Back to Buffalo, Part 2

I went to Buffalo in search of stories from the early lives of Beverly and Sean, and I returned from my trip with plenty of them. I was especially keen on getting details about the young Sean Rooney, because I had only gotten a few vignettes from Beverly. On one sunny day, Sean's sister, Cynthia Blest, guided me around the parts of Buffalo that had been touched by Sean.

This is the house on Dorchester Road the Rooney family lived in when Sean was growing up. Beverly had told me the story about the time Sean had dismantled a 1951 MG TD in the driveway when he was a teenager, and rebuilt it piece-by-piece. And Cynthia recounted with a smile an episode involving Sean, some gin-and-tonics, and a botched repair job on the front steps. It was in the kitchen of this house, helping his mother, Rosemary, that Sean absorbed the lessons of how food and love could combine in magical ways. Many times it is the lessons we learn when we are young that carry us through in the years to come.

Back to Buffalo, Part 1

I drove up to Buffalo in October to continue my research for the book. I focused on gathering information about Beverly and Sean during their early years, speaking with their friends and relatives, and visiting places that were important in their lives.

Karen Eckert kindly shared her memories of Beverly, and guided me around Buffalo. One of the places we visited was Forest Lawn Cemetery and Crematory, where the Eckert family placed a beautiful bronze plaque over Beverly's resting place. Karen said that she and the other siblings (Susan Bourque, Margot Eckert and Ray Eckert) had devoted a great deal of thought and care to the words on the plaque. It is a difficult thing to summarize in a short space the talents, accomplishments, spirit and love of an exceptional person. I think they succeeded:

BEVERLY A. ECKERT

Born May 29, 1951

Died February 12, 2009

In the crash of Continental Flight 3407

In Clarence Center, New York

Widow of her beloved high school sweetheart

Sean P. Rooney

Who died September 11, 2001

In the attack on the World Trade Center

Beverly was a tireless advocate for the families of the victims of 9/11

A leader in the establishment of the 9/11 Commission

And Co-founder of Voices of September 11th

A lover of beauty

A writer, an artist, a poet

A constant source of amazement and fun

Generous of spirit

Dedicated to her family and friends

And the principles of justice

She lived her life extraordinarily well

Devoted in love, Beverly and Sean are together now

"Happily Ever-Aftering"

"...The evening sky has deepened into darkness on a soft summer night. We are sitting on the stone step near the kitchen door, watching the fireflies rise in the backyard over the newly mowed lawn. Friends are expected for dinner. A steak is on the grill, a glass of wine in hand.... we are laughing.... we are content."

-Beverly Eckert-

Beverly and the book and me: The birth of a collaboration

This somewhat improbable endeavor – a book about a 9/11 citizen activist by a Middle East scholar – came about because Beverly and I had so much in common. Our collaboration was born of shared interests, goals and even personalities. It makes sense, after all, that kindred spirits would work together well.

Had it not been for 9/11, our paths never would have crossed. But once I decided to write about the 9/11 Commission, our meeting was inevitable, because without the efforts of Beverly and other family members, the commission would never have been established. I interviewed Beverly for an article I wrote for the History News Network on the testimony of Richard Clarke before the commission. I had not known of her before then, but once I read about her life with Sean, her horrific ordeal with him on the telephone as he tried to escape from Tower Two, and eventually perished, I knew I wanted to tell her story, to make the whole experience of 9/11 personal and immediate to readers through her eyes.

After reading my HNN article, Beverly wrote in June 2004 that it had offered a perspective that was “really different” than those presented in the many other articles on the commission that she’d read. “You captured the drama and content of the testimony,” she said. Others had approached Beverly about doing a book, but they suggested that she do most of the writing. She turned them down, explaining that “I have too little time and energy right now for looking back, when there is so much to be dealt with in the present.”

As with many matters, when it came to deciding whether to get involved with producing a book, Beverly was deliberate and thoughtful. After I had broached the idea to her, she suggested I contact her again after a few months. During this time, she informed other members of the Family Steering Committee of my proposed book, and that I would be interested in getting in touch with them. None of them balked at the idea, but some told Beverly that the large number of media requests for interviews necessitated much greater selectivity on their part. She noted that “although the FSC members have been accessible before, I can't promise the same access now” since it was a very busy time. As for Beverly’s relatives and friends, she told me they were interested in the project and willing to contribute their recollections.

During the summer of 2004, we continued to be in touch, and during the course of our discussions, I had suggested that Beverly begin to keep a journal, to record her thoughts and actions for future reference. On July 4, 2004, she visited the memorial grove she had planted in Sean’s memory in the ocean side park where the couple had spent many a leisurely weekend, strolling, roller-blading, reading the Sunday New York Times. She placed a couple of American flags next to the plaque by the trees, she said, because “I felt it was something that I needed to do, given that Sean was killed because he was an American.” Beverly’s first journal entry described that gesture of love and remembrance.

Later in July, Beverly agreed participate in the book project. Her prime concern was accuracy. On a number of occasions she illustrated this sentiment by quoting Voltaire: “To the living, we owe respect. To the dead we owe only the truth.” She had no desire to dictate the content of the book, which she left to me. She trusted me to write an honest and accurate account of the people and events of 9/11 and afterward. She only wanted the opportunity to offer her version of events when the version of others differed, and to let me decide which was closer to the truth.

