Ten years have passed and I still mourn. Do you?
TexasFred remembers Sharon Balkcom
This is one of the most difficult posts I have ever made. I honor all of the victims of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but my anger has never subsided, I doubt that it ever will. I will let my tribute to Sharon Balkcom help ease my anger a bit, this is about YOU dear Lady, and your memory! You are NOT forgotten, none of the 9-11 victims will ever be forgotten here!
Sharon Balkcom, raised on the scrappy streets of East Harlem, was in the third grade when her teachers realized that she had a gift for mathematics, said her mother, Rosalie, who was not surprised.
Ms. Balkcom, 43, the second of three children, attended some of the city’s most rigorous and selective secondary schools: Robert F. Wagner Middle School on the Upper West Side and the Bronx High School of Science. She received an M.B.A. from Pace University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Colgate University.
Ms. Balkcom’s academic aptitude and varied education prepared her to tackle most jobs. She was a computer systems manager at Marsh & McLennan, where she had worked for about three years, her mother said. “She was motivated,” said her brother Gordon, a publicist. “Whereas I might need someone to kick-start me, she was self-motivated.”
As a child, that motivation helped Ms. Balkcom, a resident of White Plains, overcome teasing from neighborhood children about being a bookworm. “She held her head up and continued to do what was right,” Mrs. Balkcom said. “My husband and I brought our children up the best we could. We tried to instill in them the importance of having an education. We taught them that things were not handed to them. If they wanted something, they had to work hard to get it.”
According to fellow workers she was a very caring, intelligent, and personable person, with a great sense of humor.
For as long as I live, for as long as this blog exists, I will burn an Eternal Flame to honor all of the victims, firefighters and police officers that lost their lives on that fateful day 10 years ago! Rest in Peace.
I know it’s not a *REAL* picture but I am certain that on that September day there were angels among us, and I would imagine that they too wept…
I’m a big strong guy, but I am not the least bit bothered to tell you, I wept, from anger, from compassion, from a feeling of total helplessness, and yes, even fear, not fear for myself, but fear for my family and their immediate safety…
I was 1,500 miles from home that day and all I could think of was getting home to my wife and making sure my children were safe, and I couldn’t do that…
None of us knew what the future held, we still don’t, but I hope with all my heart that these same angels are with us now…
I can’t speak for all Americans, but I know that I am still hurting, every day that goes by I remember 9-11, and I don’t know if a *healing* will ever take place in me, but I pray for the lives of those affected in an even more direct fashion, I pray for our firefighters, police officer and our troops… I pray that ALL of America will wake up to the dangers around us and unite in an effort to defeat the evils that threaten our lives and freedoms.
No matter where that evil comes from!
I will NEVER forgive and I will NEVER forget!
Bravo, my friend, Bravo,
Thanks Brady! I consider this an honor, and indeed a DUTY, one that I accept wholeheartedly!
As an explanation; I didn’t know Sharon Balkcom, when the 2996 Project was founded they asked bloggers to take the name and story of a victim and post it on 9-11 on a yearly basis. If you didn’t know someone that had died and still wanted to participate they assigned you a victims name, and that was how I became familiar with Sharon Balkcom.
It is MY privilege to honor her here again this year, as well as all of the others that lost their lives to the terrorists!
Well done Fred, well done.
Forgiveness for this will only come to me if the Lord wills it so for me. So far, that has not happened and I WILL NEVER FORGET. Nor will I ever forget the islamic bastards that have hated for us and everything around them since islam’s inception around 672.
Time DOES NOT heal everything and at some point in my day, every day I am taken back to 9-11-2001.
Fred,
As long as people remember the sacrifices made that day, that men and women stood up and say, “not on my watch,” we are not totally lost. We must reclaim the spirt of ten years past, which is a long and arduous road, but with patriots such as you leading the way, we are not so far gone as to be “lost” are we?
Thank you my friend, and GOD BLESS YOU TEXAS FRED!
Smokey
Well done, Fred. May we never forget.
I’m with you Fred, every time I see the images or the vidoes from that day the anger comes back. We must never forget that day.
Good post Fred. I watched a TV as the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. It was obvious who did it and that it was an act of war. Knowing what Islam is all about now(I didn’t then), I can’t understand why the full might of the USA was not unleashed against the Islamic world. Have nothing but contempt for muslims and Islam. Will not be satisfied until the Islamic world is turned into the dung heap that it truly is. God bless the people that died on this day ten years ago and all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice since that day fighting the War on Terror. Some day, maybe, our leaders will wake up and see the true threat that is Islam.
Very nice Fred……Proud of you…
Thank you for giving me a face and person to mourn. In so many ways, my grief has been about ideas, not an individual. She was assasinated for the crime of being a free American who lived all of what America is about: success through self determination. I will never forget her. I will never forget to be thankful for the freedoms I have and enjoy because of the sacrifice of others.
Great post, Fred. Never forget.
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Pingback: Tribute’s to 9/11 ten years later | Boudica BPI Weblog
Hey Texas Fred,
Took a few minutes to realize I had to register before signing in. Came here from the recommendation of a mutual blogger friend, Bob Mack at Crockett Lives and added this link to my blog attributing 9/11. I elected to do a collection of links rather than writing a tribute and am still updating.
Tribute’s to 9/11 ten years later Boudica BPI Weblog
Bob A.
Bob A, Thank you for stopping by and I appreciate the linkage, I made a comment on your blog as well…
I hit more of your site and will add you to my blogroll.
Bob A.
We should always remember but never forgive. It is the Lord who will forgive or not, it is not for us.
Still in shock, still reeling.
Well said Fred.
Yesterday was a solemn day here in the AOW household. We watched news coverage and a 9/11 documentary, then attended a commemorative service at a small 9/11 memorial here. Once home, we sat in silence for a while.
Yes, I grieve. ” Innocence lost” as the title of this post says.
I’m also still very, very angry ten years later (Seems like yesterday!). This is the kind of anger that I’ll take with me to my grave.
Bravo Fred, your memorial to Sharon Balkcom is particularly good. The picture of the Angles with the Fireman is also very emotionally grabbing. As you say, there can be no doubt that the angles also wept that day, even as they ushered 2996 souls into heaven.
I posted a photo essay, words having failed me just as they did a decade ago in Germany as I learned of the attacks on our beloved nation.
I too will never forget.
You are a good man, Fred. Our President and others would prefer we forget the horror of 9/11. Obama has decided that 9/11 should now be known as Grandparents Day. We will not forget and we will always remember what happened that; there was an attack made against the whole idea of America and around 3000 people lost their lives. Those who find it not politically correct to recall what happened who did it are not Americans in my book.
Jim, I am seriously surprised at you, and many others on this *Grandparents Day* thing… I HATE Obama with every fiber of my being, but Obama did NOT decree Sept. 11, 2011 as Grandparents Day…
Obama may have wanted to redirect some thoughts and activities TO Grandparents Day, but he didn’t succeed, but he also had NOTHING to do with when the day fell…
Great post as always Fred. I still think about those that I knew and worked with that perished that day.
Never forget, never forgive.