September 11, 2023 • 33 mins
In this episode, Tudor discusses the significance of September 11th and introduces her guest, Frank Siller, founder of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. They discuss the heroism and sacrifices made by first responders and civilians on that day. Frank shares his personal story of his brother Stephen, a firefighter who lost his life on 9/11, and discusses the work of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation in supporting the families of fallen first responders. They emphasize the importance of educating younger generations about 9/11 and never forgetting the sacrifices made. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. For more information visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Buck Sexton and you're listening to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast, part of the Clay Travers and Buck
Sexton podcast Network. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I
want to encourage all of us to remember and honor
the sacrifices that have been made by so many to
protect and preserve the United States. Today is a special day.
(00:22):
We remember those we lost as a result of the
attacks on our country on September eleventh, two thousand and one.
That day, we lost two nine hundred and seventy seven Americans.
We hear so many stories of heroism from that day,
the man in the red bandana, the volunteer, the off
duty firefighters who rushed to the scenes, and the neighbors
(00:42):
and civilians who faced horror like we have never seen.
Frank Siller has one of his own stories of heroism
from that day. Frank is the founder, chairman, and CEO
of Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which was starting in remembrance
of his little brother, Stephen, a New York City Fire
Department firefighter who gave his life on nine to eleven.
(01:04):
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(02:29):
Now I want to welcome Frank Seller onto the podcast.
Thank you so much for joining us today on this
day that, like I said before we got in on here,
all of us remember this day who lived through it,
All of us remember the devastation and watching. For those
of us who were there in person watching it happen,
and for those of us that were watching it on TV,
will never forget. But for you it's different.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
You.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I've never actually heard your story. I've seen you on
TV a million times. I knew that you had that
your brother, you had lost your brother, not heard that
you were going golfing that morning, that that was your plan.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, So twenty two years ago today, my brother Stephen
was just finished his night tour in squad Wan in Brooklyn,
which is an elite firehouse. They trained for terrorism, and
they trained to rescue other firefighters. And he just finished
his store. He was driving on his way home. He's
going to play golf with myself, my brother George, and
(03:25):
my brother Russ. And he heard on the radio scan
of what, you know, the tablets were hit. So, you know,
what do these great heroes do. They turn around, they go.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
He went back to his firehouse, he got his gear.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
His fire company would already responded, you know, to the
call to duty. And so he got his gear and
drove to the mouth of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. If
you listeners who don't know, that tunnel connects Brooklyn with
downtown Manhattan. It's almost two miles long. It was closed
for security reasons. You know, people already banding their cars
(03:59):
in there, and they didn't weren't letting anyone go in
towards the Manhattan obviously for obvious reasons. So he pulled
over his truck, got out, put his sixty pounds of
fire gear on his back, and ran through that tunnel
up West Street to what we believe he ran into
the South Tower because that's where his other firefighter buddies
(04:22):
were recovered later on, and I'm sure he found out
that he knew that his firefighter guys that he trained
with every day were in the South Tower. So that's
where you'd want to go and rescue people and be
around the people you train with every day. And while
going up those stairs and saving others, he gave up
(04:42):
his life. And when we heard the story of what
my brother did that day, I didn't you know, we
didn't know, you know that for sure that he died
on nine to eleven on twenty two years ago, you know,
when the South Tower came down. Actually I felt inside
that I did lose my brother. At that point, I
(05:03):
remember turning to my mother in law and saying, hey, Nancy,
I think I just lost my brother.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Not knowing that he got there, I had no idea,
you know that. You know. I kept on saying, well,
maybe he couldn't get there, and maybe the towers came
down before he got there. You know, I was praying,
and you know, but to go back to that, you know,
that day twenty two years ago, and I'll just for
your listeners to understand what all nine love families are
(05:31):
going through that day. So I found out that my
brother was on a list of missing firefighters, and I
was going to different firehouses, and I actually was preparing
to go to ground zero myself with a company out
of Staten allan Call Rescue five. You know, all these
guys all my life, you know, Staten anam's a really
(05:54):
blue collar you know, copspyfighters and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And and so.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
But eventually I realized that they was so horrific. I
had my siblings come over my house. So Stephen was
the youngest of seven kids and and he was a
father of five. So I start to have him come
to my house. And later in the afternoon, a friend
of my brother's, a firefighter, Richie Obermiah, who actually lived
(06:24):
two doors away from my brother on Staten Island, called
me up and said, hey, Frank, this is Richie. You
know I'm down here at ground zero. I want you
to know that Steven's on the list of missing firefighters.
And I said, yeah, Richie, I knew that. Thank you
for calling me. You know, I've been trying to call Stephen,
you know, trying to contact him. And he goes, well,
(06:44):
you know, he's on that list, and I want to
let you know that it's really bad. Down here, and
I said, yeah, Richie, I could see it's bad. I'm
here with my family, My sisters are here, my brothers
are here. You know, I could see how bad he's
He goes no, Frank gets bad. I said, rich I'm
looking at it. I see it's bad. He goes, no,
you don't understand. Nobody's coming home. And I had to
(07:07):
get off the phone and tell my sisters and my
brothers that, and you know, it really brought us to
our knees.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
My sister Gina was wailing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And we were devastated, and you know, you know, we
didn't know one hundred percent he was gone at that point,
but like I mentioned to you before, I felt he
was gone, knowing that he had gotten there. And so
it was a terrible day. But there was so many
acts of heroism. I heard you talked about the man
in the red bandana on your intro, and that Wells Crowther.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know, I know his mom, you know I spoke
to her.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
If you go to our website, we have his story
up there. Because there was so many acts of heroism
that some are told, some on told that you know,
the people will never know about it. And so today
we're remembering all twenty nine hundred and seventy seven souls
that were killed taken from us on that day.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The people who were going in that day, like your
brother Stephen, when they got that call, when they heard that.
I mean, I remember I walked. I was working in
Chicago at the time, and I took a train to
a bus to my building and I get off and
I go up to my building and they were just
cops surrounding and they're like, you can't come in here.
This is you know, We've secured it. You're leaving, go home.
(08:23):
And I remember thinking, the heck, what are you talking about?
