Perhaps What We Need are "Thoughts and Prayers"

Today, our President will commemorate the real attack on our Democracy that took place on 9/11/2001.  He'll speak during a brief stop-over in Alaska.  No big deal, just another item on his calendar.  Sadly, that will be true for most of us. Like the photograph below, 9/11 has faded into a blur.

Today, when politicians speak of an attack upon Democracy, they are referring to January 6th when a normal political protest in Washington, D.C degenerated into an unruly crowd and then into a relatively small riot. One person was tragically killed. And a few hundred politicians saw it as the opportunity of a lifetime to gain control of the political dialog in our nation. Somehow they managed to arrest over a thousand people for this relatively tiny event.  Nearly 500 have received jail sentences.

Compare that to September 11. 2001.  On that day 2,997 lost their lives.  For those of us who were alive that day (our numbers decrease each year) we witnessed a terrorist attack so huge and so evil we thought it would shape our country forever. Boy, did we call that one wrong. We thought the terrorists were evil incarnate.  We thought their cunning, hatred and their sheer power to inflict pain were without parallel in modern history.  We underestimated the power of our own U.S. politicians.  9/11 is gone. January 6th reigns supreme.

Did you realize we never convicted a single person for killing 2,997 people?   We genuinely lack the will to convict the terrorists and are now considering releasing them from Guantanamo Bay.  It is important to note that we did track down and execute the 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden.

But, because we have learned nothing, we have abandoned the people of Afghanistan... again... as usual.

Meanwhile we have managed to place former President Donald Trump on trial all over the United States as he attempts to run for re-election. Priorities, people! January 6th, that is what is important.

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Today, as I have every September 11th since 2006, I'm taking a time to remember Peter Hanson, the handsome, young software engineer, Sue Kim Hanson, his Korean-American bride, and their two old daughter, Christine.

The Hanson's were killed when United Flight 175 was hijacked by the terrorists and purposely crashed into the World Trade Center.

Sue Kim was a Doctoral Candidate at Boston University.  She, Peter and Christine decided to take a vacation to Disneyland and to visit Sue Kim's father in California before she had to defend her Doctoral Thesis.

Blind hatred killed the Hanson's.  The terrorists never knew them, because to know them might have lead to understanding, to doubt in their mission, to have concerns about the justness of their cause.  The leader of the terrorists, Osama bin Laden didn't want to know people, he wanted to see numbers.  Peter, Sue Kim and Christine weren't people to the terrorists, they were just the number 3. Just 3 out of 2,997.  We need to remember them, as angels.

Please take a few minutes today to remember Peter, Sue Kim and Christine.  Say a prayer for them and their families.  Say a prayer for us all.  Remember people today, not numbers.

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In 2006 a blogger project was begun on the fifth anniversary of 9-11.  Called the "2,996 Project" volunteers were asked to write a short remembrance for each of the victims of the September 11, 2001.attack.  I was randomly assigned Sue Kim Hanson.  Each year since I have repeated my effort to honor Sue Kim and her family.  You can read each of my essays following the links below:

September 11, 2006 - Susan Kim Hanson

September 11, 2007 - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2008 - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2009 - Remembering the Reality: 9-11-2001: Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2010 - Reflections on the Life of Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2011 - Tears in Tragedy - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2012 - Honoring the Memory of Peter, Sue and Christine Hanson

Spetember 11, 2013 - The Tragedy of War, The Victims of Hate, Remembering Peter, Sue Kim and Christine Hanson

September 11, 2014 - Will Hatred Ever Be Replaced with Understanding? Remembering Sue Kim Hanson on 9/11

We Have Forgotten

 I returned to my Blog on September 11th, as I always do, to revisit the entries I had made to "remember" Sue Kim Hanson, one of the 2,996 victims of the horrific attack on American made on 9/11/2001.  Back in 2006, as part of The 2,996 Project, I had "voluteered" to write a short memorial about one of the people who died during the attack.  At random I was assigned Sue Kim Hanson.  I knew nothing about her.

