Do you have to die because you are different?

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance These are the faces of women and men who tried to live their lives as they knew they should.
 

 The memorial page

September 11th

I imagine that nearly everyone can remember what they were doing on September 11th 2001. Most people know someone who knows someone, or has a tale to tell of that day. The thing that always makes me catch my breath is the English (as a foreign language) text books used in secondary schools. Every book had a character who was fortunate enough to travel to New York and they always visited the twin towers. Book published after 2001 include a visit to ground zero.

In one book someone who was in the towers on the day, talks of meeting “fire fighters rushing up the stairs” on the 30th floor. Can you imagine being able to continue rushing up the stairs at the 30th floor? How many stories of bravery are there from that day that we will never know about? – More than 3000.

September 11th was my grandfather’s birthday, had he lived he would be 99 years old. Today is also Isaac Stozfut’s 91st birthday, he disappeared without trace just over two years ago. Here is the poem he wrote about September 11th.

Remember

When I see postcards like this one I always ask myself ‘Where did the survivors go?’. Lens was occupied at the beginning of the war in 1914. Only half of the population survived the war and then there was the Spanish flu…

Was this little boy standing on top of the ruins of his school? Let’s not forget the millions of civilians whose lives were never the same again.

There were moments of hope