Never forget...

Shortly after 9/11/01, I once said, "I could go the rest of my life without seeing those images again." What a disturbing time it was-- it's so much easier to pull a pillow over my head than to see it all again, but today I was drawn in by the same television images; I even watched the controversial ABC mini-series that shed more than a little blame on the Clinton and Bush administrations and more pointedly on the plodding bureacratic decisions of big government. As in the stressful months after 9/11, I found myself reliving the grief and again giving thanks for my friends, my family, my life.

But today is not about the blame. It's about hope. Quinn from Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary School (see his illustration above) hit it right on the head. He remembered two proud towers symbolizing achievement, a resolute flag, and the heroic deeds of the rescue workers. One of the videotapes from the dust clouds billowing in Manhattan that day was shot by a guy running for his life, breathing and speaking just fine despite the dust. Despite the obviously pained victims around him, he was out for the big news scoop and even asked a firefighter to give him "just a little toot" on his respirator, focused on keeping himself safe and getting some good shots. I wonder how I would have reacted if I had been a videographer in Lower Manhattan. Would I have been vying for the most poignant shot and beseeching a breath from a rescue worker rather than aiding him in ministering to the clearly more needy on the street around me? Would I have been trying to run to those who were worse off than I-- whether in the immediate vicinity or up in the towers? I, like most, was watching TV, slack-jawed. I would like to think I would have been one of the ones ministering to others, but none of us knows how we truly would measure up. We can only hope that we would have been the ones saving lives, had we been there.

We always hope that we would measure up and be heroic. Today we still hope for proud towers, a resolute flag, and for strength to uphold the honor of the heroes. We hope to carry some of their honor and strength with us in our own lives. By our actions, we hope to remember the sacrifices they made for strangers. Live for love, live for your fellow man, live for the fireman!

Never, ever forget him, even if it means watching the sad and disturbing footage that wells tears and roils anger in you... and never forget what the fireman taught us.

Thanks, Quinn.