But in 2006 we were still raw from the unexpected violence, the carnage and the shear audacity of the attack.  And the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were nearing their peak. After 5 years, it was still the news of the day.

Blogging was a big thing then, too.   Today, blogs are a relic in a world filled with TikTok, U-Tube, Instagram, Podcasts and nearly endless videos of Korean Street Food being prepared in stunning detail. But I digress.

Having Bloggers lead the way in remembering the victims seemed like a good idea. It seemed important that we never forget. We knew we would never forget. It was important we never forget.

Fifteen more years have passed and we have forgotten.  

No, we haven't forgotten Sue Kim Hanson, nor her husband Peter, nor her daughter Christine, perhaps now the most famous of the victims, primarily because she was the youngest.  In fact I was heartened to search Sue Kim Hanson on Google and see so many pages of entries. My small contribution is just a tiny part of the wealth of tributes and remembrances.  Sue Kim was loved and is still loved.

But we, as a nation, as a society, have forgotten 9/11.  Yes, I know you've all watch an endless cable news display of documentaries, and interviews this past weekend. So many I bet you turned them off or changed the channel. Thank god college football began in earnest on 9/11.  

But Fox News (I think it was on Gutfeld!) did their typical student on the street interviews with college kids asking about 9/11.  It was awful. They were not alive on 9/11, so can we blame them for not remembering? And the schools sure don't teach anything about 9/11.  Still, it was painful to watch.

To make matters worse, we just witnessed an Abbott and Costello version of a military retreat from the long forgotten, yet never ending, war in Afghanistan.  

To make matters much worse, we have culturally decided that Republicans are worse than NAZI'S and January 6th was worse than the Civil War.  I mean these things are serious. They must be. Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon and Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert told us so. 

Today 9/11 is the equivalent of the War of 1812.  Quick, tell me what that one was about!!

The horror is gone. Our Fox News students told us we ought to be very careful about teaching about 9/11 and we must be careful in who we blame. We might offend someone. We must not blame Muslims, or Afghan's of Saudi's or, well, anyone.  And, it's very important we not talk of the heroics of our policemen (aren't we supposed to be defunding them, anyway?) or our first responders or soldiers, less we imply Nationalism or cultural superiority.  

Students at a Washington state high school football game were banned from wearing red, white and blue in honor of 9/11 victims because some may find it “racially insensitive.” [ LINK - New York Post Story ]

God Bless You, Sue Kim Hanson and Peter and Christine. We will never forget you.  9/11 however.... well, we have forgotten.

____________________________________________________________

September 11, 2006 - Susan Kim Hanson

September 11, 2007 - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2008 - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2009 - Remembering the Reality: 9-11-2001: Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2010 - Reflections on the Life of Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2011 - Tears in Tragedy - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2012 - Honoring the Memory of Peter, Sue and Christine Hanson

September 11, 2013 - The Tragedy of War, The Victims of Hate, Remembering Peter, Sue Kim and Christine Hanson

September 11, 2014 - Will Hatred Ever Be Replaced with Understanding? Remembering Sue Kim Hanson on 9/11

September 11, 2016 - The Angels are in the Details

The Angels Are in The Details

The Angels are in the details.

On September 11. 2001 2,997 lost their lives.  Our nation was the victim of a terrorist attack so evil we still can't get our heads around it.  The terrorists were the devil.  Their cunning, hatred and their sheer power to inflict pain are without parallel in modern history.  Although their followers are trying to again plumb those depths.

We are once again in an election year here in the USA.  It's the ugliest, most mean spirited, most delusional election in our history.  There is a lot of talk about hate, hate speech, racism, misogamy, fanaticism and more.  We would do well to get ride of the hyperbole and remember what real hate, real evil really is.

But if we look back on September 11th, we need to realize the that the real legacy is not hatred, but the 2,997 angels that should really be the focus of the story, our history.

Until 9/11 these angels had lives, loves, hopes, fears and dreams.  Let's remember the angels.

Today, as I have every September 11th since 2006, I'm taking a time to remember Peter Hanson, the handsome, young software engineer, Sue Kim Hanson, his Korean-American bride, and their two old daughter, Christine.

