William Rodriguez and the Key to 9/11
William Rodriguez and the Key to 9/11
Peter Zaza
September 24, 2007
"First Man In" for Truth
Myself and 100 other people had the good fortune to see William Rodriguez speak
in Nanaimo, BC on Sept 17th, 2007. There are many things quite remarkable about
this man, his rare sense of integrity being chief among them. I had heard him
before on a radio show, it was a fascinating interview where he went into some
detail about his youth, his career in magic, and just some of the noteworthy
people he has been associated with throughout his extraordinary life so far.
Working at the World Trade Center for 20 years, he was one of a small group of
people who possessed a master key to the building. That fact, along with his
intimate knowledge of this huge complex, permitted firefighters easier access,
and therefore more people could be saved. Rodriguez is a humble man who makes
references to the fact that he is just a janitor, but in truth, he is a
powerful individual with an amazing story to tell. Through his experiences
we see revealed a man who possesses incredible loyalty, uncommon bravery, and
the strength of his convictions concerning truth and justice.
"Strength is Happiness. Strength is itself victory. In weakness and cowardice there is no happiness. When you wage a struggle, you might win or you might lose. But regardless of the short-term outcome, the very fact of your continuing to struggle is proof of your victory as a human being." - Daisaku Ikeda
More than 2 hours sped by all too fast as we heard his first person account of events that occurred at the World Trade Center on 9/11. I was surprised to hear him tell of the many instances where he kept going back into the building to rescue strangers and try and save his friends. Not surprising is the fact that all of his testimony about the bombs going off before the planes hit was omitted from the official 9/11 Commission Report - as a matter of fact there is no mention of William Rodriguez at all, or the many others who would have to be considered prime witnesses in any real investigation.
At one point in his presentation he talks about a specific moment where he asks God for help. William tells us that he was not much of a believer before this moment, but as he was sure that he was going to die just then, he cried out for divine assistance. There were three instances during his lecture where I was literally moved to tears - this was one such moment. Rodriguez has an uncanny ability to engage an audience with his story, it feels as if he is speaking to you directly, and you can feel the pain he still experiences when he closes his eyes and falls silent while describing the 200 friends he lost that day, or the exasperation and hopelessness he felt while trying to save people amid this scenario of confusion and devastation. At that moment when he describes turning toward God for help, I'm reminded of another time in my own life when I turned away.
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
I can remember the exact instant I turned away from my Catholic faith - I was enrolled at St. Mike's College in Toronto, a place where some famous NHL stars had been schooled. Most of my teachers were Priests who lived there at the college. I stayed after class one day and asked my teacher who was an elder Priest this question, "If a baby is born and dies 5 minutes later without having been baptized, why can't this child ever get to heaven and must instead languish in limbo instead? It seems rather unfair to me that our God would punish somebody who is completely innocent of anything, and for all of eternity." He went on to explain that these were just the rules and sometimes we were not capable as mere mortals of understanding God's wisdom, it was not our duty to question, we are required to have faith and obey. Well, I didn't like that answer at all - you see, we were also studying physics, science and math which pointed to some kind of an ordered universe with rules and laws of nature, these studies demanded reason and truth in order to exist. I could not accept that God could be so unfair, or that any religious doctrine would support this type of thought.
"The important thing is to not stop questioning" - Einstein
I pressed this man of the cloth further with the following, "If a man lives his entire life and is always a good person and a respected member of society, but then 5 minutes before he dies he takes a gun and murders somebody - can this man still get to heaven, and does this one action negate all the good work he has done his entire life?" Now my teacher and my religion were both truly on the spot as far as I was concerned, in my 14 year old mind I felt I had this Priest and the whole Catholic faith on the line and over a barrel for my allegiance. His answers both dismayed and surprised me. He said first that if the man received the sacrament of confession within that last 5 minutes of his life - he could then be absolved and forgiven, and after a suitable length of time in Purgatory would be able to proceed straight to heaven - pass Go and collect the $200. I was shocked and disheartened, this formal religion thing had lost me at that moment - here we have a completely innocent soul who has barely drawn a breath and is denied heaven for all eternity, and then somebody who willfully commits murder who is allowed the grand prize at the end of the tunnel.
But then this teacher of mine said something that I didn't expect, and which has subsequently afforded me a valuable lesson throughout my interesting if not heathen existence on this earth. He said that each of our lives is like a long strand of thread in this huge tapestry - if we live our entire life and help to create a rich and colourful design, then this is not mitigated by the thread becoming frayed and broken toward the end - it does not take away from the beauty of all that has gone before. I suppose I decided right there that his allegory about life's tapestry was correct, but I didn't like his capricious rules concerning player eligibility for heaven and hell. Perhaps heaven and hell were not some mystical places we went after we died, perhaps they exist on this tapestry itself during our time here - we make our own heaven and hell I reasoned, and it's encapsulated in our thought at this very moment. As a result of this exchange I never went to church again, and decided to cultivate my interest in Taoism.
