YOU HAVE TO HEAR THIS

If you listen to our talk show on the 8th anniversary of 9/11, September 11, 2009 between 10 and 1 CDT, you will have at least a few hard moments.

As part of the "2,996 Project" in which bloggers around the world each "adopt" one of the victims, I've been asked to help honor and remember a man who died on the 105th floor of WTC 2.

Kevin Michael Cosgrove of West Islip, NY.

As it turns out, you know him already. Even if the name doesn't jog your memory, what you will hear on Friday does the trick. Kevin was on the phone with 9-1-1, pleading for help, when that tower came down.

You will hear his last words. You will hear him as he realizes they are his last words. It will be hard to hear, whether you're hearing it for the first time or the fifteenth. It will haunt you. It should.

As blogger "The Anchoress" has noted of Kevin's haunting call, "if those planes had struck 15 minutes later, the enemy might have managed to kill not 3,000, but 30,000. And that would've pleased them fine. Realize that there is an enemy out there that doesn't want anything from us, not land, not money, not concessions, they simply want us dead."

To set it up: you're hearing the 9-1-1 "logger" tape, which is recorded over and over, so it's not crisp anyway. Plus Kevin Cosgrove is choking on the smoke and ash of the inferno around him, and the phone lines are probably deteriorating by this point...and he's emotional. So, listen carefully. It requires concentration.

He's upset that he has previously, and optimistically, called his wife to let her know he's alright. That's after the first plane hit Tower 1 and before United 175 hits his building.

He's a skeptical New Yorker...he doesn't buy the bland reassurance of a civil service worker telling him "help is on its way". He is furious. (As we should be, too and still.) He WANTS TO LIVE. This wasn't supposed to happen during a day he's working for Aon Corporation as vice president of claims. He's always loved working at the Trade Center, and loved showing friends and family his eagle's eye view of the Hudson and the city skyline.

Kevin came from a big family, and had one. Three young kids. He was 46.

It would be easier not to listen. Which makes it easier not to ponder what really happened, or that it really happened. I'll make sure you know in advance when we play it, and you can choose.

But Kevin Cosgrove's murderers are coming for you, me and all of us. Whether you listen or not.

posted by Jack @ 9:38 PM