Political Quotes

“1 year from today, the first of America's three official 9/11 memorials will be dedicated at the Pentagon. It will feature 184 stainless steel benches, each surrounded by a pool of water; one bench for each of the 184 innocent victims who died in the Pentagon and on the plane that struck it 6 years ago today. This morning on the front page of ``The Washington Post'' there is a story about a small company of master metalworkers who are finishing these benches, grinding and polishing them, transforming them into perfectly uniform, flawlessly smooth memorials. The company is called Bucthel Metal Finishing Company. It is located outside Chicago. They do work all over the United States. The owner of Bucthel Metal Finishing is Abe Yousif. Mr. Yousif is an Iraqi immigrant who left his homeland in 1978, months before the start of the Iraq-Iran war. He has never been back. All 24 of Yousif's employees are also immigrants, from Mexico, Bosnia, and many other nations. For Abe Yousif and each of his employees, polishing those benches for the Pentagon memorial has become a deeply personal mission. As ``The Washington Post'' describes it: If he can make the benches perfect, he believes he will help others to heal. If he can make the metal shine brilliantly, they will feel hope. He wants people to run their fingers along the steel and find, in its clean, immaculate smoothness, something affirming, redeeming even, on a site now scarred by murder and death.”