The Hanson's were killed when United Flight 175 was hijacked by the terrorists and purposely crashed into the World Trade Center.

Sue Kim was a Doctoral Candidate at Boston University.  She, Peter and Christine decided to take a vacation to Disneyland and to visit Sue Kim's father in California before she had to defend her Doctoral Thesis.

Blind hatred killed the Hanson's.  The terrorists never knew them, because to know them might have lead to understanding, to doubt in their mission, to have concerns about the justness of their cause.  The leader of the terrorists, Osama bin Laden didn't want to know people, he wanted to see numbers.  Peter, Sue Kim and Christine weren't people to the terrorists, they were just the number 3. Just 3 out of 2,997.  We need to remember them, as angels.

Please take a few minutes today to remember Peter, Sue Kim and Christine.  Say a prayer for them and their families.  Say a prayer for us all.  Remember people today, not numbers.

-----------------------------------------------------

In 2006 a blogger project was begun on the fifth anniversary of 9-11.  Called the "2,996 Project" volunteers were asked to write a short remembrance for each of the victims of the September 11, 2001.attack.  I was randomly assigned Sue Kim Hanson.  Each year since I have repeated my effort to honor Sue Kim and her family.  You can read each of my essays following the links below:

September 11, 2006 - Susan Kim Hanson

September 11, 2007 - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2008 - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2009 - Remembering the Reality: 9-11-2001: Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2010 - Reflections on the Life of Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2011 - Tears in Tragedy - Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

September 11, 2012 - Honoring the Memory of Peter, Sue and Christine Hanson

Spetember 11, 2013 - The Tragedy of War, The Victims of Hate, Remembering Peter, Sue Kim and Christine Hanson

September 11, 2014 - Will Hatred Ever Be Replaced with Understanding? Remembering Sue Kim Hanson on 9/11

Tears in Tragedy: Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

Several years ago a diverse and eclectic group of bloggers created the 2,996 Project. In this project, one blogger was assigned to prepare a remembrance for each of the victims who died during the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001

It's hard to believe ten years has passed since this horrific tragedy. As I watch television today we seem to remember the event, but the individuals, the quiet lives of the victims are fading into the mist of time. That is the greatest tragedy of all.

Please take time to remember just how frail and how fleeting life really is. Read and remember Sue Kim Hanson.

Sue Kim Hanson
September 11, 2006

A short note appears on the Boston University Medical Campus Calendar Website noting that Jonathan W. Yewdell, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Cellular Biology Section of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases will be speaking tomorrow, September 11, 2006, on the topic of "Gained in Translation: Generating Viral and Cellular Peptide Antigens from DRiPs."

He is speaking at 4:00 pm in Keefer Auditorium and a Reception in the Wilkins Board Room will follow.

What might be missed by a casual observer is perhaps the most important fact of all. Dr. Yewdell is the guest speaker for the 5th Annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture In Immunology.

If you noticed this, you might simply assume that Sue Kim Hanson is (or was) some generous benefactor to the University. A lecture named for her to repay her gift.

Or perhaps you would guess that she is (or was) a notable scientist who, at one time or another, taught or studied at Boston University. Someone who should be honored for the advancements she made in Immunology.

And, indeed, all of the above is true. Just not in the way you might expect.

Susan Kim Hanson was one of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack that took the lives of 2,996 souls in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the fields of Pennsylvania.

Sue, her husband Peter, and her two year old daughter Christine were on United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Her daughter Christine was the youngest victim of the September 11th attack.

But the Boston University Lecture Series is not named after Sue Kim Hanson because of the way she died, but because of the way she lived.

Sue was a great scientist in the making. She was a doctoral candidate in micro-biology immunology at Boston University and working on her final thesis. Her work promised to reveal the workings of a chemical believed to regulate immune responses. She had isolated in lab mice a gene suspected of being involved in asthma sufferers and AIDS patients. Her work had the potential to help millions of people.

