All three of the candlelight vigils held last Sunday were a large success. More than 3,000 people showed up at Fort Tilden for the West End vigil. That event was attended by Senator Chuck Schumer, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Borough President Claire Shulman, State Senator Malcolm Smith and City Council President Peter Vallone. It was a night of healing and of prayer. The most touching point of the night was a huge, spotlighted American Flag that hung from the extended ladder of Ladder Truck 137. After Giuliani made his speech, a number of people in the audience shouted, "How can you leave us?" A Moslem cleric, who spoke, demanding justice for those who were killed in the tragedy, got a loud round of applause from the audience. The most rousing speech came from Congressman Chuck Schumer, who sounded more like a hawk than the dove he usually represents. The East End vigil, held at the Far Rockaway fire house, hosted about 300 people. It was interesting that none of the prominent politicians from that area showed up for the moving event. More...

The Fall 2001 CYO Cross Country Season opens on Sunday, September 30th at Alley Spring Park. The first CYO race will be a developmental meet. The races will begin at 12 pm with the senior boys and girls from the 8th and 9th grade having a 1-mile run. The junior boys and girls from the 6th and 7th grade will run a slightly shorter race. The novices will follow with a half-mile course. The bantams of the 4th and 5th grade, which will run a three-quarter mile loop, will complete the day. More...

December 7, 1941, a "Day That Will Live In Infamy." Editorialists and others have likened the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center to that attack on our military at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. America was complacent then. We did not believe that a "minor" Asian nation such as Japan would dare attack America. There is another date, however, that we think of as well when we think of the recent attack. That date is October 4, 1957. What happened that day? The event was not as memorable for most as Pearl Harbor, but it changed America and the world just as surely as did the Japanese attack and as will the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On that day, the USSR launched Sputnik into an Earth orbit, the first man-made satellite to circle our planet. We were complacent then as well. Nobody believed that the USSR More...

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