I had missed this story until my Dad passed it along... I think it garners your attention... so in case you missed it too:
Jamie Gadiel was 23 years old when he died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
The handsome young man with the brownish hair worked on the 23rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Jamie loved his job as an assistant trader for Cantor Fitzgerald as much as he loved the New York Mets.
Every single day, Peter Gadiel misses his wonderful son, the boy who grew up in the Litchfield County enclave of Kent. Gadiel resents the lost holidays, the wedding that will never be, the grandchildren who will never run up and hug his leg.
And no one can blame him.
"Under ordinary circumstances -- or as ordinary as somebody murdering your son can be -- I would not want to have any reference to my son's murderer," Gadiel said Friday.
"But these aren't ordinary circumstances. This country is suffering from intentional amnesia about what happened on 9/11. It's deplorable."
As much as Gadiel wants his son to be remembered as one of the 2,973 victims who were killed that day, he wants the 9/11 co-conspirators -- the "Muslim extremists," he calls them -- to be remembered as murderers.
This fall, Gadiel and the Kent Board of Selectmen have been at odds over the best way to pay tribute to Jamie, a true favorite son.
Both sides believe a memorial at Town Hall is appropriate. It's the wording that is keeping this wound raw.
Gadiel wants six lines inscribed on a plaque that will be set in a stone on the Town Hall's front lawn:
James Gadiel
Born February 3, 1978
A gentleman and a gentle man
A lifelong resident of Kent
Murdered by Muslim extremists
September 11, 2001
It is the fifth line -- "murdered by Muslim extremists" -- that has struck a nerve in this quaint New England town and all across America on network TV, national talk radio, blogs and other forums primed for debate.
Kent First Selectman Ruth Epstein and the Board of Selectmen have asked Gadiel to strike the "murdered by Muslim extremists" line from his son's planned memorial.
Town officials say the wording isn't supported by residents, whose money would be used to pay for a memorial plaque.
Gadiel, a 30-year Kent resident, refuses to delete the "murdered by Muslim extremists" line.
Two days ago, political correctness led to the deaths of 13 of this country's military members at Fort Hood, Texas. In this story, we have political correctness restraining a father's attempt to honor and memorialize his son properly and truthfully.
At what point will this kind of madness be seen for what it is... total and absolute inanity and idiocy.
God bless this grieving father.
God curse those who stand and protect evil while calling it good.
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