You know, because you didn't have smartphones, you didn't know everything.
It wasn't the detail wasn't right in front of you.
And even getting on that bus and I'm turning on
the radio and hearing the tower has fallen, my mind
could could not comprehend what that meant. You know, you can't.
You don't see it, you're hearing it. What did those
(08:44):
people think that they were going to when your brother
rushed off? What did they think compared to what they saw?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I know exactly what they thought they were going to.
And I know this because I've spoken to so many
firefighters that survived that day, and I have accounts of
them saying goodbye, now, I'll see you later when they
(09:14):
were going in those buildings. And you have to know this,
and America shall never forget this, that those firefighters knew
there was a strong possibility that that was the last.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Moments they were going to live.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So did they know that, well, they my brother know
that when he was running through the through the Brooklyn
Battery tunnel with his fire year on his back, you
know when he made that decision. No, did he know
when he went up to West Street and then when
he finally got to these.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
To the towers, Yes, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Because at that point people were already imagine, faced with
this choice, the people above the fire line, and I
have to say this because it's a reality check for everybody,
the people above the fire line, which my heart breaks for,
they were faced with two choices to burn or to jump,
(10:10):
And it was so sad to watching it. And if
you're there, these firefighters that were there on the ground
were seeing this happening. At this point, they knew it
was hell on earth at that moment, but they brought
such grace and courage and heroism to that day. I
(10:31):
look at that day as one of the greatest acts
of love ever that all those firefighters and police offers
is and everyday people like Wells Crowd, the men of
the Red bandann Are, and so many other stories that
they went in there to save people knowing there's a
strong possibility they were going to give up their lives,
(10:53):
and so many of them did, and so many of
them did so. To answer your question, yeah, they knew
what they get what they were getting into.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I think we see those pictures
like the Falling Man, and it's interesting now because you know,
my kids, they didn't live through this, and we were there,
My sister was in New York City and we were
(11:21):
watching all of this happen, and it's just so exactly
what you said, So powerful to think that they faced
a decision and they chose that because the other was
so horrific, knowing that there was no way out. But
I think we also see those pictures of like the
woman who was covered in dust walking down downtown, just
(11:43):
kind of aimlessly walking. And I remember my sister saying
that that happened all day long. She just saw people
walking from ground zero up to up North in Manhattan,
just kind of aimlessly with their their briefcase covered in
that dust. She was an an. She went back and
she was doing pro bono work getting people signed in
(12:05):
and getting information from people. And she said, I can
remember at the time sitting down at ground zero and
she said, from the time it took me to fill
out one person's form, I would have to push all
the dust off and move to the next form. Because
even even weeks after the dust was falling, A lot
(12:25):
of people have been sick since then and they've and
you support those people as well, because a lot of
these people have gone through, these people that were heroes
and just people that lived down there. I mean, we
really didn't know what the impact of this was. We've
never experienced anything like this in the history of the
country before. What is it like for those people now?
(12:47):
And how do you support those people that have gotten
this illness that is kind of this mysterious illness that
they've many people have been sick in different ways from
nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, so once again for your listeners to know that
tunnel to Twis Foundation, who I'm proud to say I'm
the CEO chairman of.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Takes care of every.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Cop, every firefighter, every first responder in America who dies
in the line of duty, has young children left behind.
We're going to deliver them a mortgage free home. If
they don't have a home, we're going to find them
at home. And if they do have home, and most
of them do, we're going to pay off their mortgage.
We do that for gold Star widows, and we built
especially adapted smart homes for our country's most catastrophically injured
(13:30):
service members. But after nine to eleven, so many these
great heroes that were on that freaking pile looking for
their brothers and their loved ones or just everybody who
was missing. Because over you know, there was two thousand
and nine and seventy seven, as I mentioned.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Before, people died that day.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
There was alose, so I think it's twelve hundred plus
that were never recovered.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
They were there trying to find them.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The police officers, firefighters, people came from all over the
United States. Your sister was there, Your sister had that
dust coming on them, and they were all told not
to worry.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Get pat it well.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Let me tell you, there's over the two hundred, three
hundred and three hundred and thirty eighth firefighter who died
of nine to eleven illnesses just died the other day.
There's been over three hundred police officers who have died
of nine to eleven illnesses. And if they have a
young family left behind, because we're a first responder to
(14:39):
this foundation, we're going to take care of their families.
We're going to pay off their mortgages. I have a
friend of mine who I just visited just the other day,
Ace Candlon Mike Candon. But he was Ace to me
growing up. We've been friends for sixty four years, all right,
since we've been since we've six years old, first grade.
(15:02):
And his job he worked for Otis Elevator. His job
was to go in after nine to eleven and clean
out the soot inside the elevators. Chefs and now he
wore all the apparatus and everything. But it doesn't matter,
just like we know, masks doesn't matter, right, you know
for other things.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Like cook and he wore the you know, he's dying.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
He's he's moments away from dying of nine to eleven
cancer because of what he Inhaled and what it's gone
through his body. It just keeps on taking so many people.
It's the terrorist attack that keeps on killing. I know
that those who did this are smiling when that happens,
(15:44):
and that's what we have to remember what we're up against.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Always that they would love to do this again. They
would love to instead of killing.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
They'd love as many zeros after that number that we
give twenty nine hundred and seventy seven. If they put
another zero on that, they would have been happier, and
another zero they'd even been more happy. So this is
what we're up against, and that's why we can't forget.
We just can never forget that we are always going
to be under assault and we have to always protect
(16:12):
our country. One last point here on that since nine
to eleven, over seven thousand men and women have died
protecting us, so we didn't have to have another nine eleven.
And so many bad things have happened obviously in Afghanistan,
and withdrawal, all that kind of stuff sickens me, sickens me,
(16:34):
and all those families had to see that they lost
their loved ones. And this is how you're gonna come
out of there. And and all the good.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Work that we were doing there.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But we got to remember those families that are left
behind too, because they're part of all part of nine
to eleven, because we wouldn't gone a war if it
wasn't for nine to eleven. And that's why our foundation
takes care of all these gold Saw families that have
given their lives, the loved ones, given their lives for
our country and have young families, and a lot of
(17:06):
them don't have houses because they move from base to
base or whatever you know, may be and in their military.
