#restated September 10 2024

[oldguardleatherdog]

Re-up for The Anniversary 2024. This is my September 11th Survivor C.V. This is my credo, my Survivor's Statement, my position and vision, my affirmation, reclamation, regeneration, redemption, recalled to life. I am alive.

I am a survivor of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001. I lived four blocks due east of the Towers.

I lost my home that day, was homeless and destitute for years, and in 2018, after extensive vetting by the CDC, NIH, and NIOSH, was given a Zadroga Act diagnosis of 9/11-connected PTSD as a result of my experience and exposure to the aftermath in the World Trade Center Disaster Area from 9/11/01-1/20/02.

Monday will be the 22nd anniversary. As always, I will mark the day with my family and loved ones, and I may or may not be online that day and evening... every year is different.

I no longer dread it, and neither should you. Speaking as the only person most of you will ever likely know who was directly affected, literally a card-carrying Certified Survivor of 9/11, I hereby grant you freedom from all anxiety, guilt, despair, anger, resentment, discomfort, and anything and everything else that remains in your spirit and mind and heart that troubles you about that day, that has never quite resolved, that prevents you from sharing the joy in my own heart at having survived, at being alive.

If you must be angry, be angry at the way we were used in the years that followed, but do not aim that anger at us any longer. We who were injured in the attacks that day are not the ones to blame, nor did we have any say in or influence over anything that flowed from them. We who survived are not to blame for the bigotry you suffered or the wars that followed or the scorn of your view of this country and its leaders. We did not slaughter untold millions of innocents in faraway lands.

The random, free-floating anger, the wishes that we too had died in the attacks, the perverse cries to me and others of "you deserved it!", make those who attack us complicit in the attacks of that day - because we were targeted for 22 years in the same way that the terrorists targeted us for slaughter that morning.

The home I knew and the place I loved no longer exists. What's there now belongs to another generation, where new life has grown out of the charnel house of devastation, where memories have been made and children have played and careers have flourished and love has been found and lost and found again, and there is comfort there.

Don't worry about us; we take care of our own. You honor us best by living as we do: fully, freely, always going forward, always in the light.

I will keep you close in the days ahead. You are never far from my heart.

"I AM ALIVE"

Animal J. Smith

[naturecoaster]

Hernando/Citrus Metropolitan Planning Organization September Meeting Recap

The Hernando/Citrus Metropolitan Planning Organization is an organization mandated by the Federal Highway Act of 1973 to provide a cooperative, comprehensive, and continuing transportation planning and decision-making process for our area. The process encompasses all modes and covers both short-range and long-range transportation planning. MPO plans and programs are reviewed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The Hernando/Citrus MPO acts as a liaison between local communities, their citizens, and the state departments of transportation (DOTs). MPOs are important because they direct how and where available state and federal dollars for transportation improvements will be spent. September's meeting recap is below: The Hernando/Citrus MPO Board was updated regarding the Hernando BOCC and Citrus BOCC approval of their annual Transit Development Plan progress reports. The MPO Board approved an amendment to the Long-Range Transportation Plan to incorporate performance measurements and target setting requirements relating to bridge and pavement, system performance (travel time reliability), and transit asset management. An amendment to the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) was approved to include the annual roll forward of projects from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), incorporate the performance measurements and target setting requirements relating to bridge and pavement, system performance and transit asset management; and update the 2019/2020 List of Priority Projects.  The TIP has been posted on the MPO’s website at www.hernandocitrusmpo.us. The MPO approved updates to the MPO’s Public Participation Plan, Title VI and Non-Discrimination Program which includes the Limited English Proficiency Program.  The updates were made to reflect current MPO staff contact information, provide direction for public involvement activities and to ensure a full and open participation process in accordance with all applicable Federal and State requirements. The 2018/19-2019/20 Unified Planning Work Program was modified to update the summary budget tables to reflect all grant funding sources and to reallocate funding between planning tasks.   The modification did not result in any changes to the overall budget. The Fourth Amended and Restated Interlocal Agreement with the TBARTA MPO Chairs Committee (CCC) was approved.  The amended language acknowledges that the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority was renamed to the Tampa Bay Regional Transit Authority. The MPO is in process of preparing updates to the 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan.  Kimley Horn and Associates is the MPO’s consultant coordinating this project.  Consultant Scope of Services C in the amount of $123,540 was approved for Kimley Horn to continue with this work effort. A major update to the Hernando County Transit Development Plan must be completed by September 2019.  The MPO approved a work scope to Tindale Oliver and Associates in the amount of $89,833 to assist the MPO in completing this work effort. The MPO is the designated Planning Agency for the Transportation Disadvantaged Program for both Hernando County and Citrus County.  Administrative support agreements were approved by the MPO to ensure continued support and coordination in association with the grants received to administer the TD program. The MPO Board rescheduled their November 28, 2018 meeting to December 12, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. to accommodate a presentation by the Florida Department of Transportation for the 2020-2024 Tentative Work Program. The MPO Executive Director provided the MPO Board with information regarding automated vehicles. The next MPO meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. in the John Law Ayers Commission Chambers, Room 160,  20 N. Main Street,  Brooksville, FL  34601 Please Contact the Hernando/Citrus MPO at (352) 754-4082 for more information Read the full article