Tag: 9-11

Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Day Two Volunteer

Today we encourage you to volunteer. Yesterday we started a series focused on how people can remember 9-11.

One memory many responders have from the September 11 attacks is the sense of community as Americans from all walks of life joined in to provide assistance to responders, neighbors, and even strangers. Volunteering in your community does not have to happen because of tragedy. You can start today with small steps. Identify what you care about and find a way to support their mission.

It may be to end hunger, support your local schools, or even be a volunteer firefighter. Organizations across the nation are looking for volunteers in your community.

Remember 9-11

People choose to volunteer for any number of reasons. Some people enjoy the community service aspect. Others look for small ways to contribute to their neighborhoods. Some people find that volunteering is an opportunity to develop new skills or use existing experience and knowledge to tackle local issues.

Your motivation may be different from the person volunteering next to you, but you it is still a positive for our shared world.

Being a neighbor volunteering your time will also connect you with others who share your interests. One of the best ways to make new friends or strengthen a current relationship is to commit to a shared activity. By working together on a task you will both meet new people, but find it increases your tie to a community. As a regular volunteer following your passions you will also broaden your support network, exposing you to people with common interests, local resources, and other fun and fulfilling activities.

Remember 9-11

There are many small ways to contribute to organizations big and small. If you are unsure of where to begin, the 9-11 Foundation is seeking virtual volunteers for a long term project that will require a number of people with basic writing experience. Our goal is to never forget that day.

Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11

Day One: Learn CPR 

 

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Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11: Day One Learn CPR

People ask the ways to remember 9-11 regularly. There is no singlular best answer for how to remember, but here we present eleven ways to memorialize 9/11 as we approach the 20th anniversary of the September 11 tragedy. We will never forget that day or those lost.

The 9-11 Foundation hopes Americans will take a moment to consider how they can best remember the attacks, the response, but the unrivaled strength America had in coming together to overcome the tragedy of that Tuesday morning.

The first recommendation is learn CPR.

Ways To Remember 9-11

Every year nearly 500,000 people have cardiac arrest events in the United States alone. Cardiac arrest claims more lives than multiple cancers (breast, colorectal, and prostate), influenza, pneumonia,  motor vehicle collisions, HIV, firearms, and house fires combined. 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital.

CPR – or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation – is an emergency lifesaving procedure performed that can be performed by anyone when the heart stops beating. Immediate CPR can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest. Less than half the people experiencing out of hospital cardiac arrest receive bystander CPR despite measurable statistics showing it saves lives when started prior to professional rescuers.

If you want to honor the responders to the 9/11 tragedy, you can take a small step learning this important lifesaving skill. Courses are conducted around the country and you can find a local course through the American Heart Association’s CPR course matrix.

It is important to remember that most bystanders who perform prehospital CPR are doing so on a friend or family member. The AHA developed a course specific to this purpose for the layperson because of these statistics.

Eleven Ways To Remember 9-11

The 9-11 Foundation will continue to update ways to remember 9/11 through September 11. Continue to watch this space.

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Adel Abdul Bary – Osama bin Laden Lieutenant Freed From Prison

Adel Abdul Bary

Adel Abdul Bary, a former Osama bin Laden lieutenant has been freed from prison after a Manhattan judge cited his obesity as a reason for his release.

Bary, the former Osama bin Laden henchman convicted in two deadly 1998 bombings is free and living in the UK this week after being released early. This was due to Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan who agreed the terrorist was way too obese to survive the coronavirus behind bars.

Adel Abdel Bary, 60, had spent twenty-one years in a New Jersey prison for his role in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. He was not involved with September 11.

Adel Abdul Bary

“Defendant’s obesity and somewhat advanced age make COVID-19 significantly more risky to him than to the average person,” US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in granting the release.

Attorneys asked that Adel Abdul Bary be let out sooner, citing their ­client’s age, girth, and asthma.

“Mr. Bary’s continued incarceration now significantly increases his risk of infection, which could wreak disastrous health outcomes,” his lawyer wrote in court documents.

While prosecutors didn’t agree that Bary’s age made him more at risk to catch COVID-19, they did concede his body mass index of 36 did.

