Dr Contis Production Manager Chrysoula Karametros 37-10 30th Street, LIC, NY 11101-2614 ... We also...

The National Heralda b

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

www.thenationalherald.com

A tribute to the victims of 9/11 made possible

by the generous support of:

Dr. Spiros Spyreas, Spiros and Antonia Milonas,

Theodore Spyropoulos, John and Margo Catsimatidis.

Inside: An exclusive interview with Eric Ηatzimemos,

a senior advisor to Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

9/11: 10th Anniversary 2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

The National HeraldA weekly publication of the NATIONAL HERALD, INC.

(ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ),reporting the news and address-

ing the issues of paramountinterest to the Greek American

community of the United States of America.

Publisher-Editor Antonis H. Diamataris

Assistant to Publisher, Advertising Veta H. Diamataris

PapadopoulosSpecial Section Editor

Angelike ContisProduction Manager

Chrysoula Karametros

37-10 30th Street, LIC, NY 11101-2614Tel: (718)784-5255,Fax: (718)472-0510,

e-mail: [email protected]

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If September 11, 2001 sharply cut apart the future and the past, changing lifeforever for all of us, the decade since then has been marked by cycles and rep-etition, both good and bad. This special issue stops to take stock -of what welost and what we are fighting to rebuild from the ashes. First and foremost, weremember the upwards of 28 people from our community who were lost on

that day, who had either reported to the World Trade Center for work or were trav-eling on that sunny September day. We also speak to family members about theirloved ones and their effort to keep their memories alive. As a part of the oldestGreek American newspaper, this is both an honor and a great responsibility.

The destruction – and thwarted effort to rebuild - St. Nicholas Greek OrthodoxChurch is also in the forefront of our thoughts. We offer a timeline of St. Nicholas’decade-long struggle to rebuild, speak to Alexandros Zaharatos, who tirelessly ren-ovated the church, and offer analysis from Evan C. Lambrou and Steve Frangos on

the topic. We also report on how the Archdiocese’s over $2 million September 11Fund was spent.

For this issue, we spoke to Eric Hatzimemos, a top legal advisor to then-MayorRudy Giuliani, about his experiences in the center of New York City government ata time of great crisis. Port Authority Police Inspector John V. Kassimatis shares hisdramatic story, both in print and in an audio report.

We have a section of “Where Was I?” essays, including our own and those ofreaders such as novelist Jeffrey Siger as well as tough analysis on a tough topic byregular TNH columnists Amb. Patrick N. Theros and Constantinos E. Scaros.

Angelike ContisSpecial Section Editor

By Angelike ContisTNH Staff Writer

Ten years are not verylong for all of thefamilies. The worldchanged for everyoneon September 11,

2001, but for families that lostloved ones, it changed the most.We spoke to a few family mem-bers from our community abouttheir loss, their loved ones – andhow they are working to keeptheir memories alive.

WARRIOR OF HAPPINESSAnthoula Katsimatides says

of her brother John, who per-ished that day: “We have noth-ing of John. They never foundremains. We have his picture ona tombstone in Astoria.” That’swhy having the National Sep-tember 11 Memorial & Museumat the World Trade Center is soimportant. A member of the board of di-

rectors of the memorial andmuseum’s foundation, shenotes. “The point is, it’s an au-thentic place of loss. My brotherJohn lost his life on that site.” She is glad that there will

now be a place of hope andcomfort for the families. Ten years later, she is happy

to talk about how inspiring andamazing John was. She stillchuckles over the music thatblared from his bright yellowJeep and the dance moves thatearned him the nickname JohnTravolta. And she still remem-bers how handy he was with abroken car or cable TV adjust-ment, how supportive he wasof the family when their brothercommitted suicide. But it’s painful to try to think

about what John would be likeat 41, if he’d be married with afamily. “It doesn’t matter howmuch time passes,” she says. Tomark his birthday she tries to“do something fun and happy”in his memory. And in general,she appreciates life in a waythat only someone who has lostcan. “You never know if tomor-row could be your last,” sheadds. Trying to make somethingpositive out of the tragedy, shespearheaded the launch of non-profit JaM for Life, devoted toboth John and brother Michael.That nonprofit focused on, shesays, “helping small organiza-tions so our money could makea difference.” Children’s orga-nizations, disaster relief, suicide

prevention, the arts and 9/11related causes all benefited. To-day, Anthoula Katsimatides con-templates that the foundationmay be nearing its end date,though she encourages readersto support JaM for Life on theanniversary of 9/11 to boost thememorial.

DANIELLE’S SPIRIT Each year Danielle

Kousoulis’ family holds up aposter with a photo of theirloved one at the Greek Ortho-dox September 11 memorialservices at Ground Zero. Thisyear was no exception. SisterEleni Kousoulis notes: “Nothingof Danielle was ever found, so Ifeel that Ground Zero is

Danielle's final resting place,and it is important to me tomark the anniversary in NYC.”This year, her sister Faith andher family were to commemo-rate the day in Maryland, whileher brother Peter was to markthe day in New Jersey.Danielle’s family and friends

have worked to keep her mem-ory alive in many multiple waysover the past decade. TheirDanielle Kousoulis MemorialScholarship Fund grants twoacademic scholarships to agraduate of Danielle’s almamater, Haddon Township (NJ)High School and to a memberof Danielle’s church, St. ThomasGreek Orthodox Church inCherry Hill, NJ. In the future

the family plans to award schol-arships to children of other Sep-tember 11th victims. The schol-arship fund is supported bytax-deductible donations andfundraisers, such as an annualgolf outing. Danielle’s sisternotes: “Our annual golf outingis not only a great way to raisemoney for the scholarship fund,but it also allows Danielle's fam-ily and friends to gather andshare stories about Danielle andis also a way to celebrate andcommemorate Danielle's life.”(See www.daniellekousoulis-fund.org). In April, the GreekCultural Center at the family’sSt. Thomas Greek OrthodoxChurch was renamed inDanielle's memory to the"Danielle Kousoulis Greek Cul-tural Center". There is also Danielle’s

Spirit, a scholarship fund orga-nized by Danielle’s friends fromVillanova University in Pennsyl-vania, where Danielle was amember of the crew team allfour years of college. This fund,Eleni Kousoulis notes, “supportsfemale student-athletes whoshare many of Danielle’s greatqualities including: loyalty,commitment and the ability tomotivate others.” A scholarshipgoes to a female student athleteat Villanova and also to a col-lege-headed participant of RowNew York. Danielle's Spirit alsohosts an annual golf outing.(See www.daniellesspirit.org.)Danielle's high school

friends, many of whom, EleniKousoulis notes, her sister knewas a child, created The DanielleKousoulis Memorial Garden atthe elementary school whereDanielle attended, the JamesStoy School in Haddon Town-ship, NJ. Eleni Kousoulis explains of

all these activities: “Our overallgoal with all of these efforts isto ensure that Danielle is neverforgotten.” She adds: “Themembers of our church and ourcommunity were very support-ive in the months followingSeptember 11th, constantlychecking in on my family tomake sure we were OK, and tooffer whatever support weneeded.” The new 9/11 Memorial and

Museum are important to theKousoulis family. EleniKousoulis notes: “ I think it isso important to not only tell thestory of what happened on Sept

11th for future generations tocome, but it is also importantto commemorate all the victimsthat were lost that terrible day.My hope is that the Memorialand Museum will do that.”

A GOLDEN HEART “Ten years have gone by, but

for many of us, we remember itas if it was yesterday,” saysMelissa Pettignano, whose auntArlene T. Babakitis was lost inthe twin towers. Pettignano wasamong the family members whochose to talk – and write- abouther loss. The 23-year-old began writ-

ing the pre-teen book SuzanneLantana when she was in fifthgrade; in the book, her charac-ter loses her aunt ArleneBabakitis on September 11. Pettignano says her aunt was

a like a second mother to herin a tight-knit Italian/Scotch-Canadian family. (Babakitis wasmarried to Greek husband

James Babakitis, though theyhad divorced.) “She loved fam-ily. She had a golden heart,” re-calls the niece. RememberingArlene’s great love of familygatherings, the family insistedon still holding them even afterher loss. “We carry out the tra-dition, because even if she isnot here, because we knowthat’s what she’d want.” Pettig-nano says her aunt was knownto ask for her dessert before themain meal – because it was herfavorite part. She remembersher aunt as open and loving.

“She showed the love.” The niece, who has shared

her book with readers of allages, notes that speaking aboutthe loss is therapeutic. “If youdon’t you feel bitter, angry andresentment.” She emphasizesthe importance of faith. Arlenewas Catholic and the familyfound refuge in their Immacu-late Conception parish of Se-caucus, N.J. “If it was not forour faith in Christ, without him,we would not be able to over-come what we overcame.” Sheadmits that some family mem-bers still cannot discuss thetragedy. The family suffered asecond blow in March, as Ar-lene’s son, Kevin, was founddead on the campus of Ver-mont’s Landmark College.

UNSUNG HERO, FAMILY MAN

“He was a wonderful, won-derful person and a wonderfulfather and we miss him greatly,”says Alexandra Kassimatis ofher younger brother, ProkopiosPaul Zois, lost in the attacks.Today, she points to the accom-plishments of his children intheir mid-late 20s. “They havegraduated from college and aredoing very well on their own.”They were teens in 2001, buttoday, her niece Stefania is anaccountant and her nephewTheo is a physician’s assistant.Her husband, Inspector John V.Kassimatis notes: “They arelovely children with wonderfulthoughts of their dad.”The couple remembers Paul

as utterly devoted to his family.“He was the consummate familyman,” says his brother-in-law.The Zois family emigrated to

the U.S. from Greece when Paulwas nine. His earliest yearswere spent in central Athens’Pangrati. Paul was able to shareGreece with his family whileworking in the past with TWA,which allowed him to travelthere often. His personality was well

suited for his extracurricularpassion – coaching sports, bothsoccer and basketball, foryoungsters. “He was a veryhappy, very outgoing person,”remembers his older sister.“Nothing bothered him. He wasa very, very nice guy.” Her hus-band says of his brother-in-law,who was a member of the St.

9/11: 10th Anniversary THE NATIONAL HERALD, SEPTEMBER 17, 2011 3

9/11: For Families, Ten Years is Nothing

ΝΙCHOLAS J. BOURASSummit, New Jersey

Human beings can be defined in many ways, but in moments like this, as we remember our loved ones and everything else we lost

ten years ago, as we prepare to turn on the water of the fountains of the memorial spaces at Ground Zero where the Twin Towers once

stood, we can say that first and foremost, we are builders.

We Greeks are especially known for what we have built, in marble on our beloved earth, thousands of miles to the east, and in the

hearts and minds of men everywhere.

And we Hellenes will build again in our American home, in our great city of New York- out of steel and concrete and love- a new St. Nicholas for our Community and for all those who visit that now sacred site, to remember that day, and those we lostbut will honor forever.

Zoe (L) and George Kousoulis travelled to New York to honorthe memory of their daughter Danielle. Calliope Katsimatides(R) holds a photo of her son John who was killed on 9/11.

Continued on page 10

Melissa Pettignano remem-bers her aunt Arlene Babakitisin a book she wrote.



“For as long as Ican rememberthe World TradeCenter was apart of New

York City,” says Eric Hatz-imemos, who was one of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s top legaladvisors on September 11,2001. Hatzimemos vividly re-calls that the twin towers werevisible on a clear day through-out his childhood – a very in-spiring sight for a young NewYorker. “Certainly it was a bea-con to all of us little kids comingfrom Brooklyn,” he explains. “Itstood for strength and for Amer-ica and that anything was pos-sible.”

Today, Hatzimemos is a lead-ing business executive in NewYork. He continues to workclosely with Giuliani, his mentorand close friend, as senior advi-sor and Executive Managing Di-rector of Giuliani Partners LLC,of which he was a co-founderin early 2002. He also foundedand serves as Chairman andCEO of Hatzimemos Partners, astrategic advisory firm focusedon energy, infrastructure, andadvanced technologies. Withhis wife, Mara, Hatzimemos isthe proud parent of three youngboys, only one of whom is oldenough to remember the WorldTrade Center as it once was.

On that morning in Septem-ber, Hatzimemos was in his of-fice in City Hall, preparing forthe normal hectic day ahead. AsAssistant Counsel to the Mayor,his duties included representingGiuliani on a huge variety ofmatters, such as helping toshape policies for billions of dol-lars of New York City pension-ers’ capital.

When the first plane hit,Hatzimemos remembers: “Myoffice basically shook. I walkedoutside my office and one of mycolleagues incredibly said to me,‘It felt like it did when the WorldTrade Center was bombed in1993.’” Exiting City Hall, theysaw the tower on fire and hur-ried over to the site on foot.There, Hatzimemos witnessedthe horror up close, carving in-delible images in his memory,including the moment of thesecond plane’s impact, the un-forgettable sight of human be-ings falling to the ground from

the highest floors of the towers,and the last words he spoke toseveral colleagues from the fireand police departments as theywalked into the buildings, neverto emerge again. “When the sec-ond plane hit, we knew it wasn’ta twin engine plane accidentallycrashing. We knew it was delib-erate.”

Being at the site was not amatter of curiosity, but of vitalimportance to the crisis re-sponse, underlines Hatzimemos.He explains: “Everyone wentdown to the site because theMayor and the team believedthat you had to be at the site tobe able to look at it and makedecisions in a crisis like this.”

Leadership was essential inthat moment. “There’s been alot written on Mayor Giuliani. Ican tell you…he’s an incredibleleader,” notes Hatzimemos. Heremembers: “Just watching himand his body language and theway he spoke, not only to theCity but to his team during thattime was very inspirational.” Apositive message was essentialtoo, he believes, in helping gal-vanize the recovery. Hatz-imemos explains: “People followoptimists, people follow strongpersonalities, people followleaders who have solutions toproblems and Mayor Giulianihad that and he zeroed in onthe issues at hand. I thought hedid an incredible job.”