And that's why we build them, you know, a gold
a widow and their children a mortgage free home. And
we're so proud of the work that would do. We're
connected with our military because of what happened on nine
to eleven. First respond the same mentality anyway, the courage,
(17:29):
the heroism is incredible.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
You have so much support. You say, I mean, you're
passionate about this stuff, and you're passionate about the mistakes
that were made in Afghanistan. You've come out and you've
you've been very open about how you feel about this stuff.
After nine to eleven, there was like this great uniting
in the country like we've really not seen in decades.
The country came together. There were people that were just
(17:54):
pro America. Whatever it is, We're going to support America.
And I think that when when it comes to Tunnel
to Towers, you still see that you've phraised over five
hundred million to support heroes and their families. And that
isn't coming from just one side that comes fro. I mean,
I've seen you with celebrities, I've seen you with all
(18:16):
kinds of people from different backgrounds who are just like, look,
this is what we do. We support our heroes. How
do you keep that going? How in this world that
seems so divided right now? How do you keep that going?
I love it, but I just what is that magic
that you can keep that going?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Well, you know, it's great that you mentioned that because
I got to tell you, I am around great Americans
all the time. I am so blessed. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And they come to us.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
You mentioned some of the celebrities you know, like Wohlberg,
Cole House.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Rob Load and It's Quay.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You know, it's incredible. They come to us because they
want to help and they believe in our mission. And
you know, whether they believe in our mission. It's very simple.
Who couldn't believe and take care of these great families
are left behind? I think almost every American would believe
in that. I mean there's some crazies out there that
(19:16):
you know that I think America is terrible, you know,
shame on that. I mean, meanwhile, they live, they have
no idea, they live in the they take advantage of
everything that these our freedoms are given to us because
of these men and women who put it all on
the life for us every single day. But that's that's
the beauty of America. But yes, I'm around it all
(19:37):
the time.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
And you know, so people do what they can do.
We ask everybody to do eleven dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I mean, most people can do that and they know
that ninety five point one percent of every dollar that
they donate those to our you know, to our programs.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think that's important because I think most people don't
know that sometimes you can give money and that money
you're just giving a small portion of that money, but
you're talking about ninety five cents on every dollar is
actually going to these families, going to the mission.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Right, It's not going in my pocket. That's for sure,
I don't get paid. I'm proud of that. I'm a volunteer.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I have tens and tens of thousands of volunteers all
across America.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
We have I think one hundred golf outings put on
for us this year.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
David Wells, he's a pitcher, was a pitcher for the Yankees,
and while he joined a baseball player who's almost like
a Hall of Fame play for nineteen years. These guys
are putting on these celebrity golf outings and different golf
outings for us and raising so much money. But we
have over one hundred golf oundings. We have over nearly
(20:44):
one hundred runs and climbs all over the United States,
and people can emulate what my brother did that day
and what so many other heroes did that day. But
we have three thousand events, three thousand events. The people
at dinner or you know, some kind of a small fundraise.
I love the little kids that come. I can't tell
you how many times I see a ten year old
(21:06):
kid or a fifteen year old kid or whatever that
did a fundraise and gives us a check for six
hundred dollars or eleven hundred dollars It means so much
to me and one of the reasons why I'm so
proud that we have the nine to Eleven Institute.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
On our website.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You go to T two T and just you'll see
we have we have kids for classes for K through
twelve that a curriculum that you could just press a
button and prints out what you can teach your class.
We have teachers that downloaded every single day.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. This year, my daughter had her
eighth grade field trip to Washington, d C. We went
and saw the nine to eleven Memorial there at the Pentagon.
It was fascinating to see these seventh and eighth graders
who did not live through this were really curious about it.
(22:02):
They were looking at all the names. They were talking about,
how did how did the plane come in? We went
from there a few months later or too. I took
her to New York City and we went down to
ground zero and she's she looked at me and she said, Mom,
now I saw what happened in DC, and I've seen
what happened here, but it's it's still really hard to understand.
(22:24):
You have this mobile exhibit. How does that work? How
do you how do you talk to young kids about this,
because I just think it's the never forget message, you know,
we will never forget. But how do we educate so
that they know?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
It's not easy? But it's parents like you that make
it happen. So that's beautiful that you did both both
those things go down to the Pentagon and then of
course the ground zero.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And you should know, for the twentieth anniversary two years
ago today I finished my walk to honor my brother.
I walked from the Pentagon to Shanksville where Flate ninety
three went down to ground zero, fifteen miles a day
for six weeks, five hundred and fifty two miles. And
(23:12):
I came into ground zero on this day two years
ago and walked to ground zero. And it's all because
at first I went to honor my brother, you know,
and I didn't know how to do it in a
proper way, and I figured that would be something special,
and it was very spiritual for me.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I can't even today you how spiritual it was.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Walking every day and I had hundreds and sometimes thousands
of people walk with me, you know, at different at
different times, and different days.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
It was so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I cannot even I just I tell you, it wasn't
even hard.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
It wasn't hard.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I trained the don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty all.
Im seventy years old, but I trained, and I think
it made it easier. But I think the real reason
why it was easy because I I tell you, my
brother was with me, the Holy Spirit was with me,
and I just felt like I was I can't explain
to you going up a mountain.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I climbed up a mountain one day with.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
A double amputee and he had his shorty prosthetics on
and three hours straight upper mountain, three hours straight and
he didn't complain. So I'm sure as heck was never
going to complain, you know. And I saw him do that,
and you know, I'm sweating, and you know, of course
he was sweating too. But because we did it, I
did it in the middle of the summer, but it
was it was glorious. But yes, we have to make
(24:35):
sure we never forget. And that's why we have the
nine to eleven Institute where you could download these you know,
the curriculums and for the age appropriate. And that's why
we have a mobile exhibit that goes all over the
United States. It's on tractor trail. It's ninety three foot
tractor trail and opens up to eleven hundred square foot
(24:56):
museum with nine to eleven artifacts. And who's manning that
My nine to eleven buddy, my firefighter buddies who lived
that day. We have over two hundred a speakers bureau
if somebody wanted somebody to come to speak at an event,
because I love going to them, but I can't go
to a thousand events, and of course of a year
(25:16):
of five thousand events, so we have a speakers bureau.
