why does anyone have to be reminded of that?

e most enduring memories I have of 9/11 and the immediate aftermath are as follows:

 1) The INCREDIBLE bravery exhibited by so many firefighters, police, and rescue workers. For a couple of months after 9/11 it seemed like EVERY single firehouse and police station in NYC had a mini-shrine erected at the site with flowers and cards/handwritten notes of various kinds. It's sad that it took a tragedy of this magnitude to make us appreciate the amazing job these people do every day but at least for a brief moment in time these brave folks got deserved recognition!!  

 2) Rudy Giuliani---Honestly, I can't think of ANYONE who was better equipped to lead the city during this tragic period!! He was like a modern day Winston Churchill---you KNEW that somehow, someway the city would bounce back and I give so much of the credit for that to Giuliani's leadership. He didn't sugar-coat things as he made it quite clear in his early press conferences how staggering the losses were in human life and infrastructure damage. But from day one Giuliani displayed a steely resolve and a reassuring presence that gave you a sense of calm and a feeling that we'd ultimately recover. He was the penultimate New Yorker during that time---tough and resilient.