Original Song by Laura Casale - This is a Tribute to ALL of our AMERICAN HEROES for this 10th Anniversary of 9/11. I was specifically inspired by spending time with Firefighter friends at Ladder Co.10 on Liberty Street, next to Ground Zero, and was touched to the core beyond what I had anticipated. Growing up in NY, I watched the Twin Towers as they were being built. It was always what I knew New York City to look like. I will never forget the morning of September 11th, 2001, as I watched in horror on TV, from San Diego, the attack on the Twin Towers, and the place and State of my birth, the place I loved to visit and knew growing up for my first 21 years, my home. Being a mother of a son who had just joined the Army that year, I had the sensing as I was watching that we were under attack and the chances of my son going to war was imminent. I was feeling for the victims of the event, and feeling for the future victims of war. As it turned out, my son, who was in the Arctic brigade in Alaska, trained and his brigade was schedule to go to Iraq the year after he was relieved of his duty from the Army. However, those 3 years had me on pins and needles, not knowing that any time he could be called to go into the heat of war. My heart will always go out to ALL military moms! I did have friends who had sons who did end up fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq - infact a son of my best friend who I had baby sat and diapered at one time was one of the first of the 173rd airborne paratroopers to drop down into Afghanistan to find and hunt down Al Qaida.
This year of 2011 was my first time coming back to Ground Zero, since 9/11 and once I arrived on that corner, my throat started to choke and I started to feel the magnitude and a broader sense of the actual event and also a sense of mourning. About an hour after my visit, I literally broke down in tears.
The night before we visited Engine Co. 10, my friend, Stuey, who I was great friends with growing up on Long Island and who was an Asst. Fire Chief with the U.S. Coast Guard in the NY Harbor onGovernors Island and is now at the Coast Guard Training Center in New Jersey, showed me a video he had of 9/11, which was a documentary view from the eyes of the Firefighters, and also about "Probies"..new firefighters just out of the academy. A French film maker was in NYC at the time of September 2001, planning to do a special on these firefighters, when the World Trade Center was attacked. He followed them through the horrific events of the day. In the video it is evident how this event turned boys into men. I was touched as I heard them speak and tell their stories of how they felt, and what they witnessed. The next day we were invited to visit Ladder Co. 10, the firehouse next to Ground zero. Coupled with the video I had just seen the night before, and my visit there, it was inevitable that I was touched and moved to my very core. Two days after I returned from my trip to NY, I could not help but write this song, and have been consumed with getting my thoughts out in audio and video format ever since.
Also, just a couple days, after I started writing the song, I heard that the Firefighters and Police Officers were not invited to the 9/11 memorial service. This really broke my heart, and I thought...."what kind of backward world do we live in?" Of ALL the people invited, they should be the first!
While at Ladder Co. 10 on Liberty Street, Firefighter Jerry Cameron hosted us and gave us a tour of the firehouse. At the time, I had no idea I would be writing a song or doing a video. Jerry allowed me to take any pictures or video I wanted. So I did, just purely from a visitors stand point, and to share later with my family and friends. So the video footage and photography you see in the video is all mine, accept for a few pictures I had to get from google, due to the subject matter. They are some of the scenes of that dreadful day, as I had to find scenes that would paint the appropriate scene with the lyrics. I didn't want to put another video out there with planes crashing into the towers, or people running and fleeing in fear and horror! Although, we must never forget, I felt that it was my mission on this project to honor our heroes, and tried to make this more of a Tribute to them which was honorable and victorious, showing some of the destruction, but minimally. It is my hope that people around the world will have even more respect and have a greater appreciation for these people who protect us both inside this country, as well as all others who do the same in laying down their own lives for others in countries outside of the USA. I also hope these men and woman in service to humanity will feel the appreciation from the majority of the grass roots population, even if they do not receive the proper recognition from their current government officials and politicians!
THank you for reading, listening, watching and sharing!
God Bless everyone!
Laura Casale
Loading...
3:09
Imagine (Tribute to John Lennon)by lcasale805 views
SUPERHEROES INDEED! They were the first casulties of the "War on Terror". I
worked on the 86th Floor of WTC in the 80's and I can not even imagine the sheer
horror that occurred that day. I can not wrap my head around it. EVIL with a D. The
"D"EVIL's Work! To not invite them to the 911 Memorial was wrong. Have we become that disconnected as a society? Sorry to ramble on....U hit a nerve!
PEACE & LOVE ALWAYS :)
linkomusic 4 months ago in playlist More videos from lcasale
@linkomusic Thank you Linko! I am with you on ALL you have just stated!
lcasale 4 months ago