We have hundreds and hundreds of people who lived through
that day of nine to eleven, the will to go
anywhere and speak about it.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
It's you can't forget what happened.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's our first responsibility at TOMS, the Tallis Foundation, is
to never forget an honor the sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And brought you brought something up about stair climbs. These
folks that there's these events and I've been to one
of these events where you climb the number of stairs
that those firefighters climb that day. And you go to
these events and their aspiermen there in full gear doing
this in honor of their brothers who went out that
day and did this and lost their lives. I think
(26:00):
it's so valuable to go do this yourself and to
I mean, like you said, the walk was so spiritual
for you to go do this, and you'll find one
in your town. I'm sure they're all over. I mean,
people are doing this to honor these folks, but honestly,
it's to understand it's more than just to honor. It's
(26:22):
to live it and feel it and know what it
was like. And you're doing it under no pressure. They're
doing it as this building is falling crumbling around them. Yes,
I mean you think about that. You see these firefighters,
they're silent, they're not saying anything. They're just in the
zone of I'm going to honor these guys. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's emotional if you're there, it's emotional. You do it
with them, it's incredible. You know, we have our marquee
event every year is a Tunnel to Towers run, which
is a couple weeks away. It's the last Sunday in September,
September twenty fourth, and.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You know, we retrace what my brother did. We go
run through the.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Tunnel and we have thousands of fire fighters will come
from all over the country. Matter of fact, we have
thirty countries that are represented and we have one hundred
and fifty London fire fighters that come.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Every every year.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, but my point is is that we all we
bring all these people again once again, make sure we
out of the sacrifice and never forget. But you run
through the tunnel with these We have twenty five hundred
West Point Cadets that running cadence. They chant for the tunnel.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
If you're in that tunnel, it's just it's just it.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It is the most patriotic event that you could be
in America, period, bar none. And it was voted that
some magazine voted it once, you know, a while ago,
but it's true. And then you come out of that tunnel.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
We have the pictures of.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
All every firefighter and every police officer that died that
they held by other five fighters and cops.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Oh wow, but.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Their face shoulder to shoulder. You put all them, you know,
three hundred and forty three firefighters together.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
We're holding that boundary. You'll see how long that line is.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And then the police officers and port authority police officers
and rescue workers. And then we have the pictures of
all the seven thousand plus men and women who died
on the Global War on Terra. They're holding the pictures
by ROTC and other military members. It's almost a mile
long of all these great people that have paid such
(28:30):
a sacrifice for you and for me, and I challenge
anybody to come do it one year.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Come do it one year.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It is the most uplifting emotional And then we celebrate
their lives with a big, a big celebration on the
block right facing ground zero. We cook have them why
Firefighter Buddi's cooked for thirty or forty thousand people.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
We're cooking for it.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I call it the miracles and the loaves and fishes,
because these guys make sure that.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
They feed, they feed everybody.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
And we have like this year, we have a lady
at the bellum, lady a uh uh singing for us,
Lesia had Derek Spanley. We have we have a great
celebration on the block because these guys are the most
women were of the most outrageous people ever, and they
wouldn't want us to stay sad, isn't it so?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
I mean, think about that though you take the worst
terror attack on this nation ever. Isn't it so American
that we would come out and we would say, look,
you are not going to hold us down. We were
always every year, we're going to come together and we're
going to say we are stronger than this, We're stronger
than terror.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Well yeah, look, goodness always defeeds evil. Read in the Bible,
and but it is true and and uh and that's
what we do here. And that's why our whole thing
about Total to Tallis foundation is is the Saint Francis
of ASSISSI. My my parents are very religious and they were.
They died when my brother was real young. He was
eight and a half years old when my dad died,
(30:03):
and a year later my mom died.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So we raised my.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Youngest brother, Stephen, his older siblings.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
And I said, he's the youngest of seven, but we
were a lot old. I was closest in age.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I was fourteen years older than Stephen. My brother Russ
got rest his soul passed recently, was twenty five years
older than him. So we were able to take that
orphan baby kid and raise him. But say, my parents
were Franciscans and they gave us great faith and teach
(30:34):
them to live a simple life. Although this foundation is
not so simple anymore. But say Francis and ASSISSI said this,
brothers and sisters, while we have time, let us do
good while we're here. Let us do good because we're
running out of time every single day. So while you
have time, don't postpone it.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Do good.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
And we remember everybody. We celebrate their lives. But the
good that we're doing as a foundation to take care
of these families that, like I said before, are willing
to risk their lives for you and me and all
to often do. Come on, as Americans, come on, let's
all get together, you say.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
How do we keep this going?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I have no doubt the tone to twas foundation will
be around forever. The need will always be there. They'll
always be a firefighter or a police officer given their life.
There always will be sad to say, there will always
be conflicts around the world where America will stand up
and take care of the world.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Like we always like we always have.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
So we'll always have guys coming back losing their lens
and they'll need smart homes. All these things that we're
doing will always be there. It need, So the foundation,
I have no doubt. I know it for one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Will be here forever because the need will always be there.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
But let's all just come together and make this promise
that we'll take care of these families that are left behind.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
And I think that's why.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
They should do.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's time for us all to do good. And Frank Zeller,
you've really done good. And your brother Stephen, what an
amazing guy. I mean, his story is the reason that
we want to support people who take care of us.
His story is the story of everybody who has an
emergency and needs that person, and we all need Stephen
(32:23):
running through that tower for us, and tunnel to towers
allows us to continue to support those families that have
people running through tunnels to save us. I appreciate you.
I'm so grateful for you today, and I just ask
all of our listeners today take some time to think
about those heroes today. Thank a veteran, Thank the people
(32:45):
that help you every day. Go to t towot dot
org and put that money in that monthly gift to
make sure that we can continue to thank our heroes.
