September 11, 2011

Many years ago I participated in the tribute to the 2996 people that died in the Militant Islamic Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  Lots of changes in my life, a scouring of my blog (I deleted it and started over) and somehow this tribute was lost.  Well, I dug it up again and would like to remember Thomas Pedecini's life cut short.  Thomas would be 40 now.  Rest in peace Mr. Pedecini, hopefully they play guitars in heaven.

Thomas E. Pedicini, age 30 died on September 11, 2001.

Place killed: World Trade Center.
Resident of Hicksville, N.Y. (USA).

Thomas Pedicini never strayed too far from a guitar. His brother-in- law Raymond Morace's earliest recollection of him is as "a skinny 13- year-old kid jumping around his room playing air guitar" to Van Halen. In his mother's last memory of him, he is teaching his 11-year-old cousin how to play, a few days before his death.

In between, Mr. Pedicini, 30, an easygoing sort and seemingly effortless golfer, studied business and had been working as a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald since 1998, a job he got through another brother-in-law, Mark Colaio, who died with him.

After Sept. 11, in Mr. Pedicini's apartment in Woodside, Queens, one of his roommates found a tape of him strumming and singing his way through some of his favorite tunes. "He was too shy even to show it to me, but I could hear him in there singing and playing so I knew he was up to doing something," said the roommate, Jordan Zed. He gave the tape to Mr. Pedicini's parents. More musical memories.

But Mr. Zed remembers Mr. Pedicini mostly as a decent human being whose life was going somewhere. "You'd sit around and talk about where you see yourself in five years," he said. "He had dreams and goals. He wanted to eventually find the right girl and settle down and have a family and work his way up in the firm. It seems so sad."




As September 11th nears, I suggest we all take a break from the business of politics and remember the victims, Americans and Muslims (and I'm not referring to the terrorists) and Jews and Blacks and Whites and most of all PEOPLE who died in this terrible attack.

Rest in Peace Thomas
~

Free

She walked over and asked me if I needed anything.  

"I'm good, thank you.  I like your glasses."  (she did have pretty nice glasses, being a glasses wearer, I appreciate a good pair of peepers)

She then tells me that she got her glasses for free (she was very proud of her free glasses).

Now, glasses cost money.  I've never heard of free glasses.  Unless maybe her parents purchased her some glasses in a two for one deal?  Sorry, somebody says this kind of thing to me and I must know.

"Really, free.  How did you manage to acquire nice glasses like that free?"

She then responds, "Medicare."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Oh lord.  I pointed out, as nicely as I could, that when she received her very nice glasses at no cost to her, they still cost someone money.  That someone is likely someone like me.  And I told her that she could thank me, by picking up the cost of my breakfast (it was only $8.43).

She then responded that she didn't even have five dollars to her name.

So class, let's recap:
Girl doesn't have any money
Girl gets "free" glasses that likely run $150
Medicare pays the bill
Girl still doesn't have any money
But the real cost of those glasses, when you factor in the amount of money that it takes to run the government is a lot more than $150

And girl has to live with the knowledge that someone paid for her glasses.  Just not her.

I do not think that this is a good thing.
The young lady with the nice glasses agreed with me.  She said she would rather have a good job and make the money to pay for her glasses herself.

When will politicians learn?


free (fre) adj. fre·er, fre·est
1. Not imprisoned or enslaved; being at liberty.
2. Not controlled by obligation or the will of another: felt free to go.
3.
a. Having political independence: "America . . . is the freest and wealthiest nation in the world" (Rudolph W. Giuliani).
b. Governed by consent and possessing or granting civil liberties: a free citizenry.
c. Not subject to arbitrary interference by a government: a free press.
4.
a. Not affected or restricted by a given condition or circumstance: a healthy animal, free of disease; free from need.
b. Not subject to a given condition; exempt: income that is free of all taxes.
5. Not subject to external restraint: "Comment is free but facts are sacred" (Charles Prestwich Scott).
6. Not literal or exact: a free translation.
7.
a. Costing nothing; gratuitous: a free meal...