Susan Kim was one of those wonderful American success stories. A Korean-American, Sue had lived with her grandmother in Korea until she was 6. Her mother died when she was 15 and she was raised by her strict Korean father. Through hard work and discipline, sacrifice, dedication and sheer will power she neared the goal her mother and father and grandmother had hoped she would achieve, her doctorate degree.

Dr. Hardy Kornfeld, Hanson's thesis adviser, said "She was sort of fearless. Sue just took on tasks that were incredibly challenging, and more often than not she was able to make a go at them."

That she would be attracted to the wild and undisciplined Peter Hanson was a great surprise. Three years younger than Sue Kim, Peter gained his education by following The Grateful Dead. Peter believed that the group and its music would become classics, up there with Beethoven, Bach and company, and he tried to sway the opinion of anyone who would listen. Many of our listeners to Wizard Radio would certainly agree with Peter.

But even if Sue wasn't quite convinced about the Dead, she believed in Peter. And her faith was well placed. Peter was, by all accounts, a brilliant software engineer, a great salesman and a wonderful person.

He was passionate about Sue and Sue fell head over heals in love with Peter. She obviously had a great effect on him. Legacy.com has a reprint of a New York Times article about Sue that tells the story:

"The relationship spurred Peter Hanson to clip his tangle of brownish-red dreadlocks, trade in tie-dyed T- shirts for suits, go to business school and become one of the best software salesmen his friends and family had ever met. He was vice president of marketing at TimeTrade in Waltham, Mass."

"Her bond with the Hansons was so strong that they accompanied her to California when she went to inform her father about her engagement. She worried that her father would protest because Peter Hanson was not Korean. But her family embraced the Hansons."

Sue and Peter were married and had a beautiful daughter. Sue continued to pursue her doctoral degree. She was scheduled to defend her thesis in November, 2001.

Taking a last break before finalizing her research and thesis, Sue, Peter and Christine were on their way to visit the Sue's father and grandmother in California, and take Christine to Disneyland, when they boarded United Airlines Flight 175. Peter was one of those who made a final cell phone call to his parents moments before the plane crashed into the south tower.

Sue's friend Mona Pengree writes, "Sue was awarded her PhD posthumously, as her professor finished her work on her behalf. This is a wonderful picture of her, and she shone every bit as brightly in person. Probably more. Her loss was a loss to all mankind."

Sue gave a great deal to Boston University and she gave a great deal to all of us. Her work in immunology inspired her fellow students, faculty and the University to continue her research and finish her thesis. They awarded her a doctorate degree. And they established the Annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture In Immunology, not just to honor her memory, but to give full credit to her work and the inspiration, the strength and the courage Sue provides to us all.

God bless you Sue... and Peter and Christine and all those who died so tragically five years ago.

God bless.

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ADDENDUM: Inserted September 11, 2011:

Michelle Malkin wrote this in her syndincated column back in December, 2001, but I had never seen it until today. Christine Hanson SHOULD HAVE BEEN 13 years old this year. In her Christmas column in 2001 Malkin wrote:

"Eight children were murdered on hijacked airliners that crashed on Sept. 11. Christine Hanson, 3, was on United Airlines Flight 175 with her parents. She was on her first trip to Disneyland. Christine was brown-eyed and rosy-cheeked and button-nosed. At family meals, she made everyone stand and hold hands while singing the theme song from Barney. During Christine's funeral, mourners re-enacted the scene, singing:

"I love you, you love me . . ." "

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As I mentioned in an earlier entry, there is a wealth of information, tribute and love scattered throughout the Internet in remembrance of Sue Kim Hanson. I owe every contributor who came before me a deep debt of gratitude. Through each of you I have come to know Sue, Peter and Christine. You have touched my heart.

If my Tribute to Susan Kim Hanson here today fell short in any way, I deeply apologize and would love to hear from any of you.

I suggest these following resources from which I have borrowed freely in preparing this tribute:


Remember September 11, 2001

A mother to her son: How could I forget your curiosity and energy? By Eunice Hanson, for The Associated Press

Peter, Sue Kim, and Christine Hanson Memorial Web Site

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Back in 2006, the 2,996 Project asked bloggers to prepare tributes to all who died in the tragic events of September 11th. Many of those blog entries remain on line and many will be reprinted today.