Beverly’s search for truth was what she owed to her beloved Sean. Mine is driven by the historian’s duty to present the past as it actually was. I’m confident that the people who matter the most – the readers of No Truer Hearts – will agree our shared quest will be yield something valuable and enduring.

Flight 3401 family members celebrate hard-won airline safety reforms

Like their sister Beverly before them, Karen Eckert and Susan Bourque celebrated a legislative victory after many months of hard work in Washington's halls of political power. Karen, Susan and other family members and friends of the Continental Flight 3407 victims, as well as others supporting airline safety reforms, had been lobbying for for many months to press their cause. Yesterday President Obama signed legislation that would improve pilot training, address flight crew fatigue and other issues related to the crash of Flight 3407.

An article by Jerry Zremski of the Buffalo News summarized the reaction:

"At last it is official!" said Susan Bourque of East Aurora, who lost her sister, 9/11 activist Beverly Eckert, in the crash. "Today is my granddaughter Adriana's birthday. What a present -- not just for her but everyone who flies."

Sculpting a book: from bare outline to fully formed story

When I am asked about the writing process, I like to use the analogy of a sculptor.

Just as a sculptor starts with sketches or small scale models, I began this project by making notes on the general structure of the book, following the main paths of Beverly Eckert's story. And just as a sculptor working in clay fashions a wire frame in the general shape of the final piece, I put together an outline listing the main parts, chapters, episodes of the story. To add texture and depth to the bare wire frame, the artist pinches off pieces of clay and smoothes them onto the frame, layer by layer, getting closer to the final design. As in all good works of non-fiction, the story told in No Truer Hearts is made up of facts, which I am drawing from interviews, emails, documents, articles, books, films, electronic media and other sources. I use these sources to add detail, insight and color to the basic outline, layer by layer, chapter by chapter, episode by episode. It is a process, in a way, of creative accretion, a gradual and deliberate adding on of color, shape, substance, soul.

In the end, there will be something that is both pleasing to the senses, and sturdy enough as an object of historical analysis to stand the test of time, a goal that Beverly and I both shared.

Beverly Eckert and her sisters: citizen advocates fighting for the average American

Washington is awash in lobbyists.

Wealthy corporations and groups funnel rivers of cash to slick lawyers, former Congressmen and well-connected ex-government officials to grease the skids of special interest political influence. It is a story as old as politics itself, and too often it results in policies that benefit the rich and powerful rather than promoting the high ideal of government of the people, by the people and for the people.

That is why the story of Beverly Eckert and her fellow 9/11 family members is so compelling. Average citizens faced with an epic catastrophe responded by almost singlehandedly compelling the government to better protect its citizens. Without the commitment, skill, and persistence of the family members, the system that allowed 9/11 to happen would have continued to function for the most part in its old, dysfunctional way.

(And even after intelligence reforms were passed, the bureaucracy and private corporations have found new ways to put their interests above those of the nation, and once again make us all vulnerable to future attacks, as reported in a special Washington Post series this week.)

Now comes an update on the similar reform work by family members of Flight 3407, including Beverly's sister's Karen Eckert and Susan Bourque. In it, Associate Press reporter Joan Lowy describes exactly how this latest effective band of citizen advocates were able to convince members of Congress for the need to improve airline safety:

As a group, they have made more than 30 lobbying trips to Washington at their own expense over the past 17 months since the crash in Buffalo, N.Y., united them in grief — with a determination to try to fix what had gone wrong.

They've met with 88 senators or their staffs, and two dozen House members or their aides — many of them more than once. They've attended every congressional hearing with any connection to aviation safety. They've watched from the House and Senate visitor galleries as lawmakers debated reforms, an unmistakable island of red sweaters, ties and jackets — their chosen color — with photos of their loved ones pinned to their chests.

In March, when Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., threatened to block a vote on the bill because he objected to a labor provision affecting FedEx Corp., which is headquartered in his state, about 20 family members descended on his office. In a tense meeting with Corker's chief of staff, they demanded he explain why the senator was putting the interests of a company ahead of safety. They held out pictures of the loved ones they'd lost, told of the children who would grow up without fathers.

Ten minutes after the meeting ended, family members were still standing outside Corker's office trying to decide what to do next when an aide called them back in to tell them Corker had reached a compromise with Democratic leaders. The threat to block the bill had been dropped for the moment. Family members don't take credit for Corker's decision, but they say they believe their actions helped.

Starting up again, after an unexpected break

My work on this blog, as well as on the book, ground to an unexpected halt some months ago because I suffered a deep personal crisis from which I am at last recovering. For a while, I was unable to work, to function normally, because my 25-year marriage had broken apart.

From now on, though, I will redouble my efforts and push hard to complete this endeavor, to keep my promise to Beverly. The blog will come alive, and each day the pages of the manuscript will increase. This story will be told.

I feel I must apologize, for this book has been much delayed, for a variety of reasons. But the days of delays are over. In the coming days you will read about how this project arose, what Beverly's thoughts were about it, and how I will go about making our dream a reality.

Feel free to contact me with questions, suggestions and information about Beverly's life, her 9/11 reform work, and the Family Steering Committee. I'm eager to get back on track and to organize this mountain of material into the 9/11 story everyone will want to read. Onward!