With this being the ten year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9-11, one would hope that it would be a somber, reverent occasion. Somber it may be, but hardly any reverence is to be expected.
This ten year "memorial service" has had reverence thrown out the front door, when Mayor Bloomberg decided to exclude the clergy. Not only that, the New York Police Department and Fire Departments have also been excluded as well. As far as I know, the Port Authority Police won't be there either.
As it has been so aptly pointed out numerous times by people more well known than myself, the police and fire departments weren't exactly invited the day of the attacks, but they showed up....did their jobs...and many lost their lives as a result.
It has also been pointed out, that Mayor Bloomberg's predecessor Rudy Giuliani made it a point to call Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York. Cardinal Edward Egan went immediately where for the next several days he would be anointing the dead, distributing rosaries to workers as they searched for survivors, and presiding over funerals.
As a Christian, I can not fathom a memorial service with no clergy. I can fathom no memorial service where the police, firemen, and other first responders are excluded from giving honor and remembrance to their fallen comrades.
Do the politicians really and truly believe that they can take the place of excluded clergy? Do they think that they can take the place of the NYPD and NYFD to offer proper remembrance and honor to all the fallen first responders? Do the politicians think that they can comfort those who lost parents, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters?
I sure don't have as much faith in politicians as polticians seem to have faith in themselves. I expect this memorial service to turn into a political fiasco. I have a feeling, that this is going to turn into one big political campaign rally, with ample reminders from the media and the politicans present, that President Obama was the one who "got" Osama bin Laden, the "mastermind" behind the attacks.
Nope. If the NYPD, NYFD, first responders and the clergy are excluded, this is one American who won't be watching the politicians puff out their chests and make their grand proclamations. I have had enough of their grandstanding as it is. Don't need any more.