Thank you, Frank Zeller, thank you and Gobbless, and thank
you all for joining me. Today, on this day that
we will never forget. On the Tutor Dixon Podcast, thank
(33:05):
you for this episode and others. Go to Tutor diisonpodcast
dot com. You can subscribe right there, or check us
out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. And of course I want you to
tell everybody you can today to remember our heroes and
never forget nine to eleven. Have a blessed day,
Hey, this is Buck Sexton and you're listening to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast, part of the Clay Travers and Buck
Sexton podcast Network. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I
want to encourage all of us to remember and honor
the sacrifices that have been made by so many to
protect and preserve the United States. Today is a special day.
(00:22):
We remember those we lost as a result of the
attacks on our country on September eleventh, two thousand and one.
That day, we lost two nine hundred and seventy seven Americans.
We hear so many stories of heroism from that day,
the man in the red bandana, the volunteer, the off
duty firefighters who rushed to the scenes, and the neighbors
(00:42):
and civilians who faced horror like we have never seen.
Frank Siller has one of his own stories of heroism
from that day. Frank is the founder, chairman, and CEO
of Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which was starting in remembrance
of his little brother, Stephen, a New York City Fire
Department firefighter who gave his life on nine to eleven.
(01:04):
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(01:25):
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(02:29):
Now I want to welcome Frank Seller onto the podcast.
Thank you so much for joining us today on this
day that, like I said before we got in on here,
all of us remember this day who lived through it,
All of us remember the devastation and watching. For those
of us who were there in person watching it happen,
and for those of us that were watching it on TV,
will never forget. But for you it's different.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
You.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I've never actually heard your story. I've seen you on
TV a million times. I knew that you had that
your brother, you had lost your brother, not heard that
you were going golfing that morning, that that was your plan.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, So twenty two years ago today, my brother Stephen
was just finished his night tour in squad Wan in Brooklyn,
which is an elite firehouse. They trained for terrorism, and
they trained to rescue other firefighters. And he just finished
his store. He was driving on his way home. He's
going to play golf with myself, my brother George, and
(03:25):
my brother Russ. And he heard on the radio scan
of what, you know, the tablets were hit. So, you know,
what do these great heroes do. They turn around, they go.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
He went back to his firehouse, he got his gear.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
His fire company would already responded, you know, to the
call to duty. And so he got his gear and
drove to the mouth of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. If
you listeners who don't know, that tunnel connects Brooklyn with
downtown Manhattan. It's almost two miles long. It was closed
for security reasons. You know, people already banding their cars
(03:59):
in there, and they didn't weren't letting anyone go in
towards the Manhattan obviously for obvious reasons. So he pulled
over his truck, got out, put his sixty pounds of
fire gear on his back, and ran through that tunnel
up West Street to what we believe he ran into
the South Tower because that's where his other firefighter buddies
(04:22):
were recovered later on, and I'm sure he found out
that he knew that his firefighter guys that he trained
with every day were in the South Tower. So that's
where you'd want to go and rescue people and be
around the people you train with every day. And while
going up those stairs and saving others, he gave up
(04:42):
his life. And when we heard the story of what
my brother did that day, I didn't you know, we
didn't know, you know that for sure that he died
on nine to eleven on twenty two years ago, you know,
when the South Tower came down. Actually I felt inside
that I did lose my brother. At that point, I
(05:03):
remember turning to my mother in law and saying, hey, Nancy,
I think I just lost my brother.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Not knowing that he got there, I had no idea,
you know that. You know. I kept on saying, well,
maybe he couldn't get there, and maybe the towers came
down before he got there. You know, I was praying,
and you know, but to go back to that, you know,
that day twenty two years ago, and I'll just for
your listeners to understand what all nine love families are
(05:31):
going through that day. So I found out that my
brother was on a list of missing firefighters, and I
was going to different firehouses, and I actually was preparing
to go to ground zero myself with a company out
of Staten allan Call Rescue five. You know, all these
guys all my life, you know, Staten anam's a really
(05:54):
blue collar you know, copspyfighters and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And and so.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
But eventually I realized that they was so horrific. I
had my siblings come over my house. So Stephen was
the youngest of seven kids and and he was a
father of five. So I start to have him come
to my house. And later in the afternoon, a friend
of my brother's, a firefighter, Richie Obermiah, who actually lived
(06:24):
two doors away from my brother on Staten Island, called
me up and said, hey, Frank, this is Richie. You
know I'm down here at ground zero. I want you
to know that Steven's on the list of missing firefighters.
And I said, yeah, Richie, I knew that. Thank you
for calling me. You know, I've been trying to call Stephen,
you know, trying to contact him. And he goes, well,
(06:44):
you know, he's on that list, and I want to
let you know that it's really bad. Down here, and
I said, yeah, Richie, I could see it's bad. I'm
here with my family, My sisters are here, my brothers
are here. You know, I could see how bad he's
He goes no, Frank gets bad. I said, rich I'm
looking at it. I see it's bad. He goes, no,
you don't understand. Nobody's coming home. And I had to
(07:07):
get off the phone and tell my sisters and my
brothers that, and you know, it really brought us to
our knees.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
My sister Gina was wailing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And we were devastated, and you know, you know, we
didn't know one hundred percent he was gone at that point,
but like I mentioned to you before, I felt he
was gone, knowing that he had gotten there. And so
it was a terrible day. But there was so many
acts of heroism. I heard you talked about the man
in the red bandana on your intro, and that Wells Crowther.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know, I know his mom, you know I spoke
to her.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
If you go to our website, we have his story
up there. Because there was so many acts of heroism
that some are told, some on told that you know,
the people will never know about it. And so today
we're remembering all twenty nine hundred and seventy seven souls
that were killed taken from us on that day.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The people who were going in that day, like your
brother Stephen, when they got that call, when they heard that.
I mean, I remember I walked. I was working in
Chicago at the time, and I took a train to
a bus to my building and I get off and
I go up to my building and they were just
cops surrounding and they're like, you can't come in here.
This is you know, We've secured it. You're leaving, go home.
(08:23):
And I remember thinking, the heck, what are you talking about?
You know, because you didn't have smartphones, you didn't know everything.
It wasn't the detail wasn't right in front of you.
And even getting on that bus and I'm turning on
the radio and hearing the tower has fallen, my mind
could could not comprehend what that meant. You know, you can't.