Decisions Reinvented

After Barack Obama was elected I had a series of conversations with an Illinois blogger who claimed to know Obama and worked with him in Illinois. His one quibble with the President-elect was his reputation as a wishy-washy decision maker. In effect he claimed Obama frequently changed his mind and reversed earlier decisions.

Why do I bring up this hearsay now? Because President Obama seems to be demonstrating this behavior in the oval office. At least twice now he has clearly embarrassed his top aides and left them hanging in the breeze.

First Obama did it by absolutely contradicting his administration's representatives during the AIG Bonus disclosure. But yesterday's reversal on investigation and possible criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for "enhanced interrogation" is even more telling.

Here's the report from The Boston Globe:

President Obama left the door open yesterday to creating a bipartisan commission that would investigate the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects, and did not rule out action by the Justice Department against those who fashioned the legal rationale for those techniques. The remarks, in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, amounted to a shift for the White House. The president had repeatedly said that the nation should look forward rather than focusing on the past, and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said Sunday in a television interview that Obama believed that "those who devised policy" should not be prosecuted. But under intense pressure from congressional Democrats and human rights organizations to investigate, the president suggested yesterday that he would not stand in the way of a full inquiry into what he has called "a dark and painful chapter" in the nation's history. The comments knocked the ordinarily smooth White House press operation back on its heels. Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, spent much of his daily briefing yesterday trying to explain precisely what Obama had meant, declaring at one point, "To clear up any confusion on anything that might have been said, I would point you to what the president said."

The real questions all remain. Why did President Obama clearly reverse a decision he had so clearly made and articulated for many months. It was extremely obvious from Rahm Emanuel's smooth and articulate performance under fire on Sunday that this policy had been thoroughly vetted in White House meetings.

Why the flip-flop? Most speculation surrounds an uproar and very intense pressure from the left, led by the liberal activist group Move-On.org and key Congressional leaders.

Obviously left open is how this investigation and potential prosecution will play out. It will likely paralyze the administration and Congress for months and perhaps years. Clearly President Obama had (past tense) wanted to avoid this modern day version of the Spanish Inquisition. Yet he has now put the drama into full motion.

Most important, in my opinion, will be the paralyzing impact this ill advised reversal will have on the CIA and President Obama's own executive staff and advisers.

I've seen this type of second guessing absolutely destroy organizations. It doesn't produce better opinions. It stops all opinions all together. President Obama will quickly start receiving less advice from staffers, especially second level staffers who do 95% of all work in the administration. Folks quickly figure out they never get in trouble for saying nothing. Being non-committal is the new order of the day.

The 9-11 Commission placed great blame for the failure of our intelligence community on the restrictive policies in place to prevent abuses by the intelligence community. There is no doubt in my mind this will ultimately harm our nation's intelligence gathering efforts. Once again we will be unable to connect the dots.

I genuinely believe President Obama had thought through all of this. I simply don't understand yet why the President reinvented his decision.

A Mistake We Cannot Afford To Make

President elect Barack Obama has made a rare and unusual mistake in building an otherwise talented and able Executive team. But it is so serious mistake it puts his Presidency and our entire country at risk. The selection of Leon Edward Panetta to lead the Central Intelligence Agency is a game changing, and possibly a life changing, error.

I'll discussed Panetta's serious disqualifications for the job momentarily. But the very reason Obama made such a poor choice is equally important. Barack Obama clearly wanted a more experienced and qualified leader at this critical time.