In those tough first hours in-spiring too was the resilience ofNew Yorkers. “What was reallyinspirational, obviously, was thefirst responders” Hatzimemossays, referring to the fire, police,Port Authority, iron and con-struction workers. He adds: “Itwas an incredible dynamicshared by all New Yorkers.”

THE RACE TO RE-OPENWALL STREET

While the emergency re-sponse to the attacks – includingthe heroic work on “the pile” atGround Zero – continued,Mayor Giuliani directed his staffto begin getting New York backon its feet, especially given thecity’s global importance.

Hatzimemos’ immediate taskthat first week was helping toreopen the New York Stock Ex-change. He recalls: “The attackshappened on Tuesday morningand the goal was to get theStock Exchange open on Mon-day morning. It was important

to not only New York and to ourpsyche and spirit, but it was alsoimportant to the world and theglobal economy.”

This involved working withthe emergency managementcommissioner and top financialleaders, testing the structureand security of buildings, restor-ing electric power and trans-portation, and ensuring that thekey personnel of the stock ex-change and major banks feltsafe enough to come to work.When the bell rang that Mon-day, it was a big deal – a tri-umph for New York.

Being busy was a kind of sur-vival strategy, Hatzimemos re-calls. “Everybody did their joband you didn’t think about it.That helped people cope.”

FALLEN HEROES In the midst of it all, the City

of New York mourned its own,with about 400 first responderslost. Mayor Giuliani presidedover hundreds of funerals butwas sometimes forced by thesheer number of these solemnoccasions to send trusted advi-sors, such as Hatzimemos, to eu-logize at funerals in his place.

“That was a very, very hum-bling experience for me,” says

Hatzimemos. He adds: “I feltthat I wasn’t worthy to give thateulogy to this fallen hero whosacrificed their life for other hu-man beings that he or she didn’tknow. I will always rememberhow they were running in wheneverybody else was runningout.”

Ten years later, Hatzimemoscalls 9/11 “one of the darkestdays in American history,” butalso “the greatest rescue,” withthousands of people evacuatedsafely from the World TradeCenter buildings and manytimes that from lower Manhat-tan. Hatzimemos explains,“They were saved in large partby the first responders’ courageand their doing their work in anorganized, calm, effective way.”He and his parents, who hailfrom Larissa and Karpenissi inGreece, but live in Brooklyn,also mourned the loss of familyfriend Theodoros Pigis, who waskilled on the job when the firstplane hit.

As the ten-year mark ap-proached, in many ways 2001feels like yesterday, despite theintervening decade that hasseen Hatzimemos become abusiness leader and a mainstayof the Greek-American commu-nity in New York. Hatzimemossays he has been flooded withmemories from 2001. It strikeshim today how young the fallenand their families were and howoften there were photographs inthe place of never-recoveredbodies at funerals.

Now a resident of LowerManhattan – his third NYC bor-ough - Hatzimemos admits tofeeling angry and sad wheneverhe sees the gap in the skylinewhere the iconic towers used tobe. But, he says, this is usuallyfollowed by positive emotions.

He reflects: “I also feelstrength, that we are gettingthrough this and we will con-tinue to bounce back. I think ul-timately it has made us strongerand we will never forget the sac-rifices that were made and thepeople who died on that day.”

Eric Hatzimemos marked thisyear’s anniversary as he doeseach year, by attending cere-monies and joining Mayor Giu-liani and the staff who werewith him on that day for theirannual dinner – a reunion of theleaders who brought New Yorkthrough one of its most tragic,most heroic hours.

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Eric Hatzimemos, who at the time was Assistant Counsel to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, recalls NewYork City’s workers rising to meet one of the city’s greatest challenges ever after September 11.

Working with the Mayor to Revive New York City after 9/11

New York Governor George Pataki (LEFT), New York City MayorRudolph Giuliani during the 9/11 aftermath.


This year marks the 10th anniversary of the tragic day of September 11th 2001 thatscarred our souls and “froze” the entire world through images of destruction, broadcast bytelevision networks worldwide. That day changed the world – and every one of us –forever.

Memories are still fresh, and the pain is insurmountable for the thousands of innocentsouls, victims to this inconceivable act. This devastating event clearly illustrated theimpact of atrocious violence, prejudice, fanaticism, and the vicious cycle of revenge.

SAE U.S.A. Region extends, once again, its solidarity to the thousands of families that ex-perienced the nightmare and are still suffering from the trauma of losing their loved ones.It pays homage to the heroes of that day, who displayed selflessness and self-sacrifice tothe fellow human. Those heroic moments are worth the triumphs of a lifetime human am-bition.

Over the ten years that passed, mankind experienced major natural disasters, causingenormous losses in lives. Nevertheless, the 9/11 tragedy was a result of human will, a criminal act against humanity and humanism, which, may have triggered the positiveemotion of compassion, opening our hearts, but at the same time grafted the negativefeeling of fear and insecurity for the fellow human and life, in them.

The rapid changes we experience in our daily lives, the breakdown of structures we were accustomed to, which in reality do not serve humanity, are reinforcing fear. However, fearand prejudice, divide and isolate people, resulting in inactivity.

An antidote to fear and confusion, prevalent today, and the phenomenal political andsocial dead-ends, are values enveloped in the authentic humanism of Hellenism’s culturalheritage.

And that is why, the recovery and restoration of the Greek “Paideia” (cultural education),should be our utmost priority, as it teaches a way of life, love, solidarity, respect for ourfellow human beings, the prevalence of reason, dialogue and peaceful coexistence amongpeoples.

As Greek – Americans, we possess two advantages; our cultural heritage, in addition to the fact that we are living in the world leading country, which could pave the way forchange.

September 11th will never be forgotten. However, let its memory become a stimulus for re-flection and intellectual transcendence. Let us first of all realize that we are all as one. We are the cells of the same global community, in which a part affects the whole.

True Democracy and Freedom of man are based on free will, in an individual andcollective level. In both levels, we are jointly responsible, not only for the world in whichwe live in, but also for the world we are shaping together for future generations. Let us, therefore, become the change we wish to see in the world, transforming fear intooptimism and love for life, with prudence and wisdom.

ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟ ΑΠΟΔΗΜΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ (ΣΑΕ)WORLD COUNCIL OF HELLENES ABROAD (S.A.E.)

Γραφείο Συντονιστή Περιφέρειας Η.Π.Α.Coordinator’s Office / U.S.A. Region

2155 W. 80th Street, IL 60620, U.S.A. Tel: (773) 783 5555 - Fax: (773) 994-5037 - E-mail: [email protected]

TNH Staff Writers

St. Nicholas’ Churchwas founded in 1916by Greek immigrantsfor $25,000. Over thedecades the little 22x

56 feet building fitting 100 seatsgrew in both spiritual and realestate value. Starting on Sep-tember 11, 2001, many commu-nity members vowed to rebuild– but it has been a tortuouspath. If the church is to be rebuilt

on its original 155 Cedar Street(as the Port Authority seems towant) or a new 130 LibertyStreet location depends on ne-gotiations – and the lawsuit thatis underway – with Port Author-ity of New York and New Jerseyand the progress/plan of the Ve-hicular Security Center, whereboth properties are located.Parishioners, who are tem-

porarily at Sts Constantine andHelen Church in Brooklyn, willwait and see, as will those –from Bari to Baltimore, whocontributed some $4 million todate for this cause.

Sept. 11, 2001-8.46 a.m. - American Air-

lines Flight 11 crashes into thenorth tower of the World TradeCenter.

Circa 9.30 a.m. – A parish-ioner tending to the church re-portedly flees St. Nicholas, un-able to salvage any relics. Aphoto captures an image ofplane landing gear next to thechurch building.

9.50 a.m.: 1 World TradeCenter – the south tower – col-lapses, crushing the church,ramming it 30 feet belowground level. Emmanuel Veliv-asakis, a managing principal ofthe Thornton-Tomasetti Group,which supervised engineers ofthe recovery teams at groundzero, later would tell the NYT

the entire church was crushedinto a mass that was two-feethigh.

Sept. 12, 2001 – ArchbishopDemetrios arrives at the WTCsite, comforting relief workersof all faiths. As the NYT notes,within a month he would pledgea church would rise “on thesame sacred spot” and then-Governor George E. Patakiagreed.

Dec. 2001 – The Archdiocesehouses St. Nicholas Churchitems founds at the site, includ-ing a paper icon of St. Dionysiosthat miraculously survived de-spite the destruction of the silverand wooden frame that con-tained it, an icon of the VirginMary as the Zoodohos Pigi, abronze candelabrum and a clothcovering, probably for a Gospeland candles.

July 16, 2002 - The newLower Manhattan DevelopmentCorporation and the Port Au-

thority unveil six proposals forthe layout of the World TradeCenter site. All include the St.Nicholas Church.

Jan. 16, 2004 – The Mayorof Bari, Italy, Simeone di CagnoAbbrescia presents Archbishopof America Demetrios with258,000 euros (then about$325,000) for the reconstruc-tion. Mayor Bloomberg says:“Rebuilding St. Nicholas is partof the whole process of rebuild-ing downtown Manhattan.”

May 14, 2004 – The NewYork Times reports planning isunderway for a new St. NicholasChurch and that ArchbishopDemetrios planned an architec-tural international design con-test.

June 2004 – According to St.Nicholas Parish leaders, fundsto rebuilt the church alreadyamassed include over $1 millionfrom a telethon and Greek statedonation, nearly $1 million in

insurance, plus donations fromthe Ecumenical Patriarchate, theEmir of Qatar, e-Trade’s ChristosCotsakos, a Jewish organizationin Boston and individuals.

July 4, 2004 - Preliminaryconstruction begins on the $3.1billion Freedom Tower (todaycalled 1 World Trade).

In 2005 – NYT writes:“Lower Manhattan Develop-ment Corporation buys the Mil-steins’ parking lot – less than ahalf acre – for $59 million. Itsplan was to transform the landinto Liberty Park, stretchingwest from Greenwich to WestStreet, between Cedar and Lib-erty Streets. But the church re-tained the 1,200-square-footparcel where its building oncestood.”

Sept. 8, 2005 – Gov. Pataki,in discussing the plan to demol-ish the former Deutshe Bankbuilding at 130 Liberty St. says:“St. Nicholas Hellenic OrthodoxChurch will also be rebuilt onthe site of 130 Liberty Street.”

Jan. 27, 2006 – In a TNHstory, St. Nicholas and Churchofficials predict the church willbe rebuilt in an old or new lo-cation by 2009.

March 2006 – Initial foun-dation work begins for the Na-tional September 11 Memorial& Museum at the World TradeCenter.

Sept. 11, 2006 – USA Todayreport predicts church will bebuilt by 2010-11.

November 2006 – Searchfor human remains begin at Mil-lenium Hotel and are scheduledto move to the site of the churchthrough Nov. 2007.

Jan. 7, 2007 – Then-St.Nicholas Parish Council VicePresident John Couloucoundistells TNH at Epiphany service inBattery Park: “The rebuilding ef-forts and discussions with thePort Authority of New York andNew Jersey are going well, andI’m hopeful that we will beready to start work on the newchurch within three years.”

March 2007 – Authoritiesannounce fragments of twobones are found at St. Nicholassite.

February 2008 – Work be-gins on sub-grade steel super-structure on 4 World Trade Cen-ter.

Spring 2008 – ChristopherWard appointed head of PortAuthority of New York and NewJersey.

June 30, 2008 - Port Author-ity acknowledges major delaysand overruns in WTC recon-struction project, made up of 26interrelated projects, and an-nounces transportation hubamong those being revised.

July 24, 2008 – PA an-nounces agreement with Churchwas struck where in exchangefor its property at 155 CedarStreet, the church would bebuilt at 130 Liberty Street, withup to $20 million available forthe project.

Early 2009 – Work beginsexcavating the World TradeCenter South Bathtub, the areaslated for the underground Ve-hicular Security Center.

Mar. 19, 2009 –NYT articledeclares: “After months of ne-gotiations, the Port Authority,

which is overseeing reconstruc-tion at Ground Zero, ended itstalks with the church on March16, saying that the church hadsought increasingly costly con-cessions.” In that report, the PAsaid it was frustrated by exces-sive demands for more spaceand money from the Church andwould use eminent domain tobuild under the 155 Cedar St.property, where the church wasstill welcome to build.

Aug. 20, 2009 - In a letterin anticipation of a plannedmeeting between the Port Au-thority and the Church at theMayor’s Office, Ward suggeststhe Church return to its original155 Cedar Street location.

Mar. 25, 2010 – TNH re-ports that St. Nicholas’ Priest,Father John Romas and severalindividuals changed the officialstationary of St. Nicholas GreekOrthodox Church to Romas’business address, business tele-phone and business fax number.

May 6, 2010 –Couloucoundis becomes thenew president of the St.Nicholas Greek Orthodox

St. Nicholas’ Problematic Trajectory


When the twintowers fell,Alexandros Za-h a r a t o smourned the St.

Nicholas Church deeply. He was,after all, perhaps the personwho knew the building best, in-side and out – having spent1989 to 1991 on a major reno-vation of it. Today the Brooklyn-based,

retired contractor (of A & Z Con-struction) recalls first visitingthe church in 1970, when hefirst came to the U.S. fromAthens, Greece.Later, during his renovation,

he recalls taking the elevatorsometimes to the top of theWorld Trade Center and lookingdown on the little church.“When I saw it from there, itlooked like a little speck downthere, with the Greek and Amer-ican flags,” he recalls. On September 11, 2001,

when he saw the towers fall ashe drove over the BrooklynBridge, his thoughts immedi-ately went to the church. Hesays: “I thought that that noth-ing will be left of that little‘speck’. And nothing was.”