You don't see it, you're hearing it. What did those
(08:44):
people think that they were going to when your brother
rushed off? What did they think compared to what they saw?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I know exactly what they thought they were going to.
And I know this because I've spoken to so many
firefighters that survived that day, and I have accounts of
them saying goodbye, now, I'll see you later when they
(09:14):
were going in those buildings. And you have to know this,
and America shall never forget this, that those firefighters knew
there was a strong possibility that that was the last.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Moments they were going to live.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So did they know that, well, they my brother know
that when he was running through the through the Brooklyn
Battery tunnel with his fire year on his back, you
know when he made that decision. No, did he know
when he went up to West Street and then when
he finally got to these.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
To the towers, Yes, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Because at that point people were already imagine, faced with
this choice, the people above the fire line, and I
have to say this because it's a reality check for everybody,
the people above the fire line, which my heart breaks for,
they were faced with two choices to burn or to jump,
(10:10):
And it was so sad to watching it. And if
you're there, these firefighters that were there on the ground
were seeing this happening. At this point, they knew it
was hell on earth at that moment, but they brought
such grace and courage and heroism to that day. I
(10:31):
look at that day as one of the greatest acts
of love ever that all those firefighters and police offers
is and everyday people like Wells Crowd, the men of
the Red bandann Are, and so many other stories that
they went in there to save people knowing there's a
strong possibility they were going to give up their lives,
(10:53):
and so many of them did, and so many of
them did so. To answer your question, yeah, they knew
what they get what they were getting into.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I think we see those pictures
like the Falling Man, and it's interesting now because you know,
my kids, they didn't live through this, and we were there,
My sister was in New York City and we were
(11:21):
watching all of this happen, and it's just so exactly
what you said, So powerful to think that they faced
a decision and they chose that because the other was
so horrific, knowing that there was no way out. But
I think we also see those pictures of like the
woman who was covered in dust walking down downtown, just
(11:43):
kind of aimlessly walking. And I remember my sister saying
that that happened all day long. She just saw people
walking from ground zero up to up North in Manhattan,
just kind of aimlessly with their their briefcase covered in
that dust. She was an an. She went back and
she was doing pro bono work getting people signed in
(12:05):
and getting information from people. And she said, I can
remember at the time sitting down at ground zero and
she said, from the time it took me to fill
out one person's form, I would have to push all
the dust off and move to the next form. Because
even even weeks after the dust was falling, A lot
(12:25):
of people have been sick since then and they've and
you support those people as well, because a lot of
these people have gone through, these people that were heroes
and just people that lived down there. I mean, we
really didn't know what the impact of this was. We've
never experienced anything like this in the history of the
country before. What is it like for those people now?
(12:47):
And how do you support those people that have gotten
this illness that is kind of this mysterious illness that
they've many people have been sick in different ways from
nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, so once again for your listeners to know that
tunnel to Twis Foundation, who I'm proud to say I'm
the CEO chairman of.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Takes care of every.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Cop, every firefighter, every first responder in America who dies
in the line of duty, has young children left behind.
We're going to deliver them a mortgage free home. If
they don't have a home, we're going to find them
at home. And if they do have home, and most
of them do, we're going to pay off their mortgage.
We do that for gold Star widows, and we built
especially adapted smart homes for our country's most catastrophically injured
(13:30):
service members. But after nine to eleven, so many these
great heroes that were on that freaking pile looking for
their brothers and their loved ones or just everybody who
was missing. Because over you know, there was two thousand
and nine and seventy seven, as I mentioned.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Before, people died that day.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
There was alose, so I think it's twelve hundred plus
that were never recovered.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
They were there trying to find them.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The police officers, firefighters, people came from all over the
United States. Your sister was there, Your sister had that
dust coming on them, and they were all told not
to worry.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Get pat it well.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Let me tell you, there's over the two hundred, three
hundred and three hundred and thirty eighth firefighter who died
of nine to eleven illnesses just died the other day.
There's been over three hundred police officers who have died
of nine to eleven illnesses. And if they have a
young family left behind, because we're a first responder to
(14:39):
this foundation, we're going to take care of their families.
We're going to pay off their mortgages. I have a
friend of mine who I just visited just the other day,
Ace Candlon Mike Candon. But he was Ace to me
growing up. We've been friends for sixty four years, all right,
since we've been since we've six years old, first grade.
(15:02):
And his job he worked for Otis Elevator. His job
was to go in after nine to eleven and clean
out the soot inside the elevators. Chefs and now he
wore all the apparatus and everything. But it doesn't matter,
just like we know, masks doesn't matter, right, you know
for other things.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Like cook and he wore the you know, he's dying.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
He's he's moments away from dying of nine to eleven
cancer because of what he Inhaled and what it's gone
through his body. It just keeps on taking so many people.
It's the terrorist attack that keeps on killing. I know
that those who did this are smiling when that happens,
(15:44):
and that's what we have to remember what we're up against.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Always that they would love to do this again. They
would love to instead of killing.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
They'd love as many zeros after that number that we
give twenty nine hundred and seventy seven. If they put
another zero on that, they would have been happier, and
another zero they'd even been more happy. So this is
what we're up against, and that's why we can't forget.
We just can never forget that we are always going
to be under assault and we have to always protect
(16:12):
our country. One last point here on that since nine
to eleven, over seven thousand men and women have died
protecting us, so we didn't have to have another nine eleven.
And so many bad things have happened obviously in Afghanistan,
and withdrawal, all that kind of stuff sickens me, sickens me,
(16:34):
and all those families had to see that they lost
their loved ones. And this is how you're gonna come
out of there. And and all the good.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Work that we were doing there.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But we got to remember those families that are left
behind too, because they're part of all part of nine
to eleven, because we wouldn't gone a war if it
wasn't for nine to eleven. And that's why our foundation
takes care of all these gold Saw families that have
given their lives, the loved ones, given their lives for
our country and have young families, and a lot of
(17:06):
them don't have houses because they move from base to
base or whatever you know, may be and in their military.
