OT ... 911 and Blowback.. Message 17970368
<...Those 343--they were mostly tough Catholic men with soft hearts from the outer boroughs. They were Italians and Irish and Poles and Puerto Ricans, and they lined up for absolution, received a blessing and ran into the buildings lugging their gear. Their funerals were at Our Lady Queen of Peace, and St. Rose of Lima Church. And sometimes at the funerals they played an old '70s song whose title you'll never hear the same way again: "Stairway to Heaven."
The other day I got a letter from the mother of Michael Dermott Mullan, Ladder 12, Engine 3, 19th Chelsea. He was a graduate of Holy Cross High School, a registered nurse attending Hunter College School of Nursing, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves stationed at Fort Totten, and a New York City fireman. He must have been some guy, Michael Mullen. His mother wanted all of us to know who he was. She wrote, "He was dedicated to the well being and protection of his fellow man." She wrote, "He was second generation Irish by way of County Tipperary, County Down and County Kerry." She wrote, "He loved his God, his Country, his family and his city." >
I'd be surprised if a US Army Captain was donating money to the IRA.
But with luck, a few of them were donors to the IRA and the good guys didn't get got. Every one that was IRA-supporting means another innocent person got away.
It always amuses me that they were "Irish, Puerto Rican, Italian ... etc " Why aren't they just American? I don't go on about my ancestors' origins. I'm just me. A Kiwi.
Maybe if they would just be them, they wouldn't send money to terrorists who they naively believe are defending Catholics or something... paying back for the potato famine.... or gaining freedom from the Protestant suppression of the 19th or 18th century... or some equally wacky idea.
Mqurice |