RENOVATED INSIDE & OUTSt. Nicholas, for Zaharatos,

had great value. “In the heartof New York, in the World TradeCenter, you saw a little Greekchurch. It was a great honor forus.” Before Zaharatos started his

work, the parishioners over thedecades had mostly fought offdecay to the 1832 convertedbuilding – and it badly neededimprovements. When he startedin late 1979 (and the churchwas closed till early 1981), St.Nicholas lacked heat/A/C, aswell as proper electrical wiringor plumbing. “I took them outand replaced them from thestart,” says the contractor.After the dwelling had been

converted from a restaurant toa church, the parish had under-taken roof repairs, waterproof-ing, and filled in a basement toprevent Hudson River flooding.An iron beam was added to sup-port the interior and a smallwomen’s section was added, asin traditional Greek chapels.When Zaharatos undertook

the renovation project (the ar-

chitect was T.C. Sideris), one ofthe biggest challenges was wa-terproofing the church’s walls,both inside and out. This in-volved cleaning off layers to getdown to the bare brick andfreshly reinforcing/pointing thewalls. The other tasks weremany: replacing the pipes, sothey didn’t freeze; adding threecombination A/C and heatingunits; covering the cement floorwith marble (from Agia Marina,with Eretria marble on the wallsand dark green marble fromTinos for the molding); puttingin wall reinforcements; fixingthe restrooms and an upstairsdining area used for gatherings.He also build the balcony withwoodwork of his own designand made glass frames for thechurch’s many old icons, includ-ing two depicting Christ and St.Nicholas. The renovations were well-

received by the people livingand working in the area, Za-haratos recalls. “People cameand asked questions. They likedthe new church we were work-ing on. It had a whole other ap-pearance after the renovation.”

HOPE FOR FUTUREToday, Zaharatos is happy

that he kept a part of the oldchurch, St. Nicholas’ old chan-delier - in his garage as a sou-venir. He also is glad he heldonto some construction draw-ings, because the others weredestroyed on 9/11. But he ad-mits to feeling “embittered” overSt. Nicholas’ fate. “We want tosee the church rebuilt,” he says.His opinion is that the churchshould be rebuilt, exactly as itwas, because of its historicalconnotations. “That’s wheresailors, ship-owners, and Greekpeople went as they arrivedfrom Ellis Island in New York.They would go to that churchand light a candle. I’d like thatto remain, for that little churchto be there, because it remindspeople of so much.” Both of his sons, Peter and

Angelo, are architects and Peteris on the board of the St.Nicholas Parish Council. Za-haratos adds: “I can – even atthis age, with my sons – give myall for the church to be rebuilt.I don’t want the church to notbe built and for that space tofall into other hands.”

[email protected]


September 11th, 2001 is a date we will never forget.

Stratford Insurance Agency, LLC wishes to honor the memories of those wholost their lives on that terrible day and all of the brave men and women whoserved and continue to serve our country.

We also hereby support the rebuilding of our beloved Church of St. Nicholasby calling on our community leaders -in the Church and all of our organiza-tions- to press our officials to do everything in their power to bring life to thebeautiful church that once was.

When St. Nicholas WasRemade

Contractor Alexandros Zaharatos knew the church he had re-cently renovated was doomed when the towers fell.


By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to TNH

In a column published bythe New York Times on Au-gust 20th, Joe Nocera re-ferred to 1 World TradeCenter as a “cash drain for

decades to come.” With its $3.3billion price tag, he wrote, it is“by far the most expensive officebuilding ever constructed inAmerica.” Mr. Nocera also said1 World Trade Center is unnec-essary because it takes up 2.6million feet of office space “in acity that doesn’t need it,” andcalled it 9/11’s “white elephant.”

I don’t know if 1 World TradeCenter is a white elephant –there’s certainly an arguableneed to replace the now-fabledTwin Towers with a new sky-scraper – but Saint NicholasChurch has definitely been un-justly mistreated and renderedGround Zero’s pariah.

Most of America doesn’tknow, or has completely forgot-ten, about the plight of this in-nocent church, callously de-stroyed on 9/11 after the SouthTower came crashing down onit. I blame the mainstream me-dia for that. Almost none of mycolleagues in the mainstreammedia have been reporting onthis issue. If mainstream jour-nalists would simply start writ-ing a few more stories from theproper perspective, that wouldinvite the necessary level of at-tention to the problem which, inturn, could compel public offi-cials to act in favor of thechurch. But their lack of interestclearly indicates that main-stream journalists consider theplight of Saint Nicholas Church

to be of less than even tertiaryimportance, and that’s why thePort Authority of New York andNew Jersey has been gettingaway with blackballing thechurch. The National Herald isthe only newspaper which hasbeen following this issue withany semblance of regularity, butthe Herald is a niche publication,and is not part of the main-stream media.

I have tried to persuade mymainstream colleagues to fixtheir attention more squarely onthe Port Authority’s belligerence.I have spoken directly to jour-nalists at the New York Timesand Wall Street Journal, amongother major publications. Theyall sounded sympathetic (evengenuinely interested) over thephone, and thanked me forshedding greater light on theproblem, but as the weeks and

months passed, not one of themhas written a single story aboutSaint Nicholas Church.

SECULARIZATIONGranted, journalists are

among the busiest people onEarth, and as time goes by, somestories get buried underneaththe pile on top of their desks,and end up unwritten. The in-creasing secularization of our so-ciety and culture has preventedthem from developing theproper amount of sensitivity tothis issue, it seems, so an issueof this nature – one which con-cerns the religious rights of aChristian minority – is not some-thing they’re inclined to cover.To some extent, I can overlookmy colleagues’ lack of sensitivity.But to the extent that they haveshown interest in expoundingthe rights of Park 51, the Islamic

community center just a coupleof blocks away from GroundZero, I find their lack of interestvery disconcerting.

It is insensitive to pay atten-tion to an Islamic project, whichso many people are against, butnot to display at least an equalamount of consideration for aChristian church which was de-stroyed when Muslim extremistsattacked our country. It’s unfairfor professional journalists to actlike one issue is more importantthan the other, particularly whenthe one which should be consid-ered more important once stoodon what is now swiftly becominga hallowed national monument.

Public officials also deserveto be castigated for their lack ofadvocacy, and the Greek Ortho-dox Archdiocese of Americacould have brought its institu-tional strength more forcefully

to bear than it has to help pro-tect Saint Nicholas Church fromthe Port Authority’s hostility and,in so doing, ensure that thechurch is properly rebuilt in itshistoric setting.

While I’ve been critical of theArchdiocese’s inaction from apublic relations standpoint, I willcut the Archdiocese some slackfor three reasons: 1) The PortAuthority’s malice caught theArchdiocese off-guard, 2) thePort Authority’s insidious de-signs to exclude the church fromthe Ground Zero blueprint alto-gether have disgracefully com-pelled the Archdiocese to file afederal lawsuit, and 3) the factthat this issue is now in courthas shell-shocked Church offi-cials, making the Archdiocesehesitant to do anything out offear that any further actionmight make an adverse impacton the legal outcome.

DEEPLY AMERICANSaint Nicholas Church is not

just a narrow Greek Orthodoxmatter. It’s an abiding and widerChristian concern, so I do notexcuse journalists and public of-ficials for their inconsiderate at-titude toward what is, at its core,a deeply American issue repletewith moral, historic and consti-tutional dimensions.

The Port Authority tricked thechurch into giving up its originalparcel, and promised to give an-other parcel nearby in exchange.The Authority then did what itplanned to do with the church’soriginal property, but refused todeliver the promised parcel, dis-honorably violating its agree-ment with church in the process.It really is that simple. It’s also

palpably wrong. And the Author-ity’s oft-stated financial concernsshould not be taken out on achurch which would cost lessthan 1 percent of the Authority’sannual budget to rebuild.

Saint Nicholas Church oncestood in the silhouette of theTwin Towers. But the church,which was built in 1916, wasthere long before there was evena World Trade Center, let alonebefore the resultant GroundZero. The church was part-and-parcel of what was destroyedthat terrible day. It should bepart-and-parcel of what gets re-built. And its reconstructionshould be commensurate withthe rest of the WTC memorialproject.

Because intolerant religiousextremists attacked our countryand killed nearly 3,000 Ameri-cans that day, reducing ourlargest city’s economic epicenterto rubble, the church must alsorise from the ashes of 9/11 forour nation’s soul to fully heal. Itis, after all, Ground Zero’s origi-nal symbol of religious toler-ance, freedom and peace.

It would be tragic and sinisterif Saint Nicholas Church is notrebuilt onsite, where it belongs.The proper reconstruction of thishistoric house of worship is longoverdue, and our country shouldnot allow the Port Authority toperpetuate the tragedy of 9/11by murdering a church.

Mr. Lambrou was managing edi-tor of the National Herald from2004 to 2009. He is a graduateof Washington University in St.Louis and Holy Cross Greek Or-thodox School of Theology inBoston.


An Innocent Church Rendered Ground Zero’s Pariah

By Steve FrangosSpecial to TNH

Iam still puzzled by the of-ficial behavior surroundingthe tragedy of September11, 2001. Especially sincenever before (or since) in

the history of the world has asteel building collapsed due tofire. What should have been theFBI’s finest hour or the vindicat-ing and crowning victory for theNew York Police became…noth-ing.

Like many of you I havespent hours reading and view-ing books and documentaries

produced by average citizensabout the events encompassing9/11. If there was ever an occa-sion for the federal and stategovernments to step forwardand exhaustively investigate acrime scene one would havethought ‘the single greatest at-tack ever to take place on Amer-ican soil’ would have been thatevent. But it was not.

And while this fact shouldgive anyone pause there is yetanother mystery. Why were theSt. Nicholas parishioners, whoonly sought to have their houseof worship rebuilt, have any cityagencies working against them?

I guess there must be someChicago city office that managesthe traffic on Lake Michigan butI have never heard of it. So, youwill forgive me, if when I kepthearing the ‘port authority’ ofNew York was refusing to let theSt. Nicholas church rebuild onits own property, I just (andstill) do not understand what isreally being said. What does thiscity office, involved with watertraffic, have to do with zoningand building? Especially onproperty they do not legallyown?

I don’t need a history lessonon the city of New York as one

of the world’s busiest ports totry and explain away a bureau-cratic con job. Where was theReligious Right, who we con-stantly hear about in the media?Where, more importantly, wasour clergy? Hiding from realpower, maybe? When the clergylegally hold our churches (andthe annual dues they generate)they can close down a church orremove an entire parish counselwith a wave of their hand andthat’s fine. But speak out againstthe All-Powerful Port Authorityof the City of New York, wellwhat could be more ridiculous?

But what about that other

house of worship that we kepthearing about in the media. Youknow the one, the mosque thatwas to be built right on top ofthe trade center ruins. The self-important hierarchy of the GreekOrthodox Church in NorthAmerica couldn’t get even halfas much airtime or print spaceas this purely fabricated “newsaccount.”

In the end it came down tothe parishioners of the St.Nicholas church and a few con-cerned Greek Americans aroundthe country that kept after theAll-Powerful Tugboat Authorityof the City of New York. The late

but sincere involvement ofAHEPA in this controversy needsspecial mention in this effort. Allthis involvement demonstratesthat if there can be anything pos-itive taken from the September11th tragedy, it is the renewalof involvement by the averagecitizen, based on personal val-ues, in the daily workings of ourservant government. For the sur-viving families of the victimswhat can anyone’s mere wordsoffer? At least one day, in the fu-ture, they can enter the Chapelof Financial District and light acandle for the souls of the de-parted.

In memory of the loved ones we lost

Sigmapharm Laboratories

Sigmapharm Laboratories, LLC3375 Progress Drive, Bensalem - PA 19020Tel.: (215) 352-6655 - Fax: (215) 352-6644

www.sigmapharm.com

Post-9/11 Rebuilding Up To Ordinary Folk


TNH Staff Writers

The Greek Americancommunity, like manycommunities, lostsome of its most dy-namic and its most

heroic people on September 11,2001. There were at least 26people of Greek origin who per-ished that day, and at least sixwho were part of the commu-nity through marriage. We re-member them below.

Joanne Marie Ahladiotis, 27Voted “best smile” at her NewYork high school, she was one ofthe 658 employees of CantorFitzgerald that perished. A seniorproject manager, she loved travel(including visiting her grand-mother in Crete), dressing up andhosting parties. The week beforeshe died, as the New York Timesreported, she took her parents ona business trip to Las Vegas. Hermother, Helen Ahladiotis, passedaway the following year. She wassurvived by her father Milton andher sister Effie Salloum.

Ernest Alikakos, 43He was an employee of the NewYork State Department of Taxa-tion and Finance.

Arlene T. Babakitis, 47Raised in the Lower East Side,this Secauscus, N.J. resident wasan E-ZPass coordinator at theWorld Trade Center. Her familyremembers Arlene, who waspreviously married to a Greekman, for her passion for family,her faith and love of celebra-tions. She was survived by herson Vincent. Her youngest sonKevin, a college student, passedaway in March 2011.

Katherine Bantis, 48One of three victims born inGreece, Bantis hailed from thevillage of Mikrokastro, whoseschool she helped finance. Shewas an employee of Marsh &MacLennan, which lost 295 peo-ple. Her cousin, who shares thesame name, writes in an onlinetributes: “Imagine, we were 2Kathy Bantis's! Now God hasone living in Heaven and oneliving here. Kathy with the gen-erous heart and beautiful smilehow I miss you.”