And that's why we build them, you know, a gold
a widow and their children a mortgage free home. And
we're so proud of the work that would do. We're
connected with our military because of what happened on nine
to eleven. First respond the same mentality anyway, the courage,
(17:29):
the heroism is incredible.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
You have so much support. You say, I mean, you're
passionate about this stuff, and you're passionate about the mistakes
that were made in Afghanistan. You've come out and you've
you've been very open about how you feel about this stuff.
After nine to eleven, there was like this great uniting
in the country like we've really not seen in decades.
The country came together. There were people that were just
(17:54):
pro America. Whatever it is, We're going to support America.
And I think that when when it comes to Tunnel
to Towers, you still see that you've phraised over five
hundred million to support heroes and their families. And that
isn't coming from just one side that comes fro. I mean,
I've seen you with celebrities, I've seen you with all
(18:16):
kinds of people from different backgrounds who are just like, look,
this is what we do. We support our heroes. How
do you keep that going? How in this world that
seems so divided right now? How do you keep that going?
I love it, but I just what is that magic
that you can keep that going?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Well, you know, it's great that you mentioned that because
I got to tell you, I am around great Americans
all the time. I am so blessed. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And they come to us.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
You mentioned some of the celebrities you know, like Wohlberg,
Cole House.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Rob Load and It's Quay.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You know, it's incredible. They come to us because they
want to help and they believe in our mission. And
you know, whether they believe in our mission. It's very simple.
Who couldn't believe and take care of these great families
are left behind? I think almost every American would believe
in that. I mean there's some crazies out there that
(19:16):
you know that I think America is terrible, you know,
shame on that. I mean, meanwhile, they live, they have
no idea, they live in the they take advantage of
everything that these our freedoms are given to us because
of these men and women who put it all on
the life for us every single day. But that's that's
the beauty of America. But yes, I'm around it all
(19:37):
the time.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
And you know, so people do what they can do.
We ask everybody to do eleven dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I mean, most people can do that and they know
that ninety five point one percent of every dollar that
they donate those to our you know, to our programs.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think that's important because I think most people don't
know that sometimes you can give money and that money
you're just giving a small portion of that money, but
you're talking about ninety five cents on every dollar is
actually going to these families, going to the mission.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Right, It's not going in my pocket. That's for sure,
I don't get paid. I'm proud of that. I'm a volunteer.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I have tens and tens of thousands of volunteers all
across America.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
We have I think one hundred golf outings put on
for us this year.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
David Wells, he's a pitcher, was a pitcher for the Yankees,
and while he joined a baseball player who's almost like
a Hall of Fame play for nineteen years. These guys
are putting on these celebrity golf outings and different golf
outings for us and raising so much money. But we
have over one hundred golf oundings. We have over nearly
(20:44):
one hundred runs and climbs all over the United States,
and people can emulate what my brother did that day
and what so many other heroes did that day. But
we have three thousand events, three thousand events. The people
at dinner or you know, some kind of a small fundraise.
I love the little kids that come. I can't tell
you how many times I see a ten year old
(21:06):
kid or a fifteen year old kid or whatever that
did a fundraise and gives us a check for six
hundred dollars or eleven hundred dollars It means so much
to me and one of the reasons why I'm so
proud that we have the nine to Eleven Institute.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
On our website.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You go to T two T and just you'll see
we have we have kids for classes for K through
twelve that a curriculum that you could just press a
button and prints out what you can teach your class.
We have teachers that downloaded every single day.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. This year, my daughter had her
eighth grade field trip to Washington, d C. We went
and saw the nine to eleven Memorial there at the Pentagon.
It was fascinating to see these seventh and eighth graders
who did not live through this were really curious about it.
(22:02):
They were looking at all the names. They were talking about,
how did how did the plane come in? We went
from there a few months later or too. I took
her to New York City and we went down to
ground zero and she's she looked at me and she said, Mom,
now I saw what happened in DC, and I've seen
what happened here, but it's it's still really hard to understand.
(22:24):
You have this mobile exhibit. How does that work? How
do you how do you talk to young kids about this,
because I just think it's the never forget message, you know,
we will never forget. But how do we educate so
that they know?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
It's not easy? But it's parents like you that make
it happen. So that's beautiful that you did both both
those things go down to the Pentagon and then of
course the ground zero.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And you should know, for the twentieth anniversary two years
ago today I finished my walk to honor my brother.
I walked from the Pentagon to Shanksville where Flate ninety
three went down to ground zero, fifteen miles a day
for six weeks, five hundred and fifty two miles. And
(23:12):
I came into ground zero on this day two years
ago and walked to ground zero. And it's all because
at first I went to honor my brother, you know,
and I didn't know how to do it in a
proper way, and I figured that would be something special,
and it was very spiritual for me.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I can't even today you how spiritual it was.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Walking every day and I had hundreds and sometimes thousands
of people walk with me, you know, at different at
different times, and different days.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
It was so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I cannot even I just I tell you, it wasn't
even hard.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
It wasn't hard.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I trained the don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty all.
Im seventy years old, but I trained, and I think
it made it easier. But I think the real reason
why it was easy because I I tell you, my
brother was with me, the Holy Spirit was with me,
and I just felt like I was I can't explain
to you going up a mountain.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I climbed up a mountain one day with.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
A double amputee and he had his shorty prosthetics on
and three hours straight upper mountain, three hours straight and
he didn't complain. So I'm sure as heck was never
going to complain, you know. And I saw him do that,
and you know, I'm sweating, and you know, of course
he was sweating too. But because we did it, I
did it in the middle of the summer, but it
was it was glorious. But yes, we have to make
(24:35):
sure we never forget. And that's why we have the
nine to eleven Institute where you could download these you know,
the curriculums and for the age appropriate. And that's why
we have a mobile exhibit that goes all over the
United States. It's on tractor trail. It's ninety three foot
tractor trail and opens up to eleven hundred square foot
(24:56):
museum with nine to eleven artifacts. And who's manning that
My nine to eleven buddy, my firefighter buddies who lived
that day. We have over two hundred a speakers bureau
if somebody wanted somebody to come to speak at an event,
because I love going to them, but I can't go
to a thousand events, and of course of a year
(25:16):
of five thousand events, so we have a speakers bureau.