Later in my life I heard this poem, it of course reminded me of that important day in my youth.
Just A Weaver
by Benjamine Malachi Franklin
My life is but a weaving, between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.
Ofttimes he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why
The dark threads are as needful, in the skillful weaver's hand
As threads of gold and silver, in the pattern He has planned.
More than one road to Maple Leaf Gardens
When I was young my father used to make little drawings when he explained
things to us, it was usually a visual diagram containing lines, boxes and
circles that would get connected and spill off the page as he spoke. I'll never
forget one such lesson, he said that when we went and watched the Maple Leafs
play a hockey game live, there were literally thousands of different roads we
could take - all leading from our house to Maple Leaf Gardens. He tried to
impress upon me the importance of respecting other people's choices in this
life. We are all in a sense trying to get to the same arena, and once having
arrived at our destination, it matters not what route one takes or how long the
journey. Parenthetically speaking, I would later reason that statistically the
Leafs had a better than equal chance of losing no matter how the hell I got
there.
In our search for truth we can take two different roads, the path of
acceptance, or the path of denial. Both lead to the same place as there is only
one truth at which to arrive. The path of affirmation, or the via affirmativa,
is the positive path, this method requires much effort as one is trying to
attain a sense of God through devotion, study and application. The opposite is
of course the via negativa, or the negative path. On this road to truth we are
required to do absolutely nothing at all - those who choose this method will
try and remain in a receptive state, as only your stillness is required. The
first path is an accumulation of study and experience, the second requires a
stripping away of knowledge to attain an awareness of your inner being, and
meditation is valued as a way to allow the divine presence within you to be
realized.
In our search for truth regarding 9/11 we can take two distinct roads. The path
of affirmation of the official theory means accepting everything we are told by
the US government on faith alone. There is no evidence for their claims, but we
are not supposed to question - don't ask to see the video evidence they are
hiding, the records of testimony from people like William Rodriguez, or all
those who received gag orders, etc. On the other side is the 911 Truth
movement's path of denial - the essential difference being, we only have to
show that the official story could not have happened - we are not required to
prove what actually did happen.
"The burden of proof rests upon he who affirms; not he who denies." -
Fundamental rule of evidence
This world of ours is comprised of so many things tied together by a
singularity, you can call it Truth, or God, or Tao, or even the "one
story" or "uni-verse". At the center of this universe is a
reflection of reality that is manifested through our consciousness - as all
points of incongruity swirl about our life, there is a calm truth to be found
deep within our own unique sense of being - if you can be still enough and take
enough time and effort to unlearn - all that remains is our awareness, or true
perception.
"The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent
what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it. I believe the single
most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of
attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my
successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about
me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my
progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are
right, there is no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme,
no challenge too great for me." - Charles R. Swindoll
As we were leaving the William Rodriguez presentation my friend asked me,
"Do you think the 911 truth movement is making any progress? It doesn't
seem like anything is happening and we don't seem to be winning this fight for
justice." I proceeded to give my opinion that in my mind we have already
won, truth to me does not require X percentage of the populace to be valid -
only that realization within one individual.
I believe William Rodriquez when he describes the bombs going off before the
planes hit - I don't know why he would make that up, being the kind of person
who would continually risk his life to save complete strangers. I suppose he
still holds the key to 9/11, both literally and figuratively. On that day he
used it to help save people's lives, and today we can use his testimony to help
unlock the truth about what happened - or more succinctly, what didn't happen.
Heaven and Hell are truly within our consciousness at this very moment - so is
the truth about 9/11. Our lives are not comprised of billions of disparate
events - there is a unity that ties everything together, whether you call it
Nature, God, or the Way of Tao. That truth is to be found on a personal level
by each of us - the place we can find it is the same place it has always been -
inside our own consciousness. Our duty, no matter what path we may choose, is
to strip away and deny each layer of deception, and then have the courage to
look within ourselves and realize and affirm that which is truth.
"There are two paths leading to oneness with the Tao. The first in the
path of acceptance. Affirm everyone and everything. Freely extend you goodwill
and virtue in every direction, regardless of circumstances. Embrace all things
as part of the Harmonious Oneness, and then you will begin to perceive it. The
second path is that of denial. Recognize that everything you see and think is a
falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth. Peel all the veils away, and you
will arrive at the Oneness. Though these paths are entirely different, they
will deliver you to the same place: spontaneous awareness of the Great
Oneness" - Lao Tzu
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