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CNN Live Today
Interview With Father Kevin Smith
Aired September 11, 2003 - 11:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Father Kevin Smith is the volunteer chaplain for the Nassau County Fire Department and he joins us once again.
Thanks for sticking around through the service.
You know, it truly was heartbreaking to watch these small children list not only the names of those who died, but of course when they got to their parents or their cousin or their uncle or their godfather, just truly broke your heart to hear what they had to say. And yet at the same time it seemed so important to name each and every person. Do you think that's true?
REV. KEVIN SMITH, CHAPLAIN: It gives a voice to it, and it also helps with the healing, and the sense of being able to hear it again. And I think it also emphasized the magnitude of what we went through two years ago.
And also, I think to look at the kids, you see the future, as their growing up, and their two years old now, the strength that they have, to name their parents, to name their cousins and their brothers and sisters. That took a lot, I think. Kids that were singing.
O'BRIEN: You have to imagine -- I was amazed that they weren't falling apart, that they were doing the job that they had to do so incredibly well.
You wear two hats. You are the spiritual adviser for the fire department, but also you have a parish as well.
SMITH: The Parish of Patchogue, St. Frances de Sales.
O'BRIEN: So many of the victims have -- victims family members, people left behind, have nothing. So many. How do you advise them about closure and the moving on that you talk about when there's nothing to bury?
SMITH: That's a tough part, because a lot of them want something to bury. Just as an example, the last firefighter that was buried this past week, the family finally gave up waiting for a body part and they buried a vial of blood. It was him. They buried that vial of blood because that's something he donated.
It's very tough, and I think the thing is time. You have to give everybody their own time, and I think the fire department did that. Everybody was allowed to choose when that was going to happen and when they were prepared for it. And there's other people. You know, I heard before and some of these comments coming in were "Let's get on with this," and some people can and some people can't, you know, and we need to take the patience and still be able to reach out to those people that are really having a hard time with it.
O'BRIEN: You were on the scene at Ground Zero so quickly and you lost so many of your friends and parishioners and fellow firefighters. I want to just show a clip of a family member reading the name of Tom Burk (ph), who was a friend of yours. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And our father, Thomas Daniel Burk (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my stepfather, Salvatore P. LaFredo (ph), I miss you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my daddy, Girard Rod Capolla (ph). Your light still shines on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Truly, it just makes you choke up when you hear someone just clearly devastated.
How have you been advising the children? I know that's part of your job as well, to not only advise the adults but to counsel the children. Some of them older children, some of them little children, about moving forward.
SMITH: There's a lot of things that the kids can do and one of the things is they do drawings. They have programs like Project Liberty, that brings the kids together, to be able to make sure the kids understand, one, that they're not alone, that there are other kids feeling exactly like they do.
They had a great -- there's a great paternity in the fire department for that. But it's nice to see everyone else that lost parents being dealt with in the same way, that everybody is reaching out to them.
You know, you speak of Tom Burk (ph), and I know the whole Burk (ph) family from Manhasset, and who they married and all the other families that are involved and how many of those families lost people.
One of the things that Chris Burk (ph) decided to do, Tommy's brother, is you can't leave the kids alone. So they started Tuesday's Children, and it's an 18-year commitment. 18 years they committed themselves and all the people that are going to join with this that they're going to take care of all of these kids, the ones who were born even after 9-11, of these that lost a parent there.
O'BRIEN: What is take care of -- what does that -- what do they specifically do?
SMITH: Mentoring programs. Making sure that the kids got somebody to go to the park with. If there's something that they want to do, if it's ballet or theatre -- and there's all the theatre groups. The sports teams have all joined in on this, so that they provide the wherewithal, the tickets, to do it, and then Tuesday's Children provides the people to do it. So it's not replacing their parents, but they lost so much already, they don't want them to lose their childhood, their adolescence, that kind of thing.
So it's a great experience, it's a lot of fun to be a part of it and to see some of the larger presentations that they have, where kids come from all over the place to go to the circus or something, you know, to be able to see these kids smile again, just like today. You can see the heartfelt -- you can be wrenched by it because you know some girl is not going to have her father walk her down the aisle, but you can also see the joy of them proudly saying my father, my mother, my sister, my aunt, you know, that's important.
O'BRIEN: I think really underscoring the reason they included the children and really made them the focal point of the ceremony.
SMITH: And they were a part of that, I think, that they were able to grab what the second year is about. It's the children. It's the future.
