TexasFred remembers Sharon Balkcom - The 2996 Project
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 will let my tribute to you help ease my anger a bit, this is about YOU dear Lady, and your memory! You are NOT forgotten!
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.
I will burn an Eternal Flame in your honor Sharon! Rest in Peace.
No words at this time…just quiet to let you know I care…
Rest in peace Sharon
Norm
May all the victims of this brutal and vicious attack rest in the arms of angels and may those who loved them find comfort in knowing that many of us will never forget them.
Like you Fred, my outrage will never subside. And when those who find it easy to dismiss this attack and side with the terrorists or bad mouth those who have worked to keep this from happening again, I get very, very nasty. I truly don’t understand how anyone can dismiss the injustice of all these lives lost for NOTHING. In my mind, that is what Islamofascists are… nothing.
God Bless their memory and bless you for this wonderful post.
A very nice tribute for this young lady and all those who fell on that fateful day. To many that day is history, but to me its just yesterday.
Thanks for the post. It is so very important to remember that fateful day. So many seem to forget…
And Sharon is just one of the persons we knew. What of the man photographed head-first falling to his death from WTC? What of this anonymous man? And why is it that we seem, nationally, to — any more — not much care?
Why is it we seem so globally damned determined to cuddle Islam?
BZ
Well done, Fred. I am remembering William (Bill) Godshalk.
Today I will not be posting much. I’m to busy remembering what happened. A year or two ago on another website I posted the thirteen names of the people that I knew that perished that day. Then a friend and former co-worker read it, and let me know that the number was actually much higher…
Folks, PLEASE, just a reminder, no tacky comments, not today…
Tomorrow we can re-declare war on the left and Obama’s Day of Service, but PLEASE, just for today, civility and dignity…
A cross-section of innocent people were in those airplanes and buildings on that terrible day in September. Many lives, families, and communities were impacted by those fateful events. We cannot bring those lost lives back to us, but we can surely remember them and make a firm resolve to do what we can to never allow it to happen again.
Fred, as always, a beautiful tribute. Brat, Katie and our friends have been helping out at my place and they’ve done a great job. I’ve had family emergencies, but this is one day-and I will never forget, I will never forgive the b*****ds, and I will renew the effort, with friends like you, Ben and the rest, to keep hammering home these people are NOT our friends, regardless of how our government chooses to see them.
I still weep for the families and the absolute senselessness of this attack, weep out of anger and outrage and empathy for the families, for the heroes, the ordinary men and women who gave their lives helping others, who stepped up to the plate because of the goodness of their hearts, the victims…all of them.
This is OUR Pearl Harbor and it should NEVER be forgotten or minimized.
Beautiful rememberance Fred. All of our heartfelt condolences go out to these family’s who lost their loved ones and had to endure this awful act of cowardism from a bunch of hateful people in the name of religion.
May God give them peace, and to the terrorists, may they burn in hell for all eternity. For the muslims that are still alive and enjoying the freedoms of this country, and won’t condemm these people……. you’re just as guilty as they are and your time is coming. You can bet on it.
I’ve spent much of today reading posts about those our nation lost on 9/11. So many — and the Project 2,996 tributes makes the losses personal for me even though I didn’t personally know anyone who perished that day.
As a teacher, I weep when I read that we lost Sharon Balkom — woman who was so dedicated to the importance of a good education.
That’s a classy tribute to a classy lady. Well done, Fred.