9-11-01 In Remembrance
Posting this passage from my newest book 'Soul of Goodness' as I hold in my thoughts and heart all the beautiful souls whose lives were taken on September 1, 2001:
"I’d planned to visit the 9/11 Memorial right after its opening, while I was there to present 'Constitution Café: Jefferson’s Brew for a True Revolution', at the vaunted Strand Book Store. My father’s death—on September 17 of that year, on our nation’s Constitution Day—forced me to cancel those plans (and much of the remainder of my book tour).
I did return to New York and its environs some months after my father’s funeral to visit the 9/11 Memorial. I had told my father that I was going to do so, and it clearly meant a lot to him that I would say a prayer of remembrance at the bronze inscription of my cousin, John A. Katsimatides, a Nisyrian (Greek) like me by roots who was raised mostly in Astoria. John was working that day of September 11, 2001, in his office at Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment advisor, on the 104th floor of the North Tower. He was among the nearly three thousand killed at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He was thirty-one.
I did not personally know John, who by all accounts was good natured, giving, and driven to succeed. I did know his sister Anthoula, starting from the time I presented to the Nisyrian Society of New York and she interviewed me for a Greek radio program about my Socrates Café effort. My multitalented cousin is an accomplished actress for stage, television, and screen, as well as a produc- er (her newest documentary is on the Academy Award–winning Greek actress Olympia Dukakis). When John was killed, she already was grieving the loss of her younger brother Mike, an ebullient yet sensitive soul who felt all the hurts of the world and had committed suicide two years earlier. After the terrorist attack, Anthoula became director of family relations at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. She pitched in with every ounce of energy and passion to the rebuilding and the healing effort. Besides accepting an appointment to the board of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Anthoula formed a nonprofit in memory of her brothers—the JAM for Life Foundation (JAM is short for Johnny and Mikey)—that “seeks to promote . . . music education, cancer research, aid for underprivileged youth, suicide prevention and the rights of crime victims by donating funds . . . to charities that embody the spirt, character and lives of John and Mike . . . and promote the well-being of the community while perpetuating John and Mike’s legacy and honoring the lives of two special individuals.� (This was the main inspiration that prompted me to start my own project to honor my father’s legacy, the annual Alexander Phillips Arete Award.)"
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"I’d planned to visit the 9/11 Memorial right after its opening, while I was there to present 'Constitution Café: Jefferson’s Brew for a True Revolution', at the vaunted Strand Book Store. My father’s death—on September 17 of that year, on our nation’s Constitution Day—forced me to cancel those plans (and much of the remainder of my book tour).
I did return to New York and its environs some months after my father’s funeral to visit the 9/11 Memorial. I had told my father that I was going to do so, and it clearly meant a lot to him that I would say a prayer of remembrance at the bronze inscription of my cousin, John A. Katsimatides, a Nisyrian (Greek) like me by roots who was raised mostly in Astoria. John was working that day of September 11, 2001, in his office at Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment advisor, on the 104th floor of the North Tower. He was among the nearly three thousand killed at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He was thirty-one.
I did not personally know John, who by all accounts was good natured, giving, and driven to succeed. I did know his sister Anthoula, starting from the time I presented to the Nisyrian Society of New York and she interviewed me for a Greek radio program about my Socrates Café effort. My multitalented cousin is an accomplished actress for stage, television, and screen, as well as a produc- er (her newest documentary is on the Academy Award–winning Greek actress Olympia Dukakis). When John was killed, she already was grieving the loss of her younger brother Mike, an ebullient yet sensitive soul who felt all the hurts of the world and had committed suicide two years earlier. After the terrorist attack, Anthoula became director of family relations at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. She pitched in with every ounce of energy and passion to the rebuilding and the healing effort. Besides accepting an appointment to the board of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Anthoula formed a nonprofit in memory of her brothers—the JAM for Life Foundation (JAM is short for Johnny and Mikey)—that “seeks to promote . . . music education, cancer research, aid for underprivileged youth, suicide prevention and the rights of crime victims by donating funds . . . to charities that embody the spirt, character and lives of John and Mike . . . and promote the well-being of the community while perpetuating John and Mike’s legacy and honoring the lives of two special individuals.� (This was the main inspiration that prompted me to start my own project to honor my father’s legacy, the annual Alexander Phillips Arete Award.)"
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