Never Forget
[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]
It’s been my custom for a few years to post on Sept. 11 a column I wrote for National Review Online back in 2004, “Never Forget.” It was about one family, the Sullivans, who lost their son and brother, Patrick, in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
I’ve stayed in touch with the family over the years, and for this year’s anniversary I asked them to say a few words about Patrick, and about the plans to erect a mosque near the place where he was killed. The column that resulted, “Remembering Patrick Sullivan,” was posted Saturday afternoon on NRO. Here’s how it begins:
Patrick Sullivan would be 41 years old today. By now he probably would have had a family, and he and his wife and kids probably would have spent this summer in Breezy Point, out at the far western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula, where his parents and his two brothers have summer houses. He would have watched his kids playing with their grandparents and uncles and cousins on the beach, the same beach where he and his brothers played when they were young. He probably would have had a great life.
But Patrick never got married or had children, never got his house near the beach. He was one of the 2,606 people who were killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, one of the 2,977 Americans murdered by Islamic terrorists that morning nine years ago.
There’s no commenting allowed at NRO, so please feel free to click back and comment here after you’ve read the whole thing.
–Jack Dunphy
UPDATE: Some commenters have reported the links were down, but they seem to be working now. — Jack
It’s a poignant column and a reminder of a lot of guys who kept climbing stairs when they suspected they would never come down again alive.
Mike K (11fb04) — 9/12/2010 @ 7:34 amThere is a documentary on the History Channel detailing the 120 minutes from the beginning of the first tower being hit to the second tower coming down – almost all of the vids are handheld cameras made by ordinary citizens right in the midst of it all. Every single person under the age of 30 should be required to view this doc in their schools, so we’ll never have people in the future whining about how bigoted and unfair we all are for having the temerity to ask for some simple respect and decency that the mosque be built somewhere else.
Dmac (d61c0d) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:08 amIOW, Obama should have discussed his remarks to the families of the victims of 9/11 before he shot off his blowhole.
Dmac (d61c0d) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:09 amlinky is down.
enoch_root (174a66) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:13 amI’d be satisfied if ABC would release the DVD of “Path to 9/11.” I’d like to see the line again where some idiot says something about “Could the Muslims have done this ?” The other agent says “Who do you think did this. F**king Martians ?”
Mike K (11fb04) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:20 amYeah, when will that get released?
Oh, right. Never. Because it implicates Clinton or something. Who knows. We can’t see it.
Vivian Louise (c7cad6) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:28 amThe sounds in the background of the bodies falling is the spookiest most eerie sound I have ever heard.
JD (8ded14) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:28 amAn old post of mine. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. (I have no interest in blog traffic.)
http://krites.blogspot.com/2006/09/september-11-2001.html
nk (db4a41) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:42 amJack, Pat, and gang,
the Link is down, and the link from NR’s front page is also. Ergo, it’s busted somewhere internal to NR/NRO. I assume that’ll get fixed tomorrow if not today.
Some very good stuff on NR about the meaning of 9/11 and islam this weekend… particularly Andy McCarty’s piece, “Imagining Islam.”
Kevin R.C. O'Brien (fb53ad) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:57 amNK, liked yours
kishnevi (d07183) — 9/12/2010 @ 9:57 amMr. Dunphy, I wish I could like yours–but the link is down (‘404 not found’) even when I try to click through from NRO’s front page.
As of 1pm est, still down.
the other JD (5e45fa) — 9/12/2010 @ 10:01 amVery moving Mr. Jack. Memories of that day are as burned into my brain as where I was (a Senior in High School in Northern Virginia across from DC) when it was announced that President Kennedy had been shot and later that he was dead.
GM Roper (5f13e9) — 9/12/2010 @ 10:14 amMr. Dunphy, I am a civilian employee at LAPD. I’m often amused at how my liberal Democrat coworkers (the vast majority of my coworkers) sound like law-and-order Republicans when the issue is crime (obviously from working personally with police officers and finding them to be decent, professional people). Nonetheless, being liberals, just when you think they are coming to their senses, along comes an issue like the GZM and they see “fundamentalist Christians” as being a far greater threat to America than Islamic jihadists. One step forward, two steps back, I guess. Thank you for your service. I feel honored to be in a support position for so many fine officers.
LukeHandCool (3326e2) — 9/12/2010 @ 12:05 pmThey made an interesting point. In the nine years since 9/11 no Muslim individual or group has approached them to offer their condolences on their loss, but the people behind the ground zero mosque are saying they’re doing it to build bridges. Why not start by contacting the families of those who were murdered on 9/11 and then build a mosque?
Jim S. (10455b) — 9/12/2010 @ 12:50 pmA good man lost … and all the good he undoubtedly would have done in his life has been lost, too. My condolences to Patrick’s family and my thanks to Jack Dunphy for this tribute.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 9/12/2010 @ 2:34 pmGreat articles, Jack. Condolences to all, to so many.
Patricia (358f54) — 9/12/2010 @ 5:33 pmWe stood united as a country for a brief time after 9/11, and it felt really good in spite of the pain. I will never – never – forgive Democrats for the way they sabotaged our war efforts and tore down our president for purely political purposes, in the process dividing the country and almost costing us victory in Iraq, not to mention the civil war in Iraq they would have caused if their dastardly efforts had succeeded. They have never cared about the actual victims of 9/11, only about how to win back power from a president who managed to unite the entire country behind him, if only for a short time. Patrick’s death, bluntly put, would have had more meaning were it not for the true evil and lust for power exhibited by Democrats during the 2002-2007 period. Truly despicable and utterly unforgivable.
stout77 (a8d3e4) — 9/12/2010 @ 5:44 pmThanks again, “Jack”.
The Sullivans are close family friends, as was Patrick. We were all at a bachelor party at Belmont Park for a mutual friend on 9/9/01. It was the last time most of us saw our friend, though of course we had no idea. Also, their nephew and cousin, Peter Milano, was also murdered that day. You hear words like “tragedy” or “occurrence”. It was MURDER, and it would be refreshing if someone said that every so often. Paddy and Mary, who are long-time friends of my parents, were part of the ambulance crew that tried to revive my dad last December 26th after his fatal heart attack. Their view hasn’t changed one bit; Islam is evil and it murdered their son and brother. If this Imam was for real, his first move would have been to talk to families like the Sullivans. But his agenda is the world dominance of his sick twisted death cult. He can burn in hell.
Bugg (996c34) — 9/13/2010 @ 6:30 amI’m willing to forget.
Right after the last Muslim terrorist on earth dies under a hail of American napalm.
Dave Surls (7d7188) — 9/13/2010 @ 10:52 pm