We have hundreds and hundreds of people who lived through
that day of nine to eleven, the will to go
anywhere and speak about it.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
It's you can't forget what happened.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's our first responsibility at TOMS, the Tallis Foundation, is
to never forget an honor the sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And brought you brought something up about stair climbs. These
folks that there's these events and I've been to one
of these events where you climb the number of stairs
that those firefighters climb that day. And you go to
these events and their aspiermen there in full gear doing
this in honor of their brothers who went out that
day and did this and lost their lives. I think
(26:00):
it's so valuable to go do this yourself and to
I mean, like you said, the walk was so spiritual
for you to go do this, and you'll find one
in your town. I'm sure they're all over. I mean,
people are doing this to honor these folks, but honestly,
it's to understand it's more than just to honor. It's
(26:22):
to live it and feel it and know what it
was like. And you're doing it under no pressure. They're
doing it as this building is falling crumbling around them. Yes,
I mean you think about that. You see these firefighters,
they're silent, they're not saying anything. They're just in the
zone of I'm going to honor these guys. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's emotional if you're there, it's emotional. You do it
with them, it's incredible. You know, we have our marquee
event every year is a Tunnel to Towers run, which
is a couple weeks away. It's the last Sunday in September,
September twenty fourth, and.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You know, we retrace what my brother did. We go
run through the.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Tunnel and we have thousands of fire fighters will come
from all over the country. Matter of fact, we have
thirty countries that are represented and we have one hundred
and fifty London fire fighters that come.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Every every year.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, but my point is is that we all we
bring all these people again once again, make sure we
out of the sacrifice and never forget. But you run
through the tunnel with these We have twenty five hundred
West Point Cadets that running cadence. They chant for the tunnel.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
If you're in that tunnel, it's just it's just it.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It is the most patriotic event that you could be
in America, period, bar none. And it was voted that
some magazine voted it once, you know, a while ago,
but it's true. And then you come out of that tunnel.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
We have the pictures of.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
All every firefighter and every police officer that died that
they held by other five fighters and cops.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Oh wow, but.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Their face shoulder to shoulder. You put all them, you know,
three hundred and forty three firefighters together.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
We're holding that boundary. You'll see how long that line is.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And then the police officers and port authority police officers
and rescue workers. And then we have the pictures of
all the seven thousand plus men and women who died
on the Global War on Terra. They're holding the pictures
by ROTC and other military members. It's almost a mile
long of all these great people that have paid such
(28:30):
a sacrifice for you and for me, and I challenge
anybody to come do it one year.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Come do it one year.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It is the most uplifting emotional And then we celebrate
their lives with a big, a big celebration on the
block right facing ground zero. We cook have them why
Firefighter Buddi's cooked for thirty or forty thousand people.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
We're cooking for it.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I call it the miracles and the loaves and fishes,
because these guys make sure that.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
They feed, they feed everybody.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
And we have like this year, we have a lady
at the bellum, lady a uh uh singing for us,
Lesia had Derek Spanley. We have we have a great
celebration on the block because these guys are the most
women were of the most outrageous people ever, and they
wouldn't want us to stay sad, isn't it so?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
I mean, think about that though you take the worst
terror attack on this nation ever. Isn't it so American
that we would come out and we would say, look,
you are not going to hold us down. We were
always every year, we're going to come together and we're
going to say we are stronger than this, We're stronger
than terror.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Well yeah, look, goodness always defeeds evil. Read in the Bible,
and but it is true and and uh and that's
what we do here. And that's why our whole thing
about Total to Tallis foundation is is the Saint Francis
of ASSISSI. My my parents are very religious and they were.
They died when my brother was real young. He was
eight and a half years old when my dad died,
(30:03):
and a year later my mom died.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So we raised my.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Youngest brother, Stephen, his older siblings.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
And I said, he's the youngest of seven, but we
were a lot old. I was closest in age.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I was fourteen years older than Stephen. My brother Russ
got rest his soul passed recently, was twenty five years
older than him. So we were able to take that
orphan baby kid and raise him. But say, my parents
were Franciscans and they gave us great faith and teach
(30:34):
them to live a simple life. Although this foundation is
not so simple anymore. But say Francis and ASSISSI said this,
brothers and sisters, while we have time, let us do
good while we're here. Let us do good because we're
running out of time every single day. So while you
have time, don't postpone it.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Do good.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
And we remember everybody. We celebrate their lives. But the
good that we're doing as a foundation to take care
of these families that, like I said before, are willing
to risk their lives for you and me and all
to often do. Come on, as Americans, come on, let's
all get together, you say.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
How do we keep this going?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I have no doubt the tone to twas foundation will
be around forever. The need will always be there. They'll
always be a firefighter or a police officer given their life.
There always will be sad to say, there will always
be conflicts around the world where America will stand up
and take care of the world.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Like we always like we always have.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
So we'll always have guys coming back losing their lens
and they'll need smart homes. All these things that we're
doing will always be there. It need, So the foundation,
I have no doubt. I know it for one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Will be here forever because the need will always be there.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
But let's all just come together and make this promise
that we'll take care of these families that are left behind.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
And I think that's why.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
They should do.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's time for us all to do good. And Frank Zeller,
you've really done good. And your brother Stephen, what an
amazing guy. I mean, his story is the reason that
we want to support people who take care of us.
His story is the story of everybody who has an
emergency and needs that person, and we all need Stephen
(32:23):
running through that tower for us, and tunnel to towers
allows us to continue to support those families that have
people running through tunnels to save us. I appreciate you.
I'm so grateful for you today, and I just ask
all of our listeners today take some time to think
about those heroes today. Thank a veteran, Thank the people
(32:45):
that help you every day. Go to t towot dot
org and put that money in that monthly gift to
make sure that we can continue to thank our heroes.
Thank you, Frank Zeller, thank you and Gobbless, and thank
you all for joining me. Today, on this day that
we will never forget. On the Tutor Dixon Podcast, thank
(33:05):
you for this episode and others. Go to Tutor diisonpodcast
dot com. You can subscribe right there, or check us
out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. And of course I want you to
tell everybody you can today to remember our heroes and
never forget nine to eleven. Have a blessed day,
Host
Buck Sexton
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