what was a confusing situation. We will help communities realize they are neighbors and not just a collection of people.
Your financial support shows kindness and those around you see that. It inspires them in their daily lives too.
Many say the he act of financially helping our charity gives an improved sense of wellbeing. You are sacrificing hard earned dollars, but are doing so to create positive change in the world. This is a beautiful gift and provides purpose in life for many.
Those who support our mission also get the opportunity to build their social circles by working with like-minded people – in some cases current day responders. This improves your overall well being and helps you become healthier and happier.
The mental and spiritual benefits from knowing your contributing to an important national cause are important also.
For some though their motivation is knowing that as an IRS approved public charity your contribution is tax deductible and will both help the next generation understand the tragedy of that Tuesday in September.
It has a financial incentive for you too.
The bottom line is today is less different from twenty years ago than we think it is. Together we united and responded to a horrific series of events that temporarily paralyzed a nation watching the horror, but we united in action.
We united in responding.
We were better working together then and we are better working together now.
Your financial contribution helps us work with the next generation of leaders to not only remember that awful day, but celebrate the successes and use them moving forward together.
We really are better together. We are better united as a team. We are better united as a nation. Help us today.
Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Donate
We should never forget 9-11, but we should also never forget we can make a major difference by contributing to our mission today.
Tonight on PBS Extra Hours, Sari Beth Rosenberg will talk about how to teach 9-11 to the next generation who were not alive for the event itself.
This event will offer teachers the opportunity to use their own voice and experience to teach students about the tragedy of September 11.
Using the standards and resources of PBS’s NewsHour, PBS NewsHour Extra provides middle and high school students and teachers with quality educational resources based on current issues and events.
Extra’s mission is to help middle and high school students understand world events and national issues and answer the question, “Why should I care about the news?”
Extra helps educators spark young people’s interest in the world.
The 9-11 Foundation in our mission to never forget that day will post a link to the session after it airs so that teachers across the country can use it to develop their own plans for the classroom.
Award Winning Educator Will Teach 9-11
Sari Beth Rosenberg is an award-winning U.S. History teacher, writer, host, and public speaker.
She has been teaching for nearly two decades and currently hosts the PBS NewsHour Extra Educator Series. Sari is available to write & speak about history, politics, civics, civil rights, education, and culture.
Visit your firehouse. Today. It takes moments and like visiting your local police, it can build bridges to your public safety community.
The iconic FDNY “Ghostbusters” Ladder 8. This firehouse was the Ghostbusters headquarters in the 1984 movie.
Again, we support citizen and other responder visits to firehouses to both pay your respects and see the operational equipment used to serve neighbors where you are visiting. We wuld like to offer some suggestions on appropriate visitor behavior.
First, please ring the door bell. Even if you have decades of experience in another department – paid or volunteer – it is inappropriate to just walk in. Your visit should take place between 9:00am and 11:00am or between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. It is inappropriate to visit during morning check out, lunch, or after business hours. You should always ring the bell and do not presume anything.
In some organizations they will have shirts or patches for sale. Many larger departments carry an in-house stock of department and house shirts, hats and patches emblazoned with their own logo. The funds earned from these items often stay in-house for staple cooking items, chairs, TVs or other non-safety items. Consider a shirt and a patch.
Finally, should a call go out while touring, know how you are going to expeditiously move out of the firehouse so the building can be secured. Do not leave anything on tables, kitchen counters, etc. and allow the fire responders to do what they do best: respond to other people’s worst day.
Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Visit Your Firehouse
Raise the flag. There are a few images that come to mind as we remember 9-11 and three members of the Fire Department of New York raising the American flag over the rubble has to be top three. It is an important reminder that together we can accomplish anything.
All departments, agencies and instrumentalities of the United States are instructed to fly the American flag at half-staff from sunrise until sunset on September 11. Governors of the United States and its territories and interested organizations and individuals are also encouraged to join in this observance of September 11, or Patriot’s Day as it has also become known.
9-11 Flag on Sept 13, 2001 At Pentagon
Several questions exist about September 11 Patriot Day flag etiquette.
First, flags should be flown at half staff, but individuals and corporations are not required to do so. Patriot Day is one of the official days for the American flag to fly at half-staff throughout the United Stated. Every year, the sitting President issues a proclamation speaking to the significance of the day and it will specify that flags are to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on that day.
Only federal and state departments and agencies are required to follow the protocol outlined in the Presidential Proclamation, but the public is encouraged to participate.
Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Raise The Flag
We should never forget 9-11, but we should also never forget to honor one another. Raise the flag to remember 9-11, honor those who died, give tribute to those responders working today to protect us now, and stand tall like our country can.
As we begin another hectic work week we ask everyone to take a moment of silence for yourself to think about the pending anniversary of September 11.
Our world is filled with noise. Notifications of email, phone calls, text messages, and other alarms keep us constantly responding to the next beep.
Silence has its value too. First it gives our ears a much needed respite from the constant flow of information and alerts. Silence has also been shown to offer significant health advantages that boost a person’s well-being. Silence has multiple positive physiologic benefits. They include:
Lower blood pressure, which can help prevent heart attack.
Boost the body’s immune system.
Benefit brain chemistry by growing new cells. A 2013 study found that two hours of silence could create new cells in the hippocampus region, a brain area linked to learning, remembering, and emotions.
Decrease stress by lowering blood cortisol levels and adrenaline. Furthermore, according to a 2006 study in Heart, two minutes of silence relieves tension in the body and brain and is more relaxing than listening to music. This was attributed to changes in blood pressure and blood circulation in the brain.
Promote good hormone regulation and the interaction of bodily hormone-relate systems.
Prevent plaque formation in arteries.
A moment of silence is both good for your health wise, but an opportunity to consider the challenges ahead.
In a few days many responders will be reliving the post traumatic stress of September 11. They will remember heroes like Mychal Judge. They will think about the next event they are asked to respond to in their career.
A moment of silence can be a powerful tool to strengthen all of us for the next challenge ahead.
Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Take A Moment of Silence
We should never forget 9-11, but we should also never forget we can make a major difference in someone else’s life donating blood today while remembering yesterday.
The 9-11 Foundation asks everyone to find time to visit your local police precinct.
On September 11, 2001 seventy-two law enforcement officers lost their lives from the New York Police Department, Fire Department of New York Fire Marshal’s office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Secret Service, the Port Authority, and other agencies.
There is has been a great deal of discussion in the past year about the proper role of police officers in our nation and we support accountability, proper training, and scaled response, but there is no question that those who sacrificed their lives on 9-11 were heroes not because of their death that day, but because of their commitment to the Rule of Law and responding to others’ needs.
We believe bridges are best built over conversations and that can only happen when open minds show up to both be heard and hear.
This Labor Day we encourage you to take a moment to visit your local police precinct and learn more about their operations and how you can be a citizen contributor to your local community.
Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Visit Your Local Police
We should never forget 9-11, but we should also never forget our opportunities to build bridges into other communities, both those who protect us and those who may challenge us.