Peter Brennan, 30This experienced FDNY fire-

fighter based in Ronkonkoma,died in the rescue effort. At thetime, his wife was expectingtheir second child. He grew upinvolved in activities such asGOYA at St John's Greek Ortho-dox Church in Blue Point. Hispassion for firefighting began asa high school student. He joinedSquad 288 in Queens and in1999 rescued three fellow fire-fighters. A few months before

9/11, he was made a secondlieutenant and the First Respon-der Newspaper awarded himthe 2001 Long Island Gold Fire-fighter of the Year Award. Hewas filling in for a colleaguewhen he perished.

Thomas A. Damaskinos, 33This Cantor Fitzgerald employeelived in Matawan, New Jersey,and was a vice president for op-

erations. He was a devout Yan-kees, Broncos and Simpsons fan.A letter in the Staten Island Ad-vance by his family (includingdaughter Jessica) says of hisson, “Mathew looks more andmore like you every day. Hissmile is your smile.”

Anthony (Andoni) Demas, 61He was a managing director ofAon Corporation, who lived in

New York City and Madison, CT.A New York Times report afterthe attacks reported that he wasone of the heroes helping othersout. ‘He raced through the105th floor office in the southtower on Sept. 11, encouragingeverybody to get out.’ The riskmanagement expert was knownfor his love of things Greek, offood and his 1960 Mercedesconvertible. He was survived by

his wife Violetta and twin sons,Nicholas and Andrew, who aretoday 18.

Constantine (Gus) Economos,41Perhaps 1,000 people attendedthe memorial service for thisBrooklyn native in October 2001at the Holy Cross Greek Ortho-dox Church. He was a partnerat Sandler O'Neill & Partnersand known for his zeal for life.He also coached football at theXavier High School in Manhat-tan and was a member of hischurch’s parish council. He wassurvived by his wife Audrey andchildren Constantine andKatherine.

Peter Burton Hanson, 32The father of the youngest 9/11victim, Christine Lee, was bornin Bridgeport, Connecticut. Hismother, Eunice, was of Greekorigin. Together with his wife,Sue Kim Hanson, and their 2-year-old daughter, he was trav-eling on United Airlines Flight175 when it crashed into theWorld Trade Center. Peter, aNortheastern graduate and amajor fan of the band TheGrateful Dead, was vice presi-dent for sales at scheduling soft-ware company TimeTrade. Formore: www.petehansonandfam-ily.com.

Vasilios G. Haramis, 56Born in Greece, Haramis was amechanical engineer for Wash-ington Group International wholived in Staten Island. He stud-ied at New York University andColumbia University. As theNew York Times reported, in the1993 WTC bombing, he and hiscolleagues waited until a heli-copter rescued a pregnantwoman before descending 90flights.

John Katsimatides, 31As his sister, actress/activist An-thoula Katsimatides notes, Johnlived life in Technicolor and was“the absolute life of the party.”She adds: “Everything abouthim was alive and spirited andexciting.” The bond broker withroots in Nissiros was raised inAstoria and the St. DemetriosChurch community. He workedhard, but was known for light-ing up the room with his senseof humor and daring. Before be-ing a broker, he worked in con-

Who We Lost on September 11

Joanne Marie Ahladiotis Ernest Alikakos Arlene T. Babakitis Katherine Bantis

Peter Brennan Thomas A. Damaskinos George Merkouris Anthony (Andoni) Demas

Vasilios G. Haramis John Katsimatides James N. Pappageorge Danielle Kousoulis

Leadership 100 joins all Americans in this solemn remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the national tragedyof September 11. We hold in our prayers and thoughts allthose who have lost loved ones within our own Communityand within the nation and all who have suffered loss of health,peace of mind and security, especially the first responders, in-cluding valiant firefighters and police, whether at the WorldTrade Center, at the Pentagon or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Leadership 100 was among the many organizations thatresponded in funding the September 11 Relief Fund to aid thechildren of all who perished, established by His EminenceArchbishop Demetrios on that tragic day, after his own historicvisits to GROUND ZERO to minister to all. Leadership 100 alsohelped establish relief centers staffed with volunteer clergyand laity in response to that horrendous event.

We join with our Archbishop to commemorate this momentous occasion in order to commend all those preciousand lost lives to eternal memory and never to forget all thosewho have suffered and continue to mourn their losses. We alsocelebrate the spirit and resilience of our fellow Americans torepair and rebuild their lives and livelihoods, as well as to re-build our neighborhoods, and our institutions and cities.

Constantine G. Caras, ChairmanCharles H. Cotros, Vice ChairmanKassandra L. Romas, SecretaryGeorge S. Tsandikos, Treasurer

Paulette Poulos, Executive Director

Williston Town House DinerBreakfast Lunch Dinner

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WE REMEMBERall victims of 9/11 and their families who have suffered all these years.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Spiros, Maria Dimas and Family

On September 11, 2001, New York, the great city, marvel and envy ofthe world, was dealt a devastating blow by people who can only bedescribed as latter day barbarians. At that day, the symbol of New

York City, the Twin Towers and the entire World Trade Center were destroyedand nearly 3000 innocent human beings had their lives cut short, shattering fam-ilies and breaking countless hearts.

We gathered once more, the tenth time, to honor their lives andmark their loss. May their memory be eternal.

That loss cannot be measured, but New York suffered another losson that fateful day. As a city, New York endures the loss of one of the most dy-namic and iconic neighborhoods. Its skyline, instantly recognizable throughoutthe world, was ripped apart, like an old postcard.

Let us also remember that humble little building at the foot of thegreat towers, the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas. It too was iconic, inthe sense of the small religious icons that grace our homes. The small churchitself is an icon of the community of St. Nicholas that had a home there for acentury, and icon of the people and their faith. As we remember the past, we look forward to a brighter future, with achurch which will be a new home for parish, and a place of solace and spirituality for everyone who visits Ground Zero.

It is true that we are building a new “World Trade Center”, but that doesn’t make good the deficit, or removethe painful, sickening knowledge that it was precisely the skyline that was targeted. That part of our City was obliteratedbecause it was one of the most powerful symbols of our way of life, what we offer to the entire world: the ability of everycitizen to live, work and create in freedom and to fulfill their destiny.

Therefore, as we remember the names of those who were taken away from us, let us also hold in our memory,even as new towers rise and new monuments are created, that image of twin towers glistening in the American sun,reaching up to the sky, guardians of our hopes, markers of our accomplishments and dreams.

GEORGE KITSIOSB.S. in ARCH, B. ARCH, MSUP

Architecture/City Planning Consultant


struction – and liked nothingmore than visiting as many fam-ily and friends on holidays as hecould squeeze into his schedule.His legacy lives on a decadelater in the family’s JaM for Life,the Johnny and Mikey Katsi-matides Foundation for Life(www.jamfoundation.org),which raises money for a hostof charities.

Danielle Kousoulis, 29A bond broker and vice presidentat Cantor Fitzgerald, Daniellegrew up in Haddon Township,New Jersey and was graduatedfrom Villanova with top marks.At work, she enjoyed mentoringnew brokers. At home, she de-voted her time to family andfriends – and loved running.Her last communication fromthe 104th floor was cut off sofriends could use her cell phoneto reach loved ones. She is sur-vived by two sisters, a brother,her parents, a brother-in-law, aniece and a nephew. Her familyhas established the DanielleKousoulis Scholorship Fund(www.daniellekousoulisfund.org).Her colleagues formed the foun-dation Danielle’s Spirit(http://daniellesspirit.org),which raises money each yearfor student scholarships.

George Merkouris, 35An employee of Carr Futures, acompany on the 92nd floor ofthe north tower which lost 69people, Merkouris is remem-bered by friends for his livelypersonality, his sense of humorand many talents, includingGreek dancing. In 2002, his sonJack wrote in an online tribute:“I thank God that I had you as afather for the 11 greatest yearsof my life.” Today the GardinersAvenue Elementary School inthe town where he lived, Levit-town, has named the GeorgeMerkouris Memorial Field afterhim.

Peter Moutos, 44An information systems consul-tant for Marsh USA, he was onthe 100th floor of the NorthTower when it was hit, accord-ing to the Star Ledger. Only wedone year earlier, he grew up ina military family, was a formerathlete and studied at the Uni-versity of Texas. He was sur-vived by his wife Mary, hismother Gladys, his father Gus,his stepmother Lanette and hissister Linda Waugaman.

James N. Pappageorge, 29A member of the First Respon-ders, EMT expert Pappageorge

went to the scene of the WorldTrade Center attacks as a mem-ber of New York City Fire De-partment, Engine 23. With lotsof experience in New York hos-pitals and with Queens LadderCompany #129, he had justcompleted his fire departmenttraining. James grew up in Jack-son Heights, NY. He was sur-vived by fiancée Gina Pinos, sis-ter Helen and his mother Olga.

George Paris, 33Cantor Fitzgerald employeeGeorge Paris lived in Carmel,New York. He was survived byhis wife, Christina, and their

daughter Constantina, who wasonly three months old. Georgegrew up in Brooklyn andQueens and loved playing base-ball and football. He had musi-cal talent; before studying busi-ness, he played the drums withbands in venues throughoutManhattan.

Theodoros Pigis 60Greece-born, Brooklyn-basedPigis was employed by One-Source. He was at work paintingin the twin towers when thetragedy struck. He was survivedby his wife and two sons.

Daphne Pouletsos, 47Westwood, N.J. was home forthis Aon Corporation employee.She was known, as the familytold the New York Times, forcreatively decking out her housefor big parties, whetherMother’s Day, Christmas or Hal-loween. Survived by her parentsJim and Irene Pouletsos and sis-ters Corinne Krachtus andElaine Miller, she hailed fromthe Conrad’s Confectionery fam-ily.

Stephen Emanual Poulos, 45Music and computers – bothwere careers of another Aon

Corporation employee of Greekdescent. Poulos performed as abaritone for two decades – witha passion for opera. He grew upin Montvale, N.J. and was basedin Basking Ridge. He was sur-vived by his wife Lisa BrownPoulos, sisters Laurette Sim-mons and Carol Oppelaar, andmother Mary Poulos of Mary-land.

Anthony Savas, 72In a video report, his son Johnreports how his father, a PortAuthority construction inspectoron the job miraculously got outof an elevator on the 70th floor,only to spend his remainingtime helping others exit. Savas,who hailed from Astoria, hadserved in Korea. He was sur-vived by wife Phaedra and threechildren.

Muriel Fay Siskopoulos, 60The Keefe, Bruyette & Woods,Inc. employee loved to knit forher son, three daughters andtwo grandsons, the New YorkTimes reported. She was sur-vived by husband Mark. Herpleasures included frequenttrips to Disney World. Her twindaughters were born on Sep-tember 11, 1972.

Andrew Stergiopoulos, 23This young Cantor Fitzgeraldemployee and athlete was bornin Great Neck. The over-achiever’s name on the memor-ial is placed next to colleagueWilliam P. Tselepis, Jr. (see be-low). His legacy lives in The An-drew Stergiopoulos Foundation,which offers scholarships “tostudents who exhibit the quali-ties that Andrew embodied –leadership, achievement, sports-manship, diligence, empathyand vision.” Www.sterg.org isthe site. The George WashingtonUniversity alum excelled in icehockey, football and lacrosse.Though only 23, he worked on20 patents and was named asan inventor on eight of them.He grew up in the St. Paul’sGreek Orthodox Church parishof Hempstead, L.I.

Michael C. Tarrou, 38Michael and his fiancee AmyKing, both United Airlines flightattendants, were on fateful UA175, the second plane to crashinto the WTC. Remembered asa happy, peaceful man wholoved playing the guitar andcomposing music, Michael wassurvived by his daughter Ginaand parents, Patricia and the

Anthony Savas George Paris Constantine (Gus) Economos Peter B. Hanson & family

Daphne Pouletsos Prokopios Paul Zois Muriel Fay Siskopoulos Stephen Emanual Poulos

Andrew Stergiopoulos Theodoros Pigis Jennifer Lynn Tzemis Michael C. Tarrou

William P. Tselepis

LAW OFFICEof George G. Horiates

7905 Browing Road, Cooper Center #212, Pennsauken, NJ 08109Tel.: (856) 665-2085 • Fax: (856) 665-2670

UNITED WE STANDremembering, honoring and paying respect

to all loved ones we lost.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

www.njpersonalinjuyattorney.com



By TNH Staff Writers

“It was one of themost spectacularlybeautiful crisp NewYork days. Therewasn’t a cloud in

the sky,” recalls retired Port Au-thority Police Inspector John V.Kassimatis.

It’s not the first time he’s toldhis 9/11 story. Kassimatis spentmonths etching out his experi-ences to file a report and it hasbeen recorded for the new Na-tional September 11 Museumand Monument and the Libraryof Congress.

But he clearly relives eachsecond as he tells of it in aphone interview from his Gar-den City, New York, home. (On-line at http://www.thenational-herald.com/video/2057)

FAST REACTIONWhen Kassimatis, then a cap-

tain, heard on his radio that thefirst plane had hit the WorldTrade Center, he was filing pa-perwork as an Executive Officerof the Police Station at Port Au-thority Bus Terminal. He imme-diately went into his boss’ officeand they called in their men. Agroup of a dozen of them rodeon a passenger bus they tookover down 9th Avenue to thesite.

Little would they know whatthe day would hold. When thegroup arrived at the North sideof the WTC, Kassimatis saw thesecond plane hit amidst a nigh-marish scene. “There werepieces of building, there werepieces of airplane, there wasfire, there were dead bodiesspewed about.”

Add to this Kassimatis’ real-ising that his brother-in-lawProkopios Paul Zois had alreadybeen killed, or rather – in hisword - murdered. “My primarymotivation was to see if I couldget to him. But when I got downthere and I saw where theplanes had hit, I knew in myheart that he was dead.”

Kassimatis’ team began help-ing people out of the tower’smassive entrance mezzaninelevel into subway exits to safety.The evacuation worked, henotes, but it was intense. “Some

people are screaming. Somepeople are in shock as to whatthey saw as they walked to-wards the plaza...And a lot ofpeople, you had to shake themand tell them to move.”