O'BRIEN: Beautiful, and so sad, but very beautiful.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 11, 2003 - 11:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Father Kevin Smith is the volunteer chaplain for the Nassau County Fire Department and he joins us once again.
Thanks for sticking around through the service.
You know, it truly was heartbreaking to watch these small children list not only the names of those who died, but of course when they got to their parents or their cousin or their uncle or their godfather, just truly broke your heart to hear what they had to say. And yet at the same time it seemed so important to name each and every person. Do you think that's true?
REV. KEVIN SMITH, CHAPLAIN: It gives a voice to it, and it also helps with the healing, and the sense of being able to hear it again. And I think it also emphasized the magnitude of what we went through two years ago.
And also, I think to look at the kids, you see the future, as their growing up, and their two years old now, the strength that they have, to name their parents, to name their cousins and their brothers and sisters. That took a lot, I think. Kids that were singing.
O'BRIEN: You have to imagine -- I was amazed that they weren't falling apart, that they were doing the job that they had to do so incredibly well.
You wear two hats. You are the spiritual adviser for the fire department, but also you have a parish as well.
SMITH: The Parish of Patchogue, St. Frances de Sales.
O'BRIEN: So many of the victims have -- victims family members, people left behind, have nothing. So many. How do you advise them about closure and the moving on that you talk about when there's nothing to bury?
SMITH: That's a tough part, because a lot of them want something to bury. Just as an example, the last firefighter that was buried this past week, the family finally gave up waiting for a body part and they buried a vial of blood. It was him. They buried that vial of blood because that's something he donated.
It's very tough, and I think the thing is time. You have to give everybody their own time, and I think the fire department did that. Everybody was allowed to choose when that was going to happen and when they were prepared for it. And there's other people. You know, I heard before and some of these comments coming in were "Let's get on with this," and some people can and some people can't, you know, and we need to take the patience and still be able to reach out to those people that are really having a hard time with it.
O'BRIEN: You were on the scene at Ground Zero so quickly and you lost so many of your friends and parishioners and fellow firefighters. I want to just show a clip of a family member reading the name of Tom Burk (ph), who was a friend of yours. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And our father, Thomas Daniel Burk (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my stepfather, Salvatore P. LaFredo (ph), I miss you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my daddy, Girard Rod Capolla (ph). Your light still shines on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Truly, it just makes you choke up when you hear someone just clearly devastated.
How have you been advising the children? I know that's part of your job as well, to not only advise the adults but to counsel the children. Some of them older children, some of them little children, about moving forward.
SMITH: There's a lot of things that the kids can do and one of the things is they do drawings. They have programs like Project Liberty, that brings the kids together, to be able to make sure the kids understand, one, that they're not alone, that there are other kids feeling exactly like they do.
They had a great -- there's a great paternity in the fire department for that. But it's nice to see everyone else that lost parents being dealt with in the same way, that everybody is reaching out to them.
You know, you speak of Tom Burk (ph), and I know the whole Burk (ph) family from Manhasset, and who they married and all the other families that are involved and how many of those families lost people.
One of the things that Chris Burk (ph) decided to do, Tommy's brother, is you can't leave the kids alone. So they started Tuesday's Children, and it's an 18-year commitment. 18 years they committed themselves and all the people that are going to join with this that they're going to take care of all of these kids, the ones who were born even after 9-11, of these that lost a parent there.
O'BRIEN: What is take care of -- what does that -- what do they specifically do?
SMITH: Mentoring programs. Making sure that the kids got somebody to go to the park with. If there's something that they want to do, if it's ballet or theatre -- and there's all the theatre groups. The sports teams have all joined in on this, so that they provide the wherewithal, the tickets, to do it, and then Tuesday's Children provides the people to do it. So it's not replacing their parents, but they lost so much already, they don't want them to lose their childhood, their adolescence, that kind of thing.
So it's a great experience, it's a lot of fun to be a part of it and to see some of the larger presentations that they have, where kids come from all over the place to go to the circus or something, you know, to be able to see these kids smile again, just like today. You can see the heartfelt -- you can be wrenched by it because you know some girl is not going to have her father walk her down the aisle, but you can also see the joy of them proudly saying my father, my mother, my sister, my aunt, you know, that's important.
O'BRIEN: I think really underscoring the reason they included the children and really made them the focal point of the ceremony.
SMITH: And they were a part of that, I think, that they were able to grab what the second year is about. It's the children. It's the future.
O'BRIEN: Beautiful, and so sad, but very beautiful.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
