Continued From Front Page:
Independance Day Tribute to The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Massacre

On September 11, 2001, terrorist utilized American owned aircraft as weapons against mankind, resulting in the largest massacre on American soil. To date 3041 people have been confirmed dead,

As of June 18, 2002, AP  reported 2650 people  who worked at the World Trade Center, have been confirmed deceased by local or federal government officials, the person's family, a named spokesman for the person's employer or a named funeral home official. 

The Department of Defense reports a total of 125 service members, employees and contract workers died in the September 11 attack on the Pentagon building

American Airlines Flight 11, from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center with 92 people on board; 11 crewmembers and 81 passengers. Seven were employees of TJ Max. Two were employees of Qantas Airlines, one being a citizen of Australia. Four were employees of Ratheon. Daniel Lewin, co-founder and CTO of Akamai Technologies also perished on Flight 11, as did Edmund Glazer, chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration of MRV Communications.

United Airlines Flight 175, from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, was the second hijacked plane to strike the World Trade Center, plowing into the south tower, with 65 people onboard; 9 crewmembers and 56 passengers.  Amongst those who perished on Flight 175 are; Wolfgang Menzel, Klaus Bothe and Heinrich Kimmig of Germany.   Menzel was the director of human resources, Blothe was chief executive officer and Kimmig was  chairman and chief executive officer of BCT Technology AG .

American Airlines Flight 77, from Washington to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon with 64 people aboard; 6 crewmembers and 58 passengers. Among the passengers were two staff members of National Geographic, Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying  three teachers; James Debeuneure, Sarah Clark and Hilda Taylor and their  11-year-old students; Rodney Dickens, Asia Cottom and Bernard Brown,  who had been selected to participate in an educational project in California. The Falkenberg Family, Charles, director of Research for ECOlogic Technologies, his wife Leslie, and their two daughters 8-year-old Zoe and 3-year-old Dana, who were traveling to Australia. Others lost on Flight 77 include: Wiley Rein & Fielding partner, Karen Kincaid ;  UCSB Women's Gymnastics Coach, Mari-Rae Sopper and senior vice president of government relations for Genzyme Corp, Lisa Raines. 

United Airlines Flight 93, from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, crashed in rural southwest Pennsylvania, with 45 people on board, 7 crewmembers and 38 passengers. Among the lost passengers were Christine Snyder of the Outdoor Circle; Richard Guadagno employee of The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Lauren Grandcolas advertising sales consultant for Good Housekeeping magazine; Jeremy Glick reported to have been the passenger who told his wife "The men voted to attack the terrorists"; Thomas E. Burnett Jr chief operating officer of Thoratec Corp, known for its creation of heart assist pumps and Mark Bingham reported to have told his mother "that some passengers planned to try to regain control of the plane."

I watched the televised reports of the attack, I listened to radio reports, I read newspaper articles and I searched websites for information. While every piece of information I assimilated affected me, none affected me more than the televised report on Cantor Fitzgerald's notoriously hard-edged CEO with a big heart, Howard Lutnick. The quest of this man to locate his 657 employees touched me more deeply than any other report I witnessed. I have since been on a quest to watch Howard Lutnick and his company Cantor Fitzgerald.

Lutnick was late arriving to work on September 11 because he was dropping his 5-year-old son off for his first day of kindergarden. An additional 75 employees were spared because they were scheduled to begin work at 9 AM and had just arrived at the WTC when the first plane hit. Lutnick traveled from hospital to hospital, shelter to shelter trying to locate his employees. His emotional outcry overwhelmed me, as did his competitors attempts to take advantage of his emotional crises. Lutnick has pledged 25% of his profits to the families of the victims of the September 11 massacre, he has set up a relief fund in which 100% of the money donated to the Relief Fund is disbursed directly to the families, in monetary compensation, emergency service and grief counseling. The fund is totally staffed by volunteers enabling every dollar raised to go directly to victims' families. Cantor Fitzgerald also has a memorial site, dedicated to those employees lost on September 11, each member of the Cantor Fitzgerald family of employees is memorialized in pictures and words of family, friends and co-workers. Cantor Fitzgerald even has stores , which donate 100% of their proceeds to families of the September 11 victims. There is also a NEW Cantor Fitzgerald site that focuses on the employees whose lives were spared. 

The tragedy marked an end to the innocence of our great nation. The safety that Americans felt on their own soil vanished in the blink of an eye, and people around the world, those who lost fellow citizens and those who grieved the tragedy, united in a mass outpouring of support.

This tragedy taught many lessons, but the greatest lesson of all was that it is now clearly time to set aside our petty differences and unite in our common interest. We must make it clear that the world is a brotherhood and we will stand together as one.