‘RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!’After 15 to 20 minutes,

things got worst, fast. “All of asudden, I look up at the ceiling,”recalls Kassimatis. The massiveicicle chandeliers started shak-ing “like an A train pulling intoa station.” He adds: “It just gotlouder and louder and louderand louder. And it got darkerand darker and darker.” Hethought another plane had hit.“I look at my boss. He looks atme, and he yells, ‘Run for yourlife!’”

With his life flashing in frontof him, Kassimatis, his boss andthree others were thrown into apile as the plaza level collapsed.Trying to get the grey muck thathe recalls was like ‘alevri’ (Greekfor flour) out of his eyes, noseand mouth, he tried to commu-

nicate with those around him,while the massive noise ren-dered all hearing to a highpitched squeal. Tower 2 had col-lapsed at 9:59 a.m.

A combination of good senseand miracles lace his story. Theywere not hit by debris. A mannext to Kasssimatis in the greymuck had a flashlight. The smallgroup held onto each other andmade their exit via a hole wherean escalator was and then a tun-nel.

As the seconds tick before thecollapse of Tower 1 (10.29a.m.), they heard voices in thedebris and pulled out two NYDPofficers, a Lieutenant Pearsonand his assistant. “We all runout to West Street, run ontoknee deep snow, ‘alevri’, as I runout I trip over something. Ireach down and it’s a warmbody, and it’s this unconscious,bloodied woman. So I lift herup, I put her on my back and Istart moving as fast as I can upWest Street.”

Little did Kassimatis imagine

that he was captured by a localTV station – and his then-17-year-old son watched it live inschool and call his mother tosay his father was safe.

The escape was far fromover, however, Kassimatis founda NYPD Suburban that was run-ning, with its lights on. Heplaced the woman into it andclimbed into the driver’s seat, asothers piled into the vehicle.Then debris fell on them, andhe had to drive the vehicle backand forth several times beforeescaping, driving north – blind– till they hit a fire truck twoblocks away.

After being hosed down, Kas-simatis regrouped with his team–which lost several of its ranks- but stayed at the site till thenext morning. On the day ofthe attacks Kassimatis receiveda call from Archbishop

Demetrios and helped coordi-nate his return from Brookline,Massachusetts to the site. “Hewas the first high-ranking mem-ber of the clergy to respond,”remembers Kassimatis, who hassince become an Archon of theEcumenical Patriarchate.

On the eve of the 10th an-niversary, Kassimatis believesthere has been too much drama,yet not enough outrage overwhat happened.

As a veteran police officerwho has seen the horror ofcrimes and disasters for decades– he knows he’ll live with the ex-perience for life. “There is no clo-sure. You just deal with it everyday. Do I still have nightmaresabout it? Yes, I do. Do I lose sleepover it? Yes, I do and I probablywill for the rest of my life.”

[email protected]

As a survivor of September 11, I ask that we honor the memory of all of the deported souls.

Andrew C. Zachariades and familySupreme Treasurer Order of AHEPA

Inspector Kassimatis’ 9/11 Story

late James Tarrou of Florida.

Michael Theodoridis, 32His death as a passenger onAmerican Airlines Flight 11 wasa triple tragedy. He died along-side wife Rahma Sali, who waspregnant with their first child.Theodoridis, a technology con-sultant of Greek descent raisedin Switzerland, had convertedto Islam, according to the NewYork Times, before the Massa-chusetts-based couple’s 1998wedding. His wife was a Muslimof Sri Lankan descent. Theywere on their way to a wedding.

William P. Tselepis, 33Born in Berwyn, Illinois andbased in New Providence, N.J.,Billy worked as a foreign ex-change broker at Cantor Fitzger-

ald. He was survived by his wife,Mary, daughter, Katie (who wasfour). His son Will was born lessthan a month after he died.Other survivors included his el-der brother, Peter Tselepis.

Jennifer Lynn Tzemis, 26A vice president at Fred AlgerManagement, this dynamicyoung woman was survived byher sister Sophia Tzemis and fa-ther Stamatios (both in finance)and her mother, Nancy Tzemis.

Prokopios Paul Zois, 46Athens-born Zois was based inLynbrook, N.Y. He was a Marsh& McLennan consultant fromAmerican Express, but also foundtime to coach his children’s soccerand basketball teams. He wassurvived by his children Stefaniaand Theo and his wife, Dorota.At the time his children were

high school students; today theyare in their 20s.

The community was also hitby the loss of at least three indi-viduals with Greek Americanwives. They included: BayRidge’s Eric Allen, of New YorkCity Fire Department’s Squad18, survived by his wife Angel-ica and daughter Kathleen;Francisco Miguel Mancini, aWindows on the World contrac-tor, with wife Anastasia anddaughter Sophia; and Robert C.McLaughlin, a Cantor Fitzger-ald employee survived by wifeLiz and then 10-month-old sonNicholas.

Did you know these or othercommunity victims? Share your memories for fu-

ture publication to us at [email protected]

Who We Lost on September 11Continued from page 9

Paul’s parish in Long Island, “Hewas always smiling.”

Ten years too –for the Kassi-matis and Zois family – do notfeel very long. The Kassimatiseshave attended many memorialservices at the World Trade Cen-ter site. If Inspector Kassimatis,who was a first responder, hasspoken about his dramatic ex-periences, his wife has chosento mourn in private, lighting acandle in church instead.

This year, the family did not

plan to attend the unveiling ofthe September 11 Memorialand Museum, though they hadinvitations.

“Actually, this time I feel likeit’s just a photo op for the politi-cians,” says Paul’s sister. Thecouple was disappointed thatclergy and first responders werenot included. Inspector Kassi-matis was disgusted when aCity Hall employee explained tohim that it was not a religiousevent. “I told them, ‘The deathof 3,000 people is not a reli-gious event?’”

It was the Greek Americancommunity and the Church thathad supported Paul’s familyover the years. Family ties wereparamount, though, in mourn-ing a family man. As AlexandraKassimatis notes, was “Beingclose with family and very, verygood friends” that helped themand her brother’s children andwidow. She says the rebuildingof St. Nicholas has everythingto do with keeping her brother’smemory alive. “It should havebeen part of the memorial,” sheadds.

9/11: For Families, Ten Years is Nothing Continued from page 3

Archdiocese’sSeptember 11FinancialRelief FundTNH Staff

How did your parish’sdonation to the Archdioceseof the Greek OrthodoxChurch of America’s Sep-tember 11 Relief Fund ben-efit the families of victimslost in the attacks? For one,according to the Archdio-cese, these funds have madea college education possiblefor many children who losttheir parents in the WorldTrade Center attacks.

Days after the September11, 2001 events, the Arch-diocese of the Greek Ortho-dox Church of America be-gan collecting donations forits September 11 ReliefFund.

In total, according to theArchdiocese, $2,139,159was collected. Of this,$1,335,000 went to educa-tion funds for children ofGreek Orthodox victims in2002-2003.

While all of the fundsgathered were distributedby 2003, the educationfunds “established a collegefund for each one for the fu-ture,” noted Greek OrthodoxArchdiocese Press Office Di-rector Stavros Papager-manos, referring to the chil-dren of Greek Americanvictims. This, apparently,was regardless of the fam-ily’s financial standing.

TNH estimates over 20youngsters – including atleast one still in the wombon 9/11- stood to benefitfrom such college funds.The beneficiaries’ list is con-fidential.

According to informationfrom the press office, an ad-ditional $120,000 went toChristmas 2001 grant toGreek Orthodox families,$75,000 went to Greek Or-thodox-owned businessesimpacted by the attacks and$285,000 went to widowsand other family members.

Additionally, $150,000was donated to the CantorFitzgerald Relief Fund(whose 638 victims in theNorth Tower included atleast seven Greek Ameri-cans.)

The Archdiocese alsomade donations to non-Greek Orthodox charityfunds including the Port Au-thority Police Fund($100,000), an NYC 9-11Unmet Needs Roundtable($50,000) and the STARProgram of Church WorldService ($20,000).

Finally, $25,903 – a littleover the $24,101gained ininterest - was donated to theFund to Rebuild St.Nicholas.

The Archbishop IakovosLeadership 100 EndowmentFund contributed $587,500of the Fund, with donationstoo from parishes, diocesesand individuals.

Inspector John V. Kassimatis (R, with wife Alexandra) wentwith a team from his Port Authority station to the center ofthe destruction on 9/11 – and made a difference.

IN MEMORY OF ALL THESE GREEK AMERICANS AND ALL OTHERS WHOM WE LOST

ON 9/11/2001Joanne Marie AHLADIOTIS, 27 • Ernest ALIKAKOS, 43Arlene T. BABAKITIS, 47 • Katherine BANTIS, 48Peter BRENNAN, 30 • Thomas A. DAMASKINOS, 33

Anthony (Andoni) DEMAS, 61 • Constantine (Gus) ECONOMOS, 41 Peter Burton HANSON, 32 • Vasilios G. HARAMIS, 56John KATSIMATIDES, 31 • Danielle KOUSOULIS, 29George MERKOURIS, 35 • Peter MOUTOS, 44James N. PAPPAGEORGE, 29 • George PARIS, 33Theodoros PIGIS 60 • Daphne POULETSOS, 47

Stephen Emanual POULOS, 45 • Anthony SAVAS, 72Muriel Fay SISKOPOULOS, 60 • Andrew STERGIOPOULOS, 23

Michael C. TARROU, 38 • Michael THEODORIDIS, 32William P. TSELEPIS, 33 • Jennifer Lynn TZEMIS, 26

Prokopios Paul ZOIS, 46

The community was also hit by the loss of at least three individuals with Greek American wives.

They included: Bay Ridge’s Eric ALLEN, of New York City Fire Department’s Squad 18,

survived by his wife Angelica and daughter Kathleen; Francisco Miguel MANCINI, a Windows

on the World contractor, with wife Anastasia and daughter Sophia; and Robert C. MCLAUGHLIN, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee survived

by wife Liz and then 10-month-old son Nicholas.

NICHOLAS GAVALAS and family

“Iwas in Athens,Greece. It was anordinary Tuesdayafternoon for myAthens News col-

leagues, as we worked at ourcomputers, the TV humming inthe background. Then, westarted to pay attention to thetelevision. A plane crashing intothe twin towers?

I remembered that my com-puter wiz cousin, the same ageas I, worked for a Greek-runsoftware company in the towers.I once met him for lunch thereand enjoyed the glamorousscene of jet-setters lunching inthe shadow of the towers on asunny day.

But now, as the story un-folded, second-by-second, cour-tesy of CNN, the horrifying wideshots chilled me. Was Stelio inthere? I dialed his number. Avoice message. I left a messagealong the lines of “I know you’reprobably O.K., but we saw thenews. Please let us know youare safe.” No response. I redi-aled, for ages. Finally, I calledmy parents and they learned hewas fine. He had attended aYankees game (ultimatelyrained out) with our cousinsand slept in that day. When hearrived by subway under thetowers, he had time to escape.”

Angelike ContisTNH Staff Reporter


The View From Athens

This September 11 we remembered again the horror of the attacks

that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people, most at the World Trade Center in New York.

On this 10th anniversary, families and friends of the victims,

including those who were Greek Americans, gathered to honor their memories.

There was another loss that day – St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church – the only religious institution destroyed. This is a time too, then, to show support

for its long-delayed rebuilding and to light a candle for those who are gone

and pray the church will rise again.

JAMES AND WANDA TED AND LEA

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Where were you? TNH Staff & Readers Remember 9/11

It was a little before 9:00am, a brilliant morning, onTuesday, September the11th, 2001. I was asked totake an urgent phone call.

I was not too happy about theinterruption of my work.

I was sitting in front of mycomputer, in the open news-room of the old offices of thepaper, on Crescent Street, goingthrough my regular schedule. Iwas catching up with the newson the Associated Press, when Ipicked up the phone.

“Turn on the TV”, my friendyelled urgently. “One of the twintowers is on fire.” The twin tow-ers? But I had dinner there, witha friend who was visiting fromGreece, at the famous Windowson the World, not too long ago.

Amazing, I thought as Iturned the TV set on. How onearth could this possibly hap-pen? How could an airplane goso wrong as to dive into thetower, on such a crystal clearday? “Could it be a kamikazeattack,” crossed my mind.

It was now a few minutes be-fore nine. And then out of theblue sky a second aircraft tookaim and hit the other tower.Then, I knew.

America was under attack.But from whom?

A short time later I could seeblack smoke, huge clouds, bil-lowing from the Towers into theskyline of Manhattan from thewindow of my office in Queens.It was all so incredible. Howcould this happen?

A friend called from the WallStreet area: “It is so dark herein the streets, it is like night,from the dust. People are jump-ing from the windows of thetowers to their deaths. God helpus.”

I had to see the sight firsthand. The clouds of smoke cov-ering Manhattan could now beseen from as far away as LongIsland. The tens of photos that Iwas going though each day, inthe course of my work, the other

media coverage, were notenough. I had to be there. Tosee it first hand. But how?

The security was ironclad.No journalists allowed. Period.

How about engineers or con-struction people. They had to beallowed in. Right?

That did it. A friend of minein the construction businessmanaged to get me in. It wason Saturday the 15th. Four daysafter the event.

I still see it all in front of me.But can it be described? Howdo you describe the incrediblemountains of debris, the sheermagnitude of the destruction,the policemen, and others stillsearching frantically for peoplewho might still be alive in thedebris, the huge columns ofsteel beams, twisted by the fire,the smoke in my eyes that madethem hurt, the dust. But worstof all the smell... Yes, it was be-yond description.