Pamela Hess, writing for the Associated Press, tracks the rocky road that led to the Panetta designation. Hess writes, in her article Obama's intel picks short on direct experience:

The Obama transition team's long delay in selecting CIA and national intelligence directors is a reflection of the complicated demands of the jobs and Obama's own policies and priorities. The search for Obama's new CIA chief had been stalled since November, when John Brennan, Obama's transition intelligence adviser, abruptly withdrew his name from consideration. Brennan said his potential nomination had sparked outrage among civil rights and human rights groups, who argued that he had not been outspoken enough in his condemnation of President George W. Bush's policies. And despite an internal list of former and current CIA officials who had impressive administrative credentials, all either worked in intelligence during the Bush administration's development of controversial policies on interrogation and torture or earlier, during the months leading up to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

In short, Obama's political promises during the campaign and intense pressure from the far left thwarted Obama's natural inclination to chose talented and experienced leaders. But Panetta is a compromise in one area where compromise is both unwise and unwarranted.

Forced to compromise, Obama made perhaps the only choice left to him. Leon Panetta is a bright, experienced and talented executive. I have always liked Panetta. He is honest and loyal. As President Clinton's Chief of Staff Panetta was a pragmatic and detailed, if uninspired and unimaginative, manager. He can be trusted by President Obama.

But Panetta has virtually no experience in areas of either covert intelligence or military affairs. And his pontifications in these areas reflect a naivete that is positively frightening. And he has generally spoken out against the agency, it's leaders and activities. His record is one of reducing both the size, scope and funding of the agency. It can't be a surprise that rumblings from within the intelligence community are so very negative.

Again quoting from the AP report:

Veterans of the CIA were caught off guard by the selection. "I'm at a loss," said Robert Grenier, a former director of the CIA's counterterrorism center and 27-year veteran of the agency who now is managing director of Kroll, a security consulting company. The lack of intelligence experience puts Panetta at "a tremendous disadvantage," Grenier told The Associated Press in an interview. "Intelligence by its very nature is an esoteric world. And right now the agency is confronted with numerous pressing challenges overseas, and to have no background is a serious deficit. I don't say that he can't succeed. It may that he can compensate for the obvious deficit."

The fear among many in the intelligence community is that Panetta will gut the agency just at the moment it was finally regaining the size, scope and strength it needs to defend America against it's modern enemies of religious fanatics and terrorist organizations.

The dismantling and mismanagement of the CIA under the Clinton administration is often cited as a reason the agency missed key advance information about the al-Qaeda attack on 9/11. The weak and mismanaged agency also misread the information about the Iraq threat and "weapons of mass destruction."

Now is not the time to place a novice in charge of a key defense agency. Nor is it the time to tear down the agency in order to rebuild it later.

The President elect needs to rethink this nomination.

Remembering Sue Kim Hanson

Here is a reprint of the article I wrote two years ago as part of the 2,996 Project. In this project, one blogger was assigned to prepare a remembrance for each of the victims who died during the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001

Today 9/11 seems like a lifetime away. And, for many people it is. There will be a complete moratorium on politicking and all other posts on the WIZARD site for 24 hours.

Please take time to remember just how frail and how fleeting life really is. Read and remember Sue Kim Hanson.

Sue Kim Hanson
September 11, 2006

A short note appears on the Boston University Medical Campus Calendar Website noting that Jonathan W. Yewdell, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Cellular Biology Section of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases will be speaking tomorrow, September 11, 2006, on the topic of "Gained in Translation: Generating Viral and Cellular Peptide Antigens from DRiPs."

He is speaking at 4:00 pm in Keefer Auditorium and a Reception in the Wilkins Board Room will follow.

What might be missed by a casual observer is perhaps the most important fact of all. Dr. Yewdell is the guest speaker for the 5th Annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture In Immunology.

If you noticed this, you might simply assume that Sue Kim Hanson is (or was) some generous benefactor to the University. A lecture named for her to repay her gift.

Or perhaps you would guess that she is (or was) a notable scientist who, at one time or another, taught or studied at Boston University. Someone who should be honored for the advancements she made in Immunology.

And, indeed, all of the above is true. Just not in the way you might expect.

Susan Kim Hanson was one of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack that took the lives of 2,996 souls in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the fields of Pennsylvania.

Sue, her husband Peter, and her two year old daughter Christine were on United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Her daughter Christine was the youngest victim of the September 11th attack.

