Superheroes - 20th Anniversary Tribute to the heroes of 9/11/01

SUPERHEROES is an original song written, recorded and produced by me. I originally wrote it as a Tribute to ALL of our AMERICAN HEROES for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. I feel the memory of this event is even more important today, due to current events now taking place and must be remembered at this 20-year anniversary. There is an entire generation that was just barely born at the time of this event 20 years ago. Some of them just gave their lives this very year in Afghanistan for the cause of freedom. Some from this very same generation who have not entered service may not even be aware of what happened on that dreadful day 20 years ago in NYC. This is not even being taught or mentioned in many of our public schools.
I was specifically inspired by spending time with Firefighter friends at Ladder Co.10 on Liberty Street, next to Ground Zero, and was touched to the core beyond what I had anticipated. Growing up in NY, I watched the Twin Towers as they were being built. It was always what I knew New York City to look like. I will never forget the morning of September 11th, 2001, as I watched in horror on TV, from San Diego, the attack on the Twin Towers, in the very place, my home state of my birth, the place I loved to visit and knew growing up for my first 21 years.
Being a mother of a son who had just joined the Army that year, I had the sensing as I was watching that we were under attack and the chances of my son going to war was imminent. I was feeling for the victims of the event, and feeling for the future victims of war. As it turned out, my son, who was in the Arctic brigade in Alaska, trained and his brigade was schedule to go to Iraq the year after he was relieved of his duty from the Army. However, those 3 years had me on pins and needles, not knowing that any time he could be called to go into the heat of war. My heart will always go out to ALL military moms! I did have friends who had sons who did end up fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq - in fact a son of my best friend who I had baby sat and spent much time with as a child who played with my sons was one of the first of the 173rd airborne paratroopers to drop down into Afghanistan to find and hunt down Al Qaida.
The year of 2011 was my first time coming back to Ground Zero, since 9/11 and once I arrived on that corner, my throat started to choke and I started to feel the magnitude and a broader sense of the actual event and also a sense of mourning. About an hour after my visit, I literally broke down in tears. The night before we visited Engine Co. 10, my friend, Stuey, who I was great friends with growing up on Long Island and who was an Asst. Fire Chief with the U.S. Coast Guard in the NY Harbor on Governors Island and who was at the time in 2011 at the Coast Guard Training Center in New Jersey, showed me a video he had of 9/11, which was a documentary view from the eyes of the Firefighters, and also about "Probies"..new firefighters just out of the academy. A French film maker was in NYC at the time of September 2001, planning to do a special on these firefighters, when the World Trade Center was attacked. He followed them through the horrific events of the day. In the video it is evident how this event turned boys into men. I was touched as I heard them speak and tell their stories of how they felt, and what they witnessed.
The next day we were invited to visit Ladder Co. 10, the firehouse next to Ground zero. Coupled with the video I had just seen the night before, and my visit there, it was inevitable that I was touched and moved to my very core. Two days after I returned from my trip to NY, I was overwhelming inspired to write this song, and have was consumed with getting my thoughts out in audio and video format. Just a couple days, after I started writing the song, I had heard on the news that the Firefighters and Police Officers were not invited to the 9/11 memorial service. (This was under the Obama administration at the time.) This really broke my heart, and I thought...."what kind of backward world do we live in?" Of ALL the people who should be invited, they should be THE FIRST! I can accredit this very experience as part of my journey into attaining a much more patriotic view of our nation. It caused me to appreciate more than I ever had the heroes of our society and to support all those who selflessly serve. I had always been patriotic since my childhood, but this experience took my patriotism to a whole new level. Together with my deep faith in God, this 2011 experience in NYC continued an awakening process and deep interest to search out truth, no matter where that would bring me, whether it would be loss of friends, excommunication from certain musical groups, etc. If it took me down deep dark rabbit holes to ultimately find truth, I felt this was worth it. (On a side note, I do feel that the truth of what happened on 9/11 and who was behind it, is still hidden, but could very well soon to be revealed.)
While at Ladder Co. 10 on Liberty Street, Firefighter Jerry Cameron hosted us and gave us a tour of the firehouse. At the time, I had no idea I would be writing a song or doing a video. Jerry allowed me to take any pictures or video I wanted. So, I did, just purely from a visitor stand point, and to share later with my family and friends. So, the video footage and photography you see in the video is all mine, except for a few pictures I had to get from google, due to the subject matter. They are some of the scenes of that dreadful day, as I had to find scenes that would paint the appropriate scene with the lyrics. I didn't want to put another video out there with planes crashing into the towers, or people running and fleeing in fear and horror! Although, we must never forget, I felt that it was my mission on this project to honor our heroes, and tried to make this more of a Tribute to them which was honorable and victorious, showing some of the destruction, but minimally.
It is my hope that people around the world will have even more respect and have a greater appreciation for these people who protect us both inside this country, as well as all others who do the same in laying down their own lives for others in countries outside of the USA. I also hope these men and woman in service to humanity will feel the appreciation from the majority of the grass roots population, even if they do not receive the proper recognition from their current government officials and politicians!
Thank you for reading, listening, watching and sharing! WE WILL NEVER FORGET! God Bless the souls of all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. God bless those who still serve and God Bless America! Laura Casale