“The defendant’s obesity is an extraordinary and compelling reason that could justify a reduction of his sentence in light of the current pandemic,” they wrote.

The 230-pound terrorist was freed from prison Oct. 9 and from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Wednesday, when he was handed over to UK officials.

Adel Abdul Bary — whose son, British rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, is an Islamist militant — was reunited with his wife, Ragaa, who lives in a $1 million-plus apartment in London, Britain’s Sun newspaper reported.

His return to the UK couldn’t be blocked because he was granted asylum there in 1997 — before being arrested in 1999 and extradited to the US to stand trial in 2012.

He had been sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2015 but received credit for the years he spent behind bars in Britain while fighting extradition.

Officials couldn’t send him back to his native Egypt after his release because he could be at risk of death or torture, the Sun reported.

“His return remains a huge headache for the [UK] home secretary” — equivalent to the US secretary of state. “She is intent on ridding the country of threats, but here’s a notorious terrorist dumped right on her doorstep,” a source told the Sun.

Adel Abdul Bary Freedom Outrages Victims Families

Bary’s immigration lawyer said, “After all this time, all Mr. Bary wants is to enjoy a quiet life with his family, but Edith Bartley, whose younger brother was among the victims, ripped the release.

“Just serving a sentence doesn’t mean that a person has been rehabilitated, doesn’t mean that their core thinking has changed,” she told the Times. “This is a person who can still do harm in the world.”

In 2015, Judge Kaplan said Adel Abdel Bary, then 54, benefitted from an “enormously generous plea bargain” that should have him out of jail in eight years when factoring in seventeen years of time already served. It is unclear why he chose to contradict himself on the terrorist’s freedom.

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Star Spangled Banner in London

The Star Spangled Banner was played during the changing of the guard today, nineteen years ago, in honor of the United States which had been attacked the day prior.

The day after the September 11 attacks more than 5000 American tourists and expats gathered at the gates of Buckingham Palace. At the request of Queen Elizabeth II, the band of the Coldstream Guards broke with hundreds of years of tradition to play The Star Spangled Banner during the changing of the guard.

Star Spangled Banner

The decision to play the Star Spangled Banner showed the Queen’s intent to Never Forget 9-11.

Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry“, a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key. He wrote the piece after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.

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Vice President Pence Takes Part in 9-11 Memorial

Vice President Pence will be taking part in Friday’s anniversary memorial of the 9-11 attacks. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation put out a statement noting they were honored the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence and Second Lady of the United States Karen Pence will take part in the Foundation’s memorial ceremony on Friday, September 11, marking the 19th anniversary of the attacks on our nation.

Vice President Pence

Tunnel to Towers took the unprecedented step to host an independent memorial ceremony  after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum announced the traditional reading of the names by victim’s family members would not happen at their ceremony this year, citing COVID-19 concerns.

“The horrific loss of life, from the largest attack on US soil, a terrorist attack, requires that we read these names out loud, in person, on this day, every year. We can never minimize that fateful day,“said Frank Siller, Chairman and CEO of Tunnel to Towers, who lost his brother FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller in the attack.

“The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is honored that Vice President Pence will be in attendance at its Reading of the Names ceremony on 9/11. His presence signals the immense gravity of the day and so appropriately honors the fallen, who gave their lives for us 19 years ago. We are grateful to Vice President Pence for helping America to NEVER FORGET.”

Vice President Pence

Michael R. Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana, on June 7, 1959, one of six children born to Edward and Nancy Pence. As a young boy he had a front row seat to the American Dream. After his grandfather immigrated to the United States when he was 17, his family settled in the Midwest. The future Vice President watched his Mom and Dad build everything that matters – a family, a business, and a good name. Sitting at the feet of his mother and his father, who started a successful convenience store business in their small Indiana town, he was raised to believe in the importance of hard work, faith, and family.

Vice President Pence set off for Hanover College, earning his bachelor’s degree in history in 1981. While there, he renewed his Christian faith which remains the driving force in his life. He later attended Indiana University School of Law and met the love of his life, Second Lady Karen Pence.

After graduating, Vice President Pence practiced law, led the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, and began hosting The Mike Pence Show, a syndicated talk radio show and a weekly television public affairs program in Indiana. Along the way he became the proud father to three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey.

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