But the Boston University Lecture Series is not named after Sue Kim Hanson because of the way she died, but because of the way she lived.

Sue was a great scientist in the making. She was a doctoral candidate in micro-biology immunology at Boston University and working on her final thesis. Her work promised to reveal the workings of a chemical believed to regulate immune responses. She had isolated in lab mice a gene suspected of being involved in asthma sufferers and AIDS patients. Her work had the potential to help millions of people.

Susan Kim was one of those wonderful American success stories. A Korean-American, Sue had lived with her grandmother in Korea until she was 6. Her mother died when she was 15 and she was raised by her strict Korean father. Through hard work and discipline, sacrifice, dedication and sheer will power she neared the goal her mother and father and grandmother had hoped she would achieve, her doctorate degree.

Dr. Hardy Kornfeld, Hanson's thesis adviser, said "She was sort of fearless. Sue just took on tasks that were incredibly challenging, and more often than not she was able to make a go at them."

That she would be attracted to the wild and undisciplined Peter Hanson was a great surprise. Three years younger than Sue Kim, Peter gained his education by following The Grateful Dead. Peter believed that the group and its music would become classics, up there with Beethoven, Bach and company, and he tried to sway the opinion of anyone who would listen. Many of our listeners to Wizard Radio would certainly agree with Peter.

But even if Sue wasn't quite convinced about the Dead, she believed in Peter. And her faith was well placed. Peter was, by all accounts, a brilliant software engineer, a great salesman and a wonderful person.

He was passionate about Sue and Sue fell head over heals in love with Peter. She obviously had a great effect on him. Legacy.com has a reprint of a New York Times article about Sue that tells the story:

"The relationship spurred Peter Hanson to clip his tangle of brownish-red dreadlocks, trade in tie-dyed T- shirts for suits, go to business school and become one of the best software salesmen his friends and family had ever met. He was vice president of marketing at TimeTrade in Waltham, Mass."

"Her bond with the Hansons was so strong that they accompanied her to California when she went to inform her father about her engagement. She worried that her father would protest because Peter Hanson was not Korean. But her family embraced the Hansons."

Sue and Peter were married and had a beautiful daughter. Sue continued to pursue her doctoral degree. She was scheduled to defend her thesis in November, 2001.

Taking a last break before finalizing her research and thesis, Sue, Peter and Christine were on their way to visit the Sue's father and grandmother in California, and take Christine to Disneyland, when they boarded United Airlines Flight 175. Peter was one of those who made a final cell phone call to his parents moments before the plane crashed into the south tower.

Sue's friend Mona Pengree writes, "Sue was awarded her PhD posthumously, as her professor finished her work on her behalf. This is a wonderful picture of her, and she shone every bit as brightly in person. Probably more. Her loss was a loss to all mankind."

Sue gave a great deal to Boston University and she gave a great deal to all of us. Her work in immunology inspired her fellow students, faculty and the University to continue her research and finish her thesis. They awarded her a doctorate degree. And they established the Annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture In Immunology, not just to honor her memory, but to give full credit to her work and the inspiration, the strength and the courage Sue provides to us all.

God bless you Sue... and Peter and Christine and all those who died so tragically five years ago.

God bless.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, there is a wealth of information, tribute and love scattered throughout the Internet in remembrance of Sue Kim Hanson. I owe every contributor who came before me a deep debt of gratitude. Through each of you I have come to know Sue, Peter and Christine. You have touched my heart.

If my Tribute to Susan Kim Hanson here today fell short in any way, I deeply apologize and would love to hear from any of you.

I suggest these following resources from which I have borrowed freely in preparing this tribute:

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 VICTIMS: Sue Kim Hanson

Remember September 11, 2001

A mother to her son: How could I forget your curiosity and energy? By Eunice Hanson, for The Associated Press

Peter, Sue Kim, and Christine Hanson Memorial Web Site

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Back in 2006, the 2,996 Project asked bloggers to prepare tributes to all who died in the tragic events of September 11th. Many of those blog entries remain on line and many will be reprinted today.