Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy.

A long time ago I blogged that if I ever got a job hosting my own TV news program I would always open with video of the towers being attacked on 9/11 so we’d always remember.

At 8:46 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers sent an American Airlines jet into the north tower, right. Shortly after 9 a.m., a United Airlines jet hit the south tower. Photo: Reuters

The fireball in the south tower. Photo: Reuters

As a country, we were down, but never out.

This week I take on the challenging task of putting together music fit for this somber anniversary.

To open I’ve selected this composition written by John Williams for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

James Southall is a member of  The International Film Music Critics Association. He wrote “For my money it’s Williams’ best concert piece, and maybe his best piece period.”

Williams dedicated his work to Tim Morrison, trumpet soloist of the Boston Pops Orchestra who is featured here.m.W

From NBC:
A heavily dented and damaged mass hardly recognizable as the helmet it once was. Thinking about how powerful the destructive force must have been still makes her lose her breath. “George was such a tall, strong man’,’ says Nancy Nee. And yet looking at the black relic brings her a certain measure of peace. Her brother George Cain was a firefighter to the core and the helmet was an integral part of his life. On Sept. 11, George helped evacuate hundreds of guests from the Marriott Hotel, close to the World Trade Center. When the towers collapsed, he did not stand a chance. The hotel was destroyed, but most of the guests survived. Photos: NBC News

Poor is the nation that has no heroes . . .
Shameful is the one that, having them . . forgets.
Author: Unknown

A historic photo was taken on that fateful day of three firefighters hoisting an American flag above the rubble of Ground Zero.  And then the flag just…disappeared.

The flag in the picture had been taken from a yacht moored nearby in lower Manhattan. Within five hours of the photo the flag went missing.

Somehow the flag got to Everett, Washington, where a man who simply called himself Brian turned it over to authorities at an Everett fire station in November of 2014.

Police contacted the New Jersey newspaper that originally published the photo and got high-resolution images of the iconic picture that helped identify unique characteristics of the yacht’s halyard. Police also matched particles on the flag that appeared similar to those in the air following the 9/11 attacks.

The flag’s authenticity was confirmed, and it’s been on display ever since in the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

Michael W. Smith is a popular Christian music singer.

“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.”
George W. Bush

“September 11 is one of our worst days but it brought out the best in us. It unified us as a country and showed our charitable instincts and reminded us of what we stood for and stand for.”
Lamar Alexander

“When Americans lend a hand to one another, nothing is impossible. We’re not about what happened on 9/11. We’re about what happened on 9/12.”
Jeff Parness

Country star Randy Travis wrote and sang this song, released two months after 9/11.

Of the 2,977 victims killed in the September 11 attacks, 411 were everyday heroes. Emergency workers in New York City who responded to the World Trade Center included:

343 firefighters (including a chaplain, two paramedics, and a fire marshal) of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY)

37 police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD)

23 police officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD)

8 emergency medical technicians and paramedics from private emergency medical services

Back in April Slate.com published an article comparing America’s sentiments toward NY during 9/11 vs. the pandemic. Dahlia Lithwick wrote:

In the hours and days after (9/11) America recalled with a ferocious tenderness how desperately it loved New York. America loved the gritty, multicultural melting pot that was New York; it loved the way New Yorkers pulled together. Demonstrating heroic selflessness and service. America loved its burly firefighters and cops and rescue workers. And America loved that New York bustled on, that New York pledged to rebuild. The city and the twin towers became the national locus of grieving, sometimes in ways that elbowed out the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the other scenes of 9/11 attacks.

There was something special about Manhattan in those weeks. It became America’s grief-stricken sweetheart. Cities and towns sent firefighters and EMTs to help out at ground zero and volunteers to assist with the hellish relief work.  People across the nation stood in line to donate blood. Rockers organized a massive concert to support the city. And across the country, Americans took to sporting NYPD and FDNY gear to show solidarity with the heroic first responders and everyday heroes who had run straight into the path of danger to help strangers, often working without adequate protective gear. The Oct. 29, 2001, cover of the New Yorker featured children dressed for Halloween as the real heroes: New York City firefighters and police officers. Rudy Giulani transformed into “America’s Mayor” overnight.

“The lesson of 9/11 is that America is truly exceptional. We withstood the worst attack of our history, intended by our enemies to destroy us. Instead, it drew us closer and made us more united. Our love for freedom and one another has given us a strength that surprised even ourselves.”
Rudy Giuliani

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

If you’ve been to EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Florida you’re undoubtedly familiar with what follows. If you’ve not visited, you need to, and when in EPCOT see the American Adventure, a production featuring 35 Audio-Animatronics figures, digital rear-projection images on a 72-foot screen that show pivotal moments in our history. Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain are your guides on this 30-minute journey. We close with the attraction’s finale.

God bless America.