And there, somewhere, wasMayor Rudy Giuliani, leading asfew could in that terrible mo-ment in history.

I searched for the church. Ithad to be there, over there Ithought. Right next to the over-pass. I knew it was there. Yet, itwas no more.

It had to be the worst day ofmy life. After a few hours I wenthome. I could not stand it anylonger. I washed thoroughly.And I vomited...

The depth of the destructionwas unveiled as the days passed.Especially when the time camefor the funerals of our GreekAmericans who perished there.That is one of the few timeswhen you could not just be areporter. You are a human be-ing. It is too much to bear.

Osama bin Laden and AlQaeda became household wordsin no time. But who was thismadman? How was he able todo it? Will there be more at-tacks? Where and when? Is any-one safe anymore? Is the coun-try safe?

One thing was certain:Osama bin Laden had to pay forhis crime. Before too long Amer-ica was chasing him, as well sheshould have, in Afghanistan. Butinvade Iraq?

Life changed in big and smallways after that. Going, for in-stance, through security at air-ports became unpleasant.Things in general changed forthe worse.

The sense of vulnerability, forthe first time hit us all. Americawas not protected any more. Itcould happen again. It lookedas though Osama bin Laden hadwon by exerting some degree ofinfluence over our lives.

In the end though, he under-estimated America. You cannotdestroy the spirit, the resolve,the unity, the strength, the de-termination, the ideals, thepower of America. Terrorism,the forces of darkness, bar-barism, can never win overAmerican’s democratic system,its ideals and beliefs. Never.

Yet, looking back over theevents that have taken placeover the last ten years, one hasto conclude that the scars aredeeper than might appear. Suchevents make people change, lifetakes on a different meaning.People act in ways that result intsunamis of different kinds longafter the event.

This has been a tumultuousdecade. First the devastating im-pact of terrorism that led to twowars that are still going on.Does this say it all? Then, sevenyears later, the horrific damageof the financial near-meltdownfrom which we have not yet re-covered.

Yes, Osama bin Laden paidthe ultimate price for his mur-ders, as he should have. Yet we,too, paid a price for our free-dom, dignity and our way oflife.

Antonis H. DiamatarisTNH Editor/Publisher

Destruction beyond description

“I saw the second plane hit the towers andalso saw the first tower fall. I was in CollegePoint, NY at that time, by the water and I had aclear view to the towers. I saw the tower fallwhile I was crossing the Whitestone Bridge onmy way to Mt. Vernon, NY. After that, my son aUS Marine was sent to Iraq, and died there as a

result of an accident. He died on May 11,2006.Your paper had the story back then. It's veryhard to repeat this things....God Bless the Marines,Semper Fidelis.”

Kostas Vahaviolos, father of Corporal SteveVahaviolos US Marines, Airmont, NY

Soldier’s Father

The events of September 11, 2001 have marked all of us. Here are the September 11 reflections and stories submitted by our staff and four readers - from the father of late U.S. marine Corporal Steve Vahaviolos to lawyer-turned-novelist Jeffrey Siger


WE NEVER FORGET the victims of 9/11

and the pain it caused to their families.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Scotty’s Diner336 Lexington Avenue (near 39th Street)

New York, NY 10016(212) 986-1520

IN MEMORYof those whom we lost

on 9-11-2001

Αιωνία τους η μνήμη

Elias and Ioulia Betzios

WHILE OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS

OF THE 9/11 ATROCITY WE WOULD LET THE TERRORISTS KNOW

THAT OUR RESOLVE TO DEFEND OUR FREEDOMS

IS STRENGHTHENED RATHER THAN WEAKENED.

MAY WE ALSO STATE OUR RESOLVE TO HAVE OUR ST. NICHOLAS

LANDMARK CHURCH THAT WAS NEXT TO THE TWIN TOWERS REBUILT

FOR THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MΕMORY AND HONOR TO OUR PILGRIMS

AND TO ALL THOSE VICTIMS OF 9/11.

ANDREW KAMPIZIONESARCHON DEPOUTATOS

INSTRUCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYFrancis Marion University & Florence Darlington

Technical College

It was a perfect morning. Iwalked to work – or ratherto the subterranean tunnelwith the subway train thatwould take me there – be-

neath the most magnificent blueI have ever known. Not a cloudin the sky. Those were squeezeddry the night before, when40,000 other Yankee fanswaited more than three hoursthrough a downpour for a gamethat would never be played.Omens were a silly notion to mebefore 9/11. I had a troublingdream that morning that madeit difficult to awake, but it wasnot one of those situationswhere you try to get back tosleep and restart the dream tosee how one of those mysteriousmovies that plays in our headswhen we are sleeping wouldturn out – I seemed to knowwhat was on this late summerday’s agenda and it was a meet-ing I wanted to miss.

But I had to get to work. Itwas my first day back after va-cation, so I forced myself out ofbed at 7:45, showered like afighter pilot might when calledto duty – no, they wouldn’tshower at all would they -grabbed an apple and expelledmyself from the safety of my As-toria apartment. But once Ilooked up at that infinity of blueabove, I forgot my dream andrelaxed. Only good things couldhappen on a day like this.

Two days earlier my vacationvegging took me to Lower Man-hattan. A few days after 9/11 Iwould recall that time I spenton a beautiful Sunday enjoying– for the first time – the com-munity and parks along the ma-jestic Hudson River that BatteryPark City had become. “God itwould be great to live in one ofthese apartments” I thought.Eventually I reached the WorldTrade Center.

Not the most beautiful com-plex of buildings in the world,

but impressive, even magnifi-cent when those twin towers re-flected the golden

rays of the sun as it rose orset. My earlier thought found itscomplement: “God it would begreat to work in one of thoseoffices, on the 80th or 90thstorey, where I would beginevery workday with joy seeingmy beloved city spread beforeme, and finish my tasks withpride in the evening, basking inthe golden glow of accomplish-ment and sunset in summer andreaching out to the shimmeringlights of the city in the crispevenings of fall or winter, feel-ing like a star myself. How un-fortunate, or stupid of me, notto have guided the barque of mycareer into the beautiful port ofthe World Trade Center.” Thatwas on 9/9.

I got to work late that Tues-day. I reached the lobby ofWorld Wide Plaza (did thatname cause my building tomake the short list penned bythe pea-brained demons whobelieved God willed thetragedy? Was it target number2 or 3, after the Empire StateBuilding perhaps?)

The TV screens flashing newsreports in the elevator were stilla novelty for me, but I wasn’twatching that morning. Some-one mumbled something abouta plane and I looked up. Therewas smoke pouring out of oneof the Twins, as Greeks calledthem. We were shaken up, butnot yet terrified.

Those emotions were stillaround the corner. I thoughtsome small plane out of Newarkairport hit, like the WWIIBomber that famously smashedinto the Empire State Building.We were concerned, but we hadto get to our desks and see whatrequired our attention. We’llfind out about the plane later.

At 9:15 I heard a commotionin the conference room near my

cubicle. People had been watch-ing the WTC news on the TV.Another plane hit the secondtower! What the hell? That’swhen horror claimed our aware-ness: The first crash was no ac-cident. It was an attack, yes,some crazy people wanted theworld’s attention in the worstway, the latest incarnation of the“fly me to Havana” impulse, butthat was it. One tower, two tow-ers. It was over. We are not re-ally at war. Now the firemenhad to get to work. Lively dis-cussion ensued. They have heli-copters that can dump water upthere, right? Others put their 2cents in…but there was some-thing else. Pentagon. Pentagon.Pentagon!

The Pentagon was hit! Jesus,how can a plane crash into thePentagon? Don’t they have mis-siles and secret lasers? Whatwere we spending billions onexotic weapons for if wecouldn’t knock planes bearingdown on the Pentagon out ofthe sky. Jesus!

Calm down. There’s a moun-tain of brainpower in Washing-ton - funny that thought would-n’t cross our mind today, wouldit, but on 9/11/01 I believed therazor sharp logic in America’sbiggest brains would figure it allout. Reason. Reason governs theUniverse. But the people whohad already crashed threeplanes and their buddies (howmany other planes were behav-ing suspiciously 10, 12, 18?)were not governed by reason,and for the time being, neitherwould most of our reactions tothem. What were those peoplewho did keep calm that day, thefirst responders, heroes? Super-men? No, miracles.

Do some people really wantto take away that cross fromGround Zero?

Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

Father Alex Karloutsos ofthe Greek OrthodoxChurch of the Hamp-tons was one of the firstto arrive at the Ground

Zero site, around 8pm on Sep-tember 11, 2001. It was to provea long, intense night, followingan emotional day.

That morning, immediatelyafter hearing the news that some-thing was happening with planesat the World Trade Center, hecalled Archbishop Demetrios andVice-Chairman of the Archdioce-san Council Michael Jaharis, whowere supposed to fly in fromBoston, and told them not totravel. Later in the day, unable toreach Manhattan, and havingseen the towers fall from his son’s

Astoria high rise apartment, heand his wife Xanthi returned tothe Hamptons for an impromptuprayer service. Fortunately noone in the parish was lost thatday, but many had friends or re-lations that were imperiled. Herecalls: “People were crying andeverybody was turning towardsthe church...calling for healingand comfort and peace.”

Returning home, he receiveda phone call from the Port Au-thority, asking him to use his po-lice badge (he is a volunteer in-spector) and head to GroundZero. Driving on the left lane, heand Xanthi – who he says, re-fused to let him go alone –madetheir way into the embattled city.“I have been in presidential mo-

torcades, but this was reallyeerie, I was the only one on theFDR, heading down to the Hol-land [Tunnel].”

Arriving at Ground Zero, Fr.Alex likens the scene to a movie:“Have you ever seen that Godzillamovie where all the trucks werethere, the FBI, the CIA...all thepolice, all the smoke all the fire,it was horrible down there.”

He was among the spiritualleaders from all faiths whoboosted morale in the crisis. ThePort Authority police told him,he recalls: “Just hug us, just lookat us. We need to see you. Weneed to see your collar. We needto feel comfort. This is hell weare going through. We need tosee the clergy’s face. We need to

have a sense of hope and faith.”One of the moments burned inhis memory is of an OrthodoxJewish rabbi comforting thewidow of an authority who per-ished that day.

Fr. Alex returned the next day,his badge again making it possi-ble for Archbishop Demetrios,who had come back by car fromBoston to return. He says of thatday: “We were walking on ashesof people who had died. Theashes were coming into our lips.It was very frightening. Andwhen people saw the archbishopthey were crying and wanted totouch him.”

The Archbishop returned, hesays, on September 14, whenPresident George W. Bush and

other authorities visited the site.Fr. Alex notes of the destroyedSt. Nicholas Church: “The ab-sence of the church made thepresence of the saints more vi-brant.” Ten years later, he says:“As the Archbishop described it,you saw the greatest tragedy, thegreatest ugliness of evil but thenyou saw the beauty of the good– in what people were trying todo in saving people.” The resur-rection metaphors come naturaltoday as he recalls dawn break-ing that first night: “You saw acity saying, We have hope. Theyare not going to conquer us. Allthis started coming with thedawning of the new day. All of asudden you saw darkness andthen light coming.”

Where were you? TNH Staff & Readers Remember 9/11

Father Alex Karloutsos

Not A Cloud In The Sky

“I remember 9/11 very well,as if it was yesterday. I was inmy Office at Herald Square andmy best friend from Greececalled to see if I was OK whenthe first plane hit. You see, At-lantic Bank had moved into thetowers about a year earlier be-cause we were renovating ourbuilding. We were supposed tohave been there until October,but because of the inconve-nience of traveling downtown

we had moved out of the towersa mere six weeks before the at-tacks. We still had our officesthere. Anyone of us could havebeen there that day.

At first we all thought thefirst plane was an accident. Weturned on the TV just in time tosee the second plane hit and itslowly began to sink in that wewere being attacked. The nextphone call I received was mymom and sister from Greece,

who though they knew I hadmoved out of the towers,wanted to hear my voice and besure I was OK.

A little later I looked out mywindow only to see what lookedlike zombies, frozen looks of dis-belief on their faces, walkingpast my building on 6th Avenue.They were covered in white dustand still in shock, walking, justtrying to get home. We wantedto help and didn’t know what

to do so we grabbed all the wa-ter bottles we had on our floorand ran downstairs and just be-gan trying to console people andgive them water. It was just un-real.

I was one of the lucky onesand did not lose any relativesor close friends in the attack,but I remember walking inUnion Square over the next few

days and seeing pictures of peo-ple I recognized posted on treesby their loved ones who weredesperately trying to find out ifthey were ok, knowing thatmost of them had most likelyperished in the attack. It wasdepression in its purest form.

NY has made a remarkablerecovery but we will never fullyrecover. We will never be able to

attend an event with hundredsof people and not fear that thismay be a good target for anotherterrorist attack, yet we attendanyway because we will not al-low ‘them’ to win. It has changedthe way we live our lives and hasforever changed us.”

Argyris (Artie) GyftopoulosNew York, NY

One Of The Lucky Ones

Day 1 At Ground Zero


P.J. Mechanical Corp.Peter J. Pappas

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IN REMEMBRANCE OF SEPTEMBER 11WE ON THE OCCASION OF THE 10TH YEAR AFTER

WE PAY TRIBUTETO OUR LOVED ONES WHO PERISHED

Ilike it over here by theUnited Nations. BeekmanPlace is different fromother New York Citystreets; it’s more like a

quiet, residential private road inan elegant European city. Mywalk to my office is down FirstAvenue overlooking the EastRiver and alongside the gardensand flags of the UN. It gives mea few daily moments of serenityand escape from the often out ofcontrol state of my life as alawyer here.

