So I ditched my original idea for mattygregg.com, which was to take a painting that McLean Communications made of me before I left the company (found here) for a timeline format. I'm a fan of timeline formats. Don't ask me why.

I hope this is done before 2004 ends so that it still applies... heh.

Kathy sent me a really nice text message this morning: "Just wanted to say hi and hope u slept ok."

Very non-typical these days... maybe we're going back to being interested in discovering each other. I certainly hope so.

I'm looking forward to the 9/11 Commission coming to New York City on Tuesday & Wednesday. I hope to meet both Rudy and Tom Von Essen... they're both slated to be there. The schedule, if you're interested, is as follows:

9/11 Commission Hearings

Tuesday, May 18th
8:45 – 9:00 -- STAFF STATEMENT NO. 13 Plans
9:00 – 10:00 -- STAFF STATEMENT NO. 14 Emergency Response
10:00 – 11:15 -- PANEL ONE, Alan Reiss Former Director, World Trade Department, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Joseph Morris Former Chief, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department
11:15 – 1:00 -- PANEL TWO, Bernard B. Kerik Former Commissioner, New York Police Department (NYPD) Thomas Von Essen Former Commissioner, Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Richard Sheirer Former Director, New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
1:00 – 2:00 -- BREAK
2:00 – 3:45 -- PANEL THREE, Raymond W. Kelly Commissioner, New York Police Department (NYPD) Nicholas Scoppetta Commissioner, Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Joseph F. Bruno Director, New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM)

Wednesday, May 19th
8:00 – 8:30 -- STAFF STATEMENT NO. 15 Crisis Management
8:30 - 10:00 -- The Honorable Rudolph W. Giuliani Former Mayor, City of New York
10:00 - 11:15 -- PANEL FOUR, Dennis Smith Author, “Report from Ground Zero” Jerome M. Hauer Former Director, New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Edward P. Plaugher Chief, Arlington County Fire Department
11:15 - 12:45 -- The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge Secretary of Homeland Security

I went to a 9/11 family support group today over on Staten Island. First off, I had never taken the ferry before. This is the first time I had done so. It goes by the Statue of Liberty and is free. I invite anyone who requires a sea to get your thoughts swimming to take the ferry.

I wasn't exactly sure what the program was that I was walking into, and at first, I really felt like I didn't belong because I had lost no family members during September 11th. But what I did realize quickly was that these are all people in search of peace of mind, and they help each other to obtain it. They all are brought together with common problems.

You know, I don't think that there is another organization in the world like the Red Cross. No, they're not perfect, and I don't think anyone would classify them as that. But the Red Cross makes a conscious effort to take into consideration the emotional health of a person. This group made that fact completely apparent.

I met some great people there at that group. The specifics I won't say due to confidentiality. But I felt at home with them, the way I felt when I first talked with Deena and in reading books about people involved in 9/11. We're all, at the crux, looking for something. I'm looking for preservation of memory in Nine 11. I want my project to be a tool for people to use to get over tragedy in their own lives.

That's all. I want to write more, so I think I'll do so in my personal journal.

It should be interesting to hear what Giuliani has to say regarding the following questions:

http://www.911independentcommission.org/giuliani31804.html

<<10. Why did you ask to have your records as Mayor of New York City sealed for 25 years?>>

Very interesting question... I will never understand the desire to seal records for 25 years.

The good part is that people are starting to question World Trade Center 7's mysterious disappearance (question 13 on the agenda). The problem I have with the whole thing is that it's very difficult to get bombs in there to do a clean detonation in a matter of a few hours... especially with all of the craziness at Ground Zero at the time. When WTC 7's disappearance goes unanswered like this (and no self-respecting human can REALLY believe the FEMA report... it would be the first time in the history of the world that a fire was responsible for the collapse of a high-rise), it gives fuel to the conspiracy theorists. I hope Rudy has a good explanation, and if he doesn't know, I hope the 9/11 commission goes after Silverstein and whoever called him.

STRUCTURE-RELATED NINE 11 POST: What really happened to World Trade Center 7?

I'm sure many of you know by now that Larry Silverstein received a call from the "er... fire department commander" to "pull" World Trade Center 7... but why? Silverstein Properties was the real estate contractor who first announced on April 26th, 2001 (Press Release) that they would enter into a 99-year lease agreement with the state of New York.

Silverstein is quoted as saying this in a 2002 PBS documentary:

"We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it. And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse."

I don't think you can get any plainer... someone took that building down... but why? I'm not really into conspiracy theories, but why isn't it important to anyone what happened to WTC 7? I'm wondering how a building could enter into total collapse due to "fire" as suggested by the FEMA report. Why was it demolished?

Any thoughts on World Trade Center 7 should be posted here. I think it will be helpful to figure out what happened.

Matty

I'm still trying to remember what the point was behind my December 10th blog. There must've been a purpose, but I have no idea what it could've been. Jeez, I sounded mad.

This blog is going to combine my own thoughts with thoughts about Nine 11. I think this will be a great forum to get my thoughts out and hopefully share them with everyone else who cares about reading them.

Feel free to post! Can you even post replies on blogspot.com?