Posted on 09/06/2006 8:52:24 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
In the next few days you’ll hear a lot about the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001. I’d like to tell you about just two of them, two people whose names I look for every time I see a list of the casualties. Let me tell you about Ted’s wife and Ryan and Dylan’s dad.
Barbara Olson started out as a ballerina and ended up as a famous lawyer. She danced with the San Francisco Ballet and the Harkness Ballet in New York City, then moved on to Hollywood because working as an assistant producer would allow her to save up for law school. She worked for Stacy Keach’s production company and HBO before going to Yeshiva University. She eventually served as an Assistant U.S. attorney and as chief investigative counsel for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, where she looked into Travelgate and Filegate. After the publication of her bestseller “Hell to Pay” she became a frequent guest on TV political shows to represent the conservative point of view.
Her husband Ted said she was a popular guest because she was “very direct” but at the same time “very pleasant.” She could disagree without a trace of rancor, a sunny smile on her beautiful face. But she wasn’t just a talking head. “She was always full of energy, sparkling all the time,” her husband told Newsday, adding that “his three small granddaughters would follow her around ‘like little ducks’” and “thought she was the best thing in the world.”
Barbara was on Flight 77 because she had shifted her schedule to spend more time with Ted for his birthday. He talked to her just before she died. Ted Olson was the Solicitor General at the time, and she called to tell him they’d been hijacked, asking him what she should tell the pilot. They had time to discuss personal matters and reassure each other, and then, he said, “the connection was broken.” Not long after that, Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
John Moran also had an ambition to be a lawyer and held a law degree from Fordham University. But firefighting was the family business and more suited to his personality, so he joined the FDNY. In an irony that must be especially painful for her, John met his wife Kim on September 11, 1990. His fire station was across the street from her apartment. “I just fell in love with him instantly,” she said a few days after his death, while she and their sons, 7 year old Ryan and 4 year old Dylan, were still hoping he’d come home.
John didn’t have to be in the World Trade Center that day. A Battalion Chief with 22 years of service, he was part of the department’s Special Operations Command, which oversees special rescue companies, fireboats, hazmat units and major incidents. He had just finished a shift, but when the call came in, he “jumped in the truck and away they went,” Kim said.
John’s funeral was conducted by his uncle, Father Paul Moran. John was lost he said, on “a mission of love.” Mayor Giuliani asked for the mourners to give John a standing ovation and said he wanted the Moran boys “to understand for their entire life that their father is a great man.” His brother Michael, a firefighter who survived serving at the Trade Center—and later became famous for defiantly telling Osama bin-Laden to come to Rockaway and kiss his “royal Irish ass”—said “I didn't see him there that day, but now I see him all the time.”
But the best eulogy a man could ask for was what his relatives told Newsday just a few days after his death. Kim Moran said, “He's the love of my life…a wonderful father, a great husband. There's nobody more generous than John.” His cousin, Democrat Congressman Joe Crowley described him as “a Viking Irishman who has calves thicker than my thighs, the heart of lion and touch of a teddy bear.”
I picked John and Barbara because they were both members of Free Republic, an internet forum I’ve posted to for years, but I didn’t know either of them. I didn’t even cross paths with them and “know” them in the online sense, as far as I remember. But that’s irrelevant. I could have picked any of those we lost that day and found something glorious or generous or beautiful about them that would have amazed you the way John’s bravery and Barbara’s joy and determination amaze me.
We didn’t lose almost 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, almost 3,000 times.
In a sense, Giuliani was right on that bright September afternoon when he said that we had lost “more than we can bear.”
Howlin, what a beautiful photo of BKO.
Breaks my heart.
I was in utter shock when the second plane hit, but the tears didnt start flowing until word came that Barbara was on the plane that hit the Pentagon. It seemed so many things were happening so fast all at once, but Barbara was that human connection I experienced while sitting in my living room at home a few thousand miles away. When they talked of how she relayed information just before it crashed, I felt like every soul lost that day was mine.
God rest BKO and the nearly 3000 others who were killed that day.
Thank you.
I was trying to do my best, it's the least they deserve.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
I might have to take the day off from work.
It is a defining day of my existence.
Thanks so much for posting that Malkin link! I'm going to look at Roe's site and if he's got slots left I'll move up the launch of my blog so I can participate.
For those who have never heard it, I hope you enjoy it. It was written in honor of John Moran and the rest of those brave souls who were lost. This was inspired by Mike's challenge to Osama bin Laden. I had the great pleasure about after the song was released to join Mike and some NY FReepers in a night of beer drinking at a NY pub.
God bless Barbara and John aka BKO and BCM.
I wasn't a FReeper yet on that horrible day. I wish I would've been.
Finding you wonderful people, that understand the real dangers in this world, has been a comfort and a motivator in my personal and political life.
Your principles and memory live on, BKO and BCM. I'm thankful and proud to be a member of Free Republic.
Thanks, Red.
Hey, yes SF my dear best friend! you were there too! Wasn't she just the loveliest person we would ever want to meet! I agree about the human connection on 9/11. Later when we found out she was onboard one of the planes, I hoped it was not true. I have a photo of one of the memorials, and her name is on it. Such a beautiful person she was. Hope all is well with you! I love and miss you girl!
Thanks, Bayb.
Thanks, I'm humbled.
More than anything I've written before, this was an honor. I was glad to take the time.
I was fairly familiar with BCM before 911 and he had some outstanding posts. I learned about BKO in the days following.
I learned great respect for her(BKO) and couldn't imagine the loss Ted felt. She is a lady to the end.
The dems are too crazy in their grab for power to bring attention to wonderfull people like these.
Let them live forever in our hearts and minds.
You did a great job! Thank you very much. Barbara has been on my mind a lot lately. Such a great woman!
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