I need this walk today. Thesky is so blue and clear, exceptfor the few smoke-like clouds onthe downtown horizon. I’m upby the UN General AssemblyBuilding when I call my friendPanos to find out how his datewent last night. He’s frantic andsays he can’t talk. He’s waitingfor his mother to call him fromGreece. I ask if everything is OK.He says she’ll be worried whenshe hears that his office wasstruck by a plane. I must havemisunderstood him. He worksin the World Trade Center. Hesays his office building is burningand he has to get off the phone.

Those are not clouds on the

horizon, it’s smoke.I tell him to get out of the

building. He says it’s not neces-sary. He’s okay. His date kepthim out late and he’s still athome. He’ll go to work in theafternoon, after the fire is out.He hangs up.

How could a plane have hitthe World Trade Center on a dayas clear as this one? Somethingmust have happened to the pilot.I hear sirens everywhere andmove a little faster toward myoffice. By the time I get upstairseveryone is looking out the win-dows on the south side of ourbuilding. It has an unobstructedview of the Towers. Now they’reboth burning. I’m told a secondplane hit the second Tower. Weall know what that means - evenbefore learning about the Penta-gon. Someone tells me a planehit Pittsburgh, my hometown. Ican’t believe what I’m hearing. Icall my daughter, she lives inGreenwich Village. She’s fright-ened. We all are. I tell her to keepcalm. My son is in Cincinnati, I’msure he’s safe but I can’t reachhim.

We’re all glued to the bigscreen TV in my law firm’s main

conference room. The first towerbegins to fall and we turn enmasse from the television to lookout our windows as it crumblesto the ground before our eyes.It’s surreal, it can’t be happening.But it happens again. Not a wordis said while we watch the sec-ond tower fall. We are at war.But with whom?

My mind can’t fix on what allthis means. I focus on a rumorthat there’s an imminent biolog-

ical anthrax attack and race tothe pharmacy for enough antibi-otic for my daughter. That’ssomething I can do. Again, Ithink, my son is in Cincinnati.He’s safe there.

When I moved to NYC in1969 my first job was blocksaway from the Trade Center site.The Towers were in the midst ofconstruction and I saw themevery morning across the Brook-lyn Bridge as I’d head to work.In August 1974 I watchedPhilippe Petit do his high wirewalk between them, and threeyears later glimpsed at mountainclimber George Willig scale onein the wind. Even after movingmy office uptown they were al-ways in view from my window.They spanned my career as alawyer in NYC. I can’t believethey’re gone.

The City is in shock. Lines ofthousands of refugees fromdowntown are trekking up ThirdAvenue toward home or simplyto somewhere other than wherethey were. No one is talking. Thesmell is everywhere, acrid andbitter. There seems to be greydust on the shoes of every copand will be for days.

I stop at a restaurant halfwaybetween my office and home. It’sGreek and run by a friend. It’sthe only place I can think of togo. There is no one at home and

I can’t get downtown to mydaughter. She’s fine. Panoscomes in. I try making a jokeabout his date from last night. Isay he should marry her, shesaved his life. It’s not that funny.

A half dozen or so young menand women of about the age Iwas when I started working inNYC are sitting quietly at a tablealong the front windows. A cellphone rings - one of the few thatmust be working - and one ofthe women answers. She’s adark haired girl. She listens,shuts her phone and starts sob-bing. She says something to theothers; they hug each other andcry. Damnit.

It’s after midnight by the timeI head home. My cell phonerings on the way. It’s a friendfrom Capri in Italy. He’s beentrying to reach me all day to seeif I’m okay. I hang up and con-tinue home. I’m tearing. Friend-ship like his is what life’s allabout. Family and friends arewhat matter.

A week later I drive to myfarm, get in my pickup and headto Pittsburgh to visit my brotherand sister-in-law. I decide not togo back to NYC but drive south,toward the Outer Banks of NorthCarolina. I’ve never been therebefore, but it just seems the placeto be. I have to drive by Wash-ington, DC to get there. It’s only

when I see the first sign for DCthat I realize I’ve made an un-conscious pilgrimage past thethree sites of the 9/11 massacre- NYC, Western PA, DC.

Duck, NC is chilly in the off-season and the ocean is wild. Ilock myself in a hotel room over-looking the sea and complete myfirst novel. I’m driven to makesomething good come out of allof this bad. A week later I driveback to NYC. I’m on the JerseyTurnpike heading north andclose to the City, but I can’t tellwhere it begins. Its southernlandmark is gone. This world isinsane.

A few years later I give up mylife in NYC and move to theAegean island of Mykonos topursue my dream of writing mys-teries exploring the heart andsoul of Greece. There is no rea-son to wait any longer. Is there?

Jeffrey SigerMykonos, Greece

Jeffrey Siger is the author of theInspector Kaldis series of books,which have made bestseller listsin both Greece and the U.S. Setin contemporary Greece, thepage-turning novels include:Murder on Mykonos, Assassinsof Athens, Prey on Patmos. Hejust completed another book, onits way soon. For more:www.jeffreysiger.com

Iremember exiting PennStation and thinking whata beautiful, sunny Septem-ber day it was as I waswalking towards my job as

a Treasury Credit Analyst for theInterpublic Group of Companieson Madison Avenue at around8:25am. I usually showed upfor work around 8:30am. I ar-rived at my desk and started mycomputer. I was going throughmy e-mails and then I went onto www.cnn.com as was my rou-tine every morning. It was justbefore 9am when I read thebreaking news story that a planehad crashed into the WorldTrade Center. I quickly thoughtto myself ‘What sort of idiotcrashed his plane into the TradeCenter?’ thinking it was a smallCessna aircraft or something.So I instinctively got up and toldme boss. A few minutes laterthere was a picture of one of theWTC towers on fire and a reportthat another plane hit. My bossquickly took her little radio andtuned into 1010 WINS andturned up the volume.

As people rolled into work

we were all dumbfounded. Welearned the planes were com-mercial aircraft and that thismay have been a terrorist at-tack.

Around 9:20 a.m. I had got-ten a call from the girl I had justbegun dating a month prior(and is now my wife). She hadno idea where I was located inManhattan, but Sandy justwanted to check-in (this wasvery touching) because sheheard the news. I also was sur-prised to get an e-mail from anacquaintance from college be-fore 9:30 a.m. who had neversent me an e-mail before. Luck-ily I was in Midtown, but theyear before I was diagonallyacross the street from the WorldTrade Center at 99 ChurchStreet, while at Moody's. I usu-ally sat down and had my lunchat the plaza in front of the WTC.

Nobody could do any work.We were all investigating whathad happened and making calls

to family and friends. The Trea-surer ordered us all to not leavethe building, so I stayed, al-though I heard we could see thesmoke from 31st and 5th Av-enue and I wanted to go see.

I continued to listen to1010WINS on my boss' tiny ra-dio when at 9:59 a.m., I couldfeel my heart drop when the an-nouncer announced that theSouth Tower had collapsed. Ifelt completely helpless! Therewas word that there were manyother planes flying in the UnitedStates that would target otherareas. I learned that some ofmy friends, acquaintances andformer co-workers were havinga horrible time downtown get-ting through the ash;hearing/watching people jumpbecause the heat and smoke wasunbearable. A fellow classmateof mine that just the week be-fore was sitting in my first classas a part-time MBA student atFordham Graduate School of

Business perished. Many othersI used to know became a mem-ory. Compared to what they andothers went through, my expe-rience is relatively nothing.

My parents were in Queensand luck would have it that allthree of their kids were on theisland of Manhattan that fatefulday. However, thank God, wewere all safe! Cell phones wereintermittently working. Luckilymy two younger sisters had cellphones and after a few hourswe finally coordinated a 1:30p.m. meeting so we can leavetogether.

The treasurer allowed us toleave (and we did not go backto work until the next Monday).I found my first sister, Zoe, theyoungest, who was at the NYUDental Center and we walkedup First Avenue where we metour other sister, Diamond. ThePrassakos kids, (all in their 20'snot what you think when youhear the word kids) were walk-

ing up First Avenue to theQueensboro bridge. There wereno cars being driven on thestreets. The streets weremobbed with people all headingup North, it seemed, towardsthe bridge. Baba told us hewould meet/find us just off thebridge (which I thought was go-ing to be impossible, given allthe people and the cell phoneissues) since nobody was al-lowed to enter Manhattan viacar. From the bridge you couldsee the smoke polluting Brook-lyn from Ground Zero. Bothtowers had collapsed hours ago.Everybody was quietly walkingon the bridge towards Queens.There was no yelling, no push-ing, no shoving...some crying,but mostly people had ashocked look to their faces andthey were focused on getting tosomeplace seemingly safe, any-where off the island.

We arrived in Long IslandCity and I made the call to my

dad "Ela Baba, pou eisai?Eimaste oloi mazi!" (Dad, whereare you? We are all together!)Amazingly, I could see my Dad'swhite work van a couple ofblocks away. Once we got intothe van, my sense of securityand confidence returned, like atoddler finding his favorite blan-ket or teddy bear. The driveback to Flushing from Long Is-land City may have been longerthan the walk from 30th &Madison Ave. over the Queens-boro Bridge to Long Island City,since many traffic lights wereout. The traffic was ridiculous.I remember we arrived at myparent’s house around 5 p.m.and I put the TV on. The pic-tures were incredible. The TVcoverage was then focused on 7World Trade Center, and theymentioned it too was going tocollapse but that everyone wasevacuated.

It was a surreal day, one thatI will always remember, whereI was and what I did on9/11/2001.

Harry PrassakosNew York, NY

My September 11th

Over The Bridge To Safety


We honor the victims of the 9/11 Attacks

and remember that day of infamy

Nina GatzoulisFormer President

of the PAN-MACEDONIAN ASSOCIATION, Inc.

WE REMEMBERthe victims of 9/11 Attacks.

Let Us Never Forget the Twin Towers and this Day of Infamy.

UNITED WE STAND

Peter Coufos

TNH spoke to three“generations” of GreekAmerican politiciansin New York, veteranState Senate Majority

Leader Dean G. Skelos, newState Senator Michael Gianarisand recently-elected Assembly-woman Nicole Malliotakis abouttheir memories of September 11,2001 - and their thoughts onhow it impacted their communi-ties.

MICHAEL GIANARIS

In a now-historic picture ofArchbishop Demetrios visitingthe World Trade Center site, theday after the attacks, a new As-toria Assemblyman (voted intooffice in 2000) is visible to theside, observing. A decade later,Michael Gianaris (D) is now thefirst Greek American New YorkCity State Senator.

Gianaris tells TNH of his visitto the twin towers’ wreckagewith the Archbishop: “It was avery spiritual experience. Work-ers of all faiths who were clean-ing the rubble and rebuilding thesite stopped to ask for the bless-ing of His Eminence, which hewas happy to provide.”

When the attacks took place,Gianaris notes, it was an ElectionDay for municipal offices. He re-

calls: “I was campaigning withPeter Vallone Jr., who was run-ning for the City Council thatday. After the attacks, we wentto the rooftop of our pollingplace and saw the towers burn-ing with our own eyes. It is anexperience I will never forget.”

A decade later, the politiciannotes: “Like all communities,Greek Americans sufferedtremendous losses on September11th that can never be recouped.Ten years later, the scars are stillevident and the recovery is stillongoing. September 11th is anexperience that will remain en-grained in our psyche forever.”

Today, Gianaris prides himselfon authoring the state’s first post-September 11 anti-terrorism leg-islation; with national impact,this legislation regarded the se-curity of power plants, chemicalstorage and other facilities. In2007 too, he called on GoogleEarth to blur potential terrorismtargets. This March, Gianaris in-troduced a bill that would allowthe director of the state Office ofHomeland Security to keep acloser eye on how protected MTAis from terrorist attacks.

DEAN G. SKELOS

NYS Senate Majority LeaderDean G. Skelos (R) recalls

that he and his wife Gail werevisiting former Olympics siteLake Placid when they heard ofthe attacks. He notes: “We im-mediately got into our car andstarted driving south. Through-out the trip we were trying toget in touch with friends andfamily members to make surethey were safe. We were unableto get in touch with Gail’s sisterCarla, however, who worked inLower Manhattan. After severalhours, we finally reached her byphone, and learned that she hadjust come out of a subway stationwhen the first plane hit, and wassafe.”

Returning to the city was farfrom easy, however. Skelos re-members that entering New YorkCity or Long Island was impossi-ble due to road and bridge clo-sures. Eventually they met Carla,who had gotten a ride from afriend, in Harriman, New York.He and his wife drove back toAlbany and stayed at her homeuntil they could return to LongIsland the next day.

Skelos, who was a senator atthat time, notes that RockvilleCentre and all of his district ex-perienced great losses. He re-members: “For several weeks af-ter the attacks, I attended two tothree memorial services per day

for constituents who lost theirlives on that tragic day,” adding:“Those who died on September11th will never be forgotten andwe will remember and memori-alize them on the 10th Anniver-sary this year.”

Skelos recalls his first returnto the site of the tragic events.He notes: “About 10 days afterthat tragic day, I visited GroundZero with a group of elected of-ficials including Mayor Giuliani.It was a very emotional visit; thedevastation was stunning. I wasstruck by the many volunteers,firefighters and other who werestill hoping to find people alivein the wreckage. One of the offi-cials there with us had lost hisson on September 11th. It wasone of the most emotional expe-riences I have ever had.”

A decade later, the State Sen-ator is most concerned about thefate of the Greek church de-stroyed in the events, underlin-ing: “ St. Nicholas Greek Ortho-dox Church was the only churchdestroyed on September 11th,and it was a huge loss for theGreek American community.” Hesays on the topic: “I have stakedout a very aggressive position tohave this church rebuilt, havingworked with ArchbishopDemetrios, Mayor Bloomberg,

former Governors Pataki and Pa-terson and most recently Gover-nor Cuomo.”

