By Donald H. Harrison
EL CAJON – A UCSD emergency room doctor who led a medical team from San Diego to Ground Zero in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and treated rescue workers and volunteers at the site, has offered eleven prescriptions for Americans wanting to commemorate the attacks appropriately.
Dr. Irving “Jake” Jacoby spoke at Grossmont College on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at a solemn ceremony marking the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. He was featured along with San Diego County Sheriff’s Sgt. Joel Wigand, who had traveled from San Diego to New York to participate in law enforcement’s memorial honor guard shortly after the attacks.
Grossmont College Chemistry Prof. Jeffrey Lehman, who several years after the 9-11 attacks joined the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) that Jacoby leads, was honored in the same ceremony by the Associated Students of Grossmont College with its “First Annual Spirit of 9-11 Award” that goes to a person who is a first responder and also has an affiliation with Grossmont College.
Held in the Main Quad of Grossmont College, the 9-11 ceremony began with the singing of the national Anthem by soprano Audra Nagby, a music instructor at the college, who was accompanied on piano by Steve Baker, the dean of arts, languages and communications . There followed speeches of welcome and introductions by Dr. Sunita Cooke, president of the college; Esau Cortez, the student president, and Debbie Yaddow, dean of Allied Health and Nursing.
Jacoby said that the first thing citizens can do to “remember and honor those who were attacked and killed on that Day of Enormity,” is “remembering the victims by name, as individuals, as you have done today.” He referred to the fact that in the four hours preceding the noontime ceremony, a total of 30 students, faculty and staff had recited the names of the 2,977 persons who were killed in the terrorist attacks. The readings of nearly 100 names each were interspersed with six moments of silence occurring at the exact times that commandeered commercial jets hit the twin towers, when the towers collapsed and when two other hijacked planes crashed, one into the Pentagon, the other into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Other recommendations from Jacoby included “reading about and retelling the stories of the heroes; visiting the various 9-11 memorials when traveling; standing up to “those that always seem to appear out of the blue to deny the reality of an event such as this”; learning “as much as we can about the forces of evil in the world in order to recognize them and oppose them;” studying ways to “decrease our chances of becoming victims”; and refraining from condemning “entire groups for the actions of a few in that group.”
Still other of the doctor’s suggestions included saying ‘no’ to “buying, distributing and/ or using illicit drugs, since much of the major drug trade is in fact supporting and funding terrorism in many of its forms;” understanding that “what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 can happen again …when one group of people wants to impose their religious beliefs and biases on others;” understanding a terror attack’s effects on health can be lifelong and profound because of the toxins released by the collapsed buildings and the many death at the site; volunteering for first response teams, which need many varieties of helping hands, and remembering the saying of Dr. Albert Schweitzer that “the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
Sgt. Wigand, telling of his experience at Ground Zero representing the Sheriff’s Department at a memorial for fellow law enforcement officers approximately one month after the event, said: “the smell of smoke filled the air as the piles of debris continued to smolder. The amount of destruction was beyond description. None of the pictures seen in the newspaper or on television can adequately describe the scene. Every day another body was found. This is a sacred place, a place of honor for all of those who died at the hands of terrorists. Whenever a person was discovered in the debris all demolition stopped. Everyone remained silently in place until the remains were removed.”
From there, the honor guard went to New Jersey, for services to memorialize 37 officers of the New York/ New Jersey Port Authority killed at the Trade Center. That was the highest number of police officers killed in the line of duty in a single incident in the history of the United States, he said. “Many of the 37 officers have not been found. The family of Officer Christopher C. Amoroso, who is still classified as missing, had M.I.A. bracelets made up and asked people to wear them,” a request with which many of the 1,500 law enforcement officials at the service complied.
After being presented with an award for his work as a communications officer with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Cave & Technical Rescue Team as well as his work with Jacoby’s DMAT team, Prof. Lehman said the images of 9-11 will remain in his memory even as his parents always remembered where they were when they heard about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, or his grandparents recalled what they were doing when they learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting America’s entry into World War II.
“More important,” said the honoree, “I remember the intense national unity and outpouring of support following the attack.” Looking over at a Bloodmobile from the San Diego Blood Bank, where donors had queued during the ceremony, he also cited, “the thousands of gallons of blood donated, the workers who labored around the clock to free trapped survivors, and recover remains.
“For me,” said Lehman, “the legacy of 9-11 is not one of death and destruction, but a shining example of America’s continued devotion to the common good. Today, we remember those who perished in the attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C., and it is important that we do so. But we must also take this opportunity to examine our own lives to ensure that we are worthy of the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf, and to consider our role in America’s storied tradition of service.”
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Harrison, editor of San Diego Jewish World, is serving on an interim basis as director of college and community relations for Grossmont College, for which this article was originally written. Harrison may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com