Honoring 9/11 victims

Today is the 8th anniversary of that tragic day. As I thought of making my comeback to blogging, I thought no greater post could I make than to once again honor those who perished that day. So I’m not starting with politics. As I did 3 years ago, I gave my blog a simpler theme and limited it to showing one post.

First, I honor Scott Hazelcorn, an employee at Cantor Fitzgerald. Here’s what I posted last year.

“…Hazelcorn, 29, was a trader of long-term treasury bonds at Cantor Fitzgerald; his girlfriend, Amy Callahan, was a special-education teacher. The pair had plans for a summer camp for needy kids. Scott often told his parents that he wanted to buy an ice cream truck, so he could hear the squeals of children all day.”

This year, I also asked to remember someone else so I could learn about them. The name I received was George A. Llanes. George worked for Carr Futures on the 92nd floor of World Trade Center North tower. A poignant post by his step dad can be found here.

Google books has part of the book Portraits of 9/11 which starts off with,

George Llanes was a sensitive, studious child, the kind that classmates often teased.

George was an only child and didn’t move out of his parents house until he was nearly 34, shortly before his death, because he had started smoking and he wanted to get a dog, both of which would give his mother allergy attacks.

It appears that George was a funny guy cracking jokes and making people laugh. You can read tributes to him here.

He was also a poet. He had given his mother a bound copy of his poems and when they cleaned out his apartment after his death, they found poems everywhere.

It was Mr. Llanes devotion to his dog, that led to his death. The dog,

a pug named Mae Mae, persuaded him to rejigger his work schedule. He switched to a schedule of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. from an ordinary one of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., despite a lifelong aversion to getting up early.

Had he been on his normal schedule, George would have not yet been at work on that fateful morning.

Two men. One sunny and outgoing. The other, a shy poet. Both dead much too early.

This day is Scott’s and George’s.

Project 2996 is the driving force behind these tributes. Here is their Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, become a fan. If you have a blog, post a tribute. If you don’t, you can still honor a victim.

Filed under: History, September 11 , 9/11, George A. Llanes, Scott Hazelcorn, terrorism, World Trade Center

Scott Hazelcorn (8/14/1972 – 9/11/2001)

Today is the 7th anniversary of that tragic day. No politics today. As I did 2 years ago, I honor Scott Hazelcorn, an employee at Cantor Fitzgerald. Here’s what I posted then,

The thing about 9/11 is that it didn’t matter what creed or ideology you subscribed to. Like Scott Hazelcorn. Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian or independent, the fact remains that his life was snuffed out at a much too young age.

I can’t read far in the memorial guest book without tears welling up in my eyes for a young man taken from his family and friends far too soon.

I found it so moving, I’m going to quote the New York Times page on Scott.

Dream of an Ice Cream Truck

“At a memorial service for Scott Hazelcorn, his father learned that there were at least a dozen people who considered his son their best friend. This was not the result of duplicity, Charles Hazelcorn said, but rather a function of Scott’s open heart and sunny nature. Each eulogist put it differently: your problem was his problem; he made each person feel he was the only one in the room; he taught people to hug each other; he was the one who made work fun.

“‘Nobody enjoyed life more, from the minute he got up to the minute he went to sleep,’ his father said. And to that end there were ‘Haz’s Rules,’ which included setting the clock radio to a Spanish language station, which he could not understand, so he never had to start the day listening to bad news.

“The younger Mr. Hazelcorn, 29, was a trader of long-term treasury bonds at Cantor Fitzgerald; his girlfriend, Amy Callahan, was a special-education teacher. The pair had plans for a summer camp for needy kids. Scott often told his parents that he wanted to buy an ice cream truck, so he could hear the squeals of children all day.

“When Cantor Fitzgerald spun off a company called eSpeed, which allowed clients to do their own trading, Mr. Hazelcorn’s work group shrank from 30 to 4. In a few months, it was to disappear altogether, his father said. To his son that was good news: between yearly raises, bonuses and stock options in eSpeed, he was planning to buy that ice cream truck.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 9, 2001.”

As a tribute to Scott, his family formed The Scott Hazelcorn Children’s Foundation. Its purpose has been to offer a one-week, all expense paid summer experience for children who lost a loved one on September 11, 2001. The goal of Camp Haze is to provide these children with refuge from worry and grief, a network of peers and a staff that understands their unique emotional needs. Starting in the summer of 2006 children, ages 7-12, who have lost a loved one to illness or tragedy are also eligible.

The camp accepts donations online.

The camp has more about Scott.

This will be my only post today. No partisan politics. No insightful commentary. No witty or odd headlines. And I gave my blog a simpler theme and limited it to showing one post.

Tomorrow partisan bickering resumes. After all there’s an election to be won. But not today.

This day is Scott’s.

Here is a list of more tributes.

UPDATE: There are too many tributes to list but you can go to silent E and No Runny Eggs for their list. Here’s also tributes from the campaigns:
McCain/Palin Campaign
Obama/Biden Campaign

Filed under: History, September 11

Project 2996

Via Ol’ Broad

Sadly, it’s that time of year again when we honor those who died on 9/11.  The 2996 Project is looking for some bloggers who will honor at least one of our lost.  Time is short, so please, if you want to put a little time into a project, please go here, send an email letting them know you want to participate.  You’ll be assigned a name, and it will be up to you as how much, or how little you’ll post about the person.

Hear, hear. I hope they get inundated with requests from folks on all points of the political spectrum.

If you knew someone you might be able to request their name. I honored Scott Hazelcorn in 2006 and asked for his name again this year.

If you would like to participate (you don’t have to be a blogger), go to this page and sign up.

You can also send an email to .

He explained the resons behind last year’s drop-off:

In 2007, Project 2996 was scaled back a bit. Health concerns and job market difficulties made it impossible to match the time I devoted to it in 2006.

Even still, several hundred people took the time to write tributes to the fallen, and pledges to remember them still.

(Cross posted at Fairly Conservative).

Filed under: History, September 11 , Project 2996, September 11

McCain-Obama joint statement on 9/11

So far it only appears on John McCain’s site,

“On September 11, 2008, we will join together to mark the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero.

“All of us came together on 9/11 — not as Democrats or Republicans — but as Americans. In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils — we were united as one American family. On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity, to honor the memory of each and every American who died, and to grieve with the families and friends who lost loved ones. We will also give thanks for the firefighters, police, and emergency responders who set a heroic example of selfless service, and for the men and women who serve today in defense of the freedom and security that came under attack in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.”

Good. 9/11 does not belong to any particular party or persuasion.

As noted below, they will appear jointly at Ground Zero.

Filed under: 2008, Elections, September 11, presidential , 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, John McCain, September 11