If you’re reading this, you’ve lost a parent or grandparent, friend or partner/spouse, teacher or mentor, or even a furbaby that meant a lot to you. It doesn’t matter. Mourning and grief hit us hard sometimes. Animals also endure it as well.
Even though they say time heals all wounds, it doesn’t do a 100 percent job. It just feels differently over time. You’ll still find yourself not listening to a song they liked or not eating at a restaurant you both went to.
Next month, it will be the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City, Washington D.C., and outside Shanksville, Penn. where about 3,000 people died. And more emergency first responders and law enforcement have died from breathing and being exposed to the materials at Ground Zero where the World Trade Center towers collapsed from the damage.
Giovanni Galante is one of the many people who lived in the NYC era who lost his wife, Grace Catherine Galante. She was only 29. Even though he is a resident of Florida now, Galante has started a petition to prevent NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani from attending the memorial. Even though he was born in Uganda, Mamdani was about five weeks shy of turning 10 and was living in the NYC area.
It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain this is because Mamdani is a Muslim and the terrorists behind the attacks were mostly Islamic extremists. Timothy McVeigh, who was one of the people behind the Alfred E. Murrah federal building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 was raised a Roman Catholic even though at the time of the bombing, he claimed to be an agnostic/atheist. However, he was delivered the last rites before he was executed in 2001. Every President since 1995 has claimed the Christian faith. Every governor of Oklahoma has claimed the Christian faith as well. Every mayor of OKC since 1995 has been a Republican and they’re usually Christians.
The current OKC Mayor David Holt was only 16 in 1995. As far as I know, there’s been no petition to keep him from the memorial every year. Every year it’s hard on the people of OKC, Oklahoma and those who lived and worked there but had to leave. It’s also hard on all the people who survived Sept. 11 while their friends, family and co-workers died. I can understand why Galante moved to Florida. Sometimes you have to pick up and start over. The worst time is when you don’t want to.
As a man who is of Italian ancestry, a century ago, Galante’s relatives didn’t receive a good welcoming. The whole reason we have Columbus Day is Italian immigrants were facing a lot of discrimination so they fudged the facts a lot about him. Why aren’t people like Galante furious at Rudy Giuliani for his constant use of 9/11 for political reasons.
Muslims all over America and even those from the Middle East ancestry faced a lot of racism after 9/11. Imagine being someone like Mamdani wanting to celebrate turning 10 amid escalated anti-Islamic tension in what’s supposed to be the “best country in the world.” Now, Mamdani is the mayor of the biggest city in America. He has to appear at the memorial. It’s his civic duty. If he didn’t go he would be criticized as well but at lease be criticized for doing the right thing.
There’s almost 2 billion Muslims in the world. That’s about a quarter of the world’s human population. To say they are all extremists and terrorists, they all could take over the world if they could. It seems Christian extremists feel they should have the monopoly on religion.
But there’s no monopoly on grief and mourning. Every friend, parent, sibling, spouse/partner, etc. is going to hit you differently when they pass. Galante doesn’t have to go to NYC. He’s not the gatekeeper for the lives lost. I’d so debate only a mere fraction of those who lost their friends, family and coworkers have signed his petition. I wonder how many of them have even visited the Big Apple.
Following 9/11, people donated blood. Strangers assembled in parks or other open public places to make stretchers for the injured or to organize a list of missing persons. That’s because people who live in cities and metropolitan areas know they have to live together. And over the years, Islamic groups organize blood drives in memory of those who died.
If people like Galante really want to honor the memory of his late wife and others, the best way is to come together to show those who agree with the terrorists that the victims and their loved ones won’t collapse.
Zane Says 