The fight isn’t over, he be-lieves, noting: “ I am hopeful thatGovernor Cuomo will prevailupon the Port Authority to getthis church, which is of majorhistorical and religious impor-tance to Greek Americans, re-built as soon as possible. Re-building St. Nicholas Church atGround Zero would stand as astrong and hopeful symbol to theworld of the resurgence of NewYork and our entire nation as wecommemorate the 10th anniver-sary of the September 11th at-tacks.”

He said he’d mark the decadesince 9/11 at memorial servicesand other events.

NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS

Iremember the earth shaking.We thought it was an earth-quake,” recalls District 60 Assem-blywoman Nicole Malliotakis(R). She remembers being on anexpress bus commuting to work,finding herself a few blocks awayfrom the World Trade Center.

Today, she represents StatenIsland and Brooklyn. In 2001,the daughter of Greek andCuban immigrants was workingin Union Square, in an advertis-

ing agency. “It was my first jobout of college,” she says.

“We lost many people in thishorrific event,” notes the assem-blywoman, adding: “We lostmany firefighters.” She pointsout that many families were af-fected in her district generally,but also that the Greek Americancommunity also suffered blows.

Greece-born Vasilios G.Haramis, from Malliotakis’parish, the Holy Trinity Churchin Staten Island, was amongthose killed in the World TradeCenter attacks.

Rebuilding the St. NicholasChurch is a priority for her too,notes the new assemblywoman.“It’s very important that we worktogether to ensure that thishouse of worship is rebuilt,” shesays, reiterating her belief (heardat June AHEPA too) that thechurch is of vital importance tonot just the Greek Americancommunity, but also to New Yorkand the country. She said of Gov-ernor Cuomo, “He’s very sup-portive to help get our churchback.”

She aimed to attend the 9/11remembrance at the 69th StreetPier in Bay Ridge and the StatenIsland 10th Anniversary 9-11Commemoration of Boro Presi-dent Joe Molinaro.

New York Political Leaders Remember 9/11

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WR Ετος ίδρυσης 1915

Συνδρομές


By Constantinos E. ScarosTNH Staff Writer

On September 11,2001 New YorkCity was basking inglorious morningweather: just warm

enough to feel like late summer,with a beautiful cloudless skyup above. We know what tran-spired all too well and there isno need to rehash it yet again.Ten years later, there remain

numerous questions about thatawful day. Are we safer nowthan we were ten years ago? Ifnot, will we ever feel safe againin our lifetimes, or will thethreat of another attack loomover the rest of our lives? The good news is that the

most notorious terrorist groupshave been impaired severelyover the past decade, and how-ever the political hacks wouldlike to spin that feat, the truthis that both the Bush and theObama administrations deservecredit. A recent book by CharlesKurtzman, “The Missing Mar-tyrs: Why There Are So FewMuslim Terrorists,” depicts thatthe threat of grand-scale coor-dinated attacks by sleeper ter-rorist cells throughout theUnited States may have beenoverhyped. But none of this isto say that the danger is over.American counterterrorism ini-tiatives need to remain as vigi-lant as they were on September12, 2001, the day after the at-

tacks, not the day before.Nonetheless, although compla-cency and hubris should beavoided at all costs, some cau-tious optimism tempered withcontinued resolve is in order.And if there is one bright

spot to our seemingly hopelesseconomy, it is that Americansare too steeped in their worryabout financial ruin to thinkvery much about any new at-tacks. If counterterrorism ef-forts have not weakened the ex-tremists and rendered them allbut irrelevant in the eyes of themasses, the Great Recession cer-tainly has.

There are at least two devel-opments that undermine ourpost-9/11 existence and deservemore press time and attentionthan they have received thus far.One is a broken promise; theother an unfulfilled one. Longbefore the partisan battles be-tween Democratic PresidentObama and Republican HouseSpeaker John Boehner, therewas the feud between Republi-can President Bush and SenateMajority Leader Tom Daschle.But in Bush’s address to a jointsession of Congress shortly after9/11, the two rivals put theirdifferences aside. As Bush madehis way through the crowdshaking hands, he and Daschlecame face to face, and fell intoa long embrace. That mighthave been the “hug heardaround the world,” because itunderscored that when thechips are down, we are nolonger Democrats and we areno longer Republicans – we areAmericans. And when we real-ize that, there isn’t a force in theworld that can stand in our way.Yet there are far too many

times when we don’t seem toappreciate the unparalleledpower of our own unity. Suchas now, when the political cli-mate in Washington is evenmore toxic than it was a decadeago. Is a national crisis the onlything that can cause Americansto put their petty differencesaside and join together as one?What is it going to take next

time, an invasion from Mars?Bipartisanship was the bro-

ken promise, now on to the un-fulfilled one. The Washingtongridlock has spread to GroundZero. Ten years have come andgone yet the new buildings arestill not standing. For all thebravado about showing the ter-rorists how great we are andhow quickly we’d build newtowers even more majestic thanthe original ones, we’ve barelygotten past the stage of cleaning

up the rubble. It took a merethree years for the original TwinTowers to be built, and only fiveyears of total planning. Andthere was no incentive at thetime to show anyone howquickly we could do the job. Ournation dropped the ball on thisone. There are no excuses. We’retalking about putting up somebuildings, not waiting for sta-lagmites to form. It is time torebuild the towers, bigger andbetter than ever, immediately.

Constantinos E. Scaros, aregular columnist for The Na-tional Herald, is a published au-thor and expert in Americanpresidential history, with abackground in Ancient Greekhistory. He has taught history,political science, and law atNew York University, andserved as an Academic Dean attwo other colleges in New York.He welcomes comments at hisblog at scaros.blogspot.com

By Amb. Patrick N. TherosSpecial to The National Herald

At approximately ninea.m. on a Tuesday myson Nickolas called totell me that a planecrashed into the

World Trade Towers. My wifeand I turned on the TV andlooked with fascinated horror atthe burning building. Wethought, of course, that someterrible accident had occurred.A few moments later we saw theshadow of an airliner on theright of the flickering screen and,as it crashed into Tower 2, real-ized we were witnessing theworst terrorist attack ever per-petrated on US soil. Having runthe State Department’s countert-errorism office a few years ear-lier, I was not surprised that anattack had taken place, but itsscope – four airplanes simulta-neously – left me speechless. Idid take pride in the fact thatAmericans came together to findthe perpetrators and bring themto justice. But, on September14, we received the first inklingthat 9/11 had given birth to anugly dark side. A well-dressedmiddle-aged woman accostedNickolas, then a university stu-dent, on a sidewalk in down-town Washington and attackedhim with a lunatic stream of pro-fanities and threats. To her, any-one who looked Mediterraneanwas an Islamic terrorist. For her,there was no place for Nickolasin her America!Unfortunately, reacting to the

crime of 9/11 fell to an Admin-istration presided over by anamiable but easily influencedex-addict who had found reli-

gion, a Vice President who com-bined a megalomaniac desire forglory with utter contempt fordemocracy and the Constitu-tion, and a Defense Secretarywho took any disagreement asa personal attack. This trio wasin turn guided and informed bya small group of ideologues that

wanted to recreate America asImperial Rome. This Administration called on

the American people to showtheir sacrifice by indulgingthemselves in gluttonous con-sumerism, while lowering taxeson their wealthy cronies andembarking on the greatest

deficit-financed binge in Ameri-can history until that point. Ina few years, budget surpluseswere converted into uncontrol-lable budget deficits. Whileratcheting down revenues, theAdministration embarked ontwo ill-advised, badly-planned,under-resourced and badly-

managed wars that destroyedthe world’s confidence in Amer-ica’s leadership. The undermin-ing of America’s defenses com-pounded the cost in blood andtreasure. By 2003, it was obvi-ous to almost all of America’ssenior diplomats and soldiersthat the Administration had

launched us on a reckless coursethat would come to a bad end.If that were not enough, thesame Administration set aboutsystematically destroying Amer-ica’s good name with renditions,concentration camps and legallysanctioned torture.Today, ten years later, the

United States wallows in itsworst economic catastrophesince the Great Depression,9/11 has bequeathed an un-precedented level of politicalcorruption, a growing gap be-tween rich and poor, an erosionof our freedoms in the name ofsecurity, and a political divisive-ness unseen since the decadebefore our Civil War. It comesas no surprise that these terribleevents have produced a large-scale political movement, theTea Party, determined to upsetthe establishment. That the TeaParty has been co-opted by aclever manipulation of racism,a know-nothing approach togovernance and an appeal to thebasest instincts of religious ex-tremism threatens to underminethe very foundations of ourDemocracy. From this view-point, Osama bin Laden went toHell confident that he won.

The Hon. Ambassador Theros, aregular columnist for The Na-tional Herald, is president ofthe U.S.-Qatar BusinessCouncil. He served in the U.S.Foreign Service for 36 years,mostly in the Middle East, andwas American Ambassador toQatar from 1995 to 1998. Healso directed the State Depart-ment’s Counter-TerrorismOffice, and holds numerousU.S. Government decorations.

First the Nightmare, then the Grim Reactions

Ten Years After 9/11: Where Is The Unity And Where Are The Buildings?

Church, as previous presidentJohn Pitsikalis resigns for healthreasons.

Oct. 4-8, 2010 – After alengthy stalemate, Chris Ward,executive director of the PortAuthority, at a CommunityBoard 1 meeting says negationswill restart with the St. NicholasGreek Orthodox Church. Hetells the Battery Park City Broad-sheet that negotiations with St.Nicholas may resume, noting:“We are prepared to make a fullcompensation to make suretheir church rises on the site.”The Archdiocese says they havenot been contacted.

Dec. 6, 2010 – The Archdio-cese of the Greek OrthodoxChurch of America serves pa-pers of its intention to go tocourt. The previous day, some700 Greek Orthodox peoplegather at Ground Zero for ves-pers and protest.

Feb. 14, 2011 – The lawsuitis filed against the PA, the LowerManhattan Development Corpo-ration (LMDC) and the UrbanDevelopment Corporation(UDC) over delays in the re-building, stating that the P.A. re-neged on a deal of August 2008and began excavations onchurch property without permis-sion for the new transport com-plex. The Greek Church and St.Nicholas Church are repre-

sented by Mark G. Cunha of thefirm of Thacher, Simpson andBartlett.

Feb. 2011- CongressmanGus M. Bilirakis of Florida cir-culates a letter informing mem-bers of the House of Represen-tatives of what he said is aviolation of the church’s consti-tutional rights.

Mar. 24, 2011 – At a GreekIndependence Day ReceptionNew York City Mayor MichaelBloomberg tells TNH, referringto the Greek Church and PortAuthority: “They should sitdown and talk.”

May 5, 2011- First Pre-trialconference held by FederalJudge Harold Baer, Jr. of theSouthern District of New Yorkfor the lawsuit.

May 26, 2011 – GovernorAndrew Cuomo makes favor-able statements with regards toSt. Nicholas’ rebuilding at a din-ner meeting he held for GreekChurch leaders and prominentbusinessmen. ArchbishopDemetrios, Rev. Fr. AlexanderKarloutsos and businessmenJohn Catsimatides, Michael Ja-haris, George Tsunis and DennisMehiel were present.

Apr. 2011- Work begins onthe WTC Vehicle Security Centerand sub-grade steel superstruc-ture work begins on 3 WorldTrade Center.

June 21, 2011 – Third pre-trial conference held in St.Nicholas case.

June 26, 2011 –AHEPA rallyheld on Liberty Street withabout 200 individuals.

Aug 9, 2011 – Increased co-operation in discovery processby PA part of reason for scalingback scheduled pre-trial confer-ence to a conference call.

September 11, 2011 – Na-tional Sept. 11 Monument andMuseum’s Memorial Plazaopens. Steel on 1 World Tradehas reached 83rd floor and the41st floor at 4 WTC. Foundationwork underway on 2 WorldTrade Center. Site excavation,rock blasting and removal, andutility work is continuing on theVehicular Security Center.

Sept. 15, 2011 – ScheduledPre-trial conference beforeJudge Baer.

Sept. 11, 2012 - Under-ground Museum and entrancePavilion to open.

2013 – Work expected to becompleted on the Vehicular Se-curity Center.

2014 - Santiago Calatrava’siconic Transportation Hub ex-pected to open.

Date and Location Unknown– St. Nicholas to be rebuilt.

St. Nicholas’ Problematic Trajectory

A New York City fireman calls for 10 more rescue workers to make their way into the rubble of the World Trade Center.U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY JOURNALIST 1ST CLASS PRESTON KERES

Continued from page 6


Ten years ago, our nation came under attack,But our memory of that terrible day is clear.

We will keep forever in our hearts theFamilies who have endured insurmountable pain.

We lost some very dear friends that day,Loyal friends spanning three generations.Our hearts were broken, and we wereDeeply affected by the horror of 9/11.

We will never forget the atrocities perpetratedAgainst our country, and we join the entire

Greek American community, as we allSolemnly reflect on a national tragedy.

American solidarity has proven that we will notTolerate any form of tyranny or terrorism.

The Rangos Family remembers both the fallen,And also those left behind to rebuild their lives.

The Rangos Foundation actively supports various institutions and programs

which benefit education, healthcare and humanitarian causes all over the world

ENRICHING MINDS

Duquesne University - The Rangos School of Health Sciences

Carnegie Mellon University - CMU Information Networking Institute Cooperative Exchange

with Athens Institute of Technology

Carnegie Science Center - The Rangos Omnimax Theater

ADVANCING HEALTHCARE

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh - The John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center

and John G. Rangos - Massimo Trucco Diabetes Center

Johns Hopkins University - The John G. Rangos Sr. Life Sciences Building

and the John G. Rangos Sr. Professorship of Adult Medicine

ENHANCING LIVES AND PRESERVING HISTORY

IOCC - International Orthodox Christian Charities

Congressional Medal of Honor Society - CMOH Foundation

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