Decades more must pass before the human heart and mind can grasp the full meaning of September 11, 2001. Those of us close enough to have issued warnings that were ignored have our own memories and burdens.
I am clear on one thing, however. Save for our Civil War, there is no other event in American history where the meaning of duty was revealed more vividly. Responding to the increasingly urgent emergency calls, hundreds of New York City firemen and policemen rushed to the scene. Three hundred and forty three firemen and 60 policemen -- at least 418 first responders -- did not come out alive.
Why did they do it? What causes men and women to act bravely and without concern for personal safety? This is one of the deepest mysteries of the human condition. Those who escaped this man-made holocaust said, when asked why they did it, it was my job. It was my duty.
Duty in this case goes well beyond fulfilling a contract or doing what one is paid to do. It involves willingness to sacrifice one's life for others. Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for another.
A woman who had always been put off by the excessive display of the American flag stood on Seventh Avenue in Midtown that day. As a flatbed truck loaded with hard-hat construction workers raced southward with flags flying, she said she wept.
Duty in the interest of saving lives is near the essence of what makes us human and what adds a spiritual dimension to our character. Most of us wonder if, when faced with personal danger to help another, we would have the courage to act. There is not one report of a fireman or policeman who suddenly found something else to do when the alarms went off and calls to action went out. There were fellow Americans, fellow human beings, in those buildings. This is my job. This is my duty.
Who can ever forget the hollow-eyed shock on the grim and grimy faces of the surviving public safety workers coming out of those collapsing buildings. I shared only one thing with them: the sense that I did not do enough. And it haunts me to my grave that I should have pounded on the doors of editorial writers and presidents demanding that they take the warnings of terrorist attacks seriously.
I cannot say, then, that I did my duty. Unlike those courageous firemen and policemen, I should have done more.
Duty is near the core of the values that matter. To do one's duty is to achieve integrity and integrity is near the center of nobility.
It is my hope that Americans alive on September 11, 2001, will never forget the firemen and the policemen, both those who gave their lives and those who survived. They are lessons in duty and integrity and nobility. They are symbols of that to which we all may aspire.
"Some things" such as duty, "are universal, catholic, and undying. They do not age or pass out of fashion, for they symbolize eternal things. They are the guardians of the freedom of the human spirit, the proof of what our mortal frailty can achieve." (Montrose, John Buchan)
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God plants in us, the inate human ability to love our fellow man. Love knows no boundries, knows no risks, has no limits. It gives those of us, that have been blessed to have been born in a nation, where God's love is showered down on everyday, with empathy. That empathy is what sets us apart from the selfish, self serving, and self-righteous. All of our struggles, all of our errors, all of our misgivings and regrets have been paid for with God's blood. We shall not be ashamed of what we do on the behalf of our brothers and sisters, for our God is with us everywhere we go, even when we go the wrong way.
You did your duty the best way you could at the time. You went beyond the call of duty when you signed up to be a leader of men. It's a special place God puts you, even when you go the wrong way, He's there to correct your path. As a antion, He's there to comfort us, even when we go the wrong way, he sends His Love to save us, and we are saved.
So, you know, when your sense of duty matches the intentional Love of God, your duty is to act on that love, thereby fullfiling your duty to Him, and your fellow man. You have done as much, and I'm blessed to have this opportunity to tell you that.
It's my firm belief that those who were in the know were prosecuted for doing what they could to while those in position to do something controlled the media to prevent the warning. The only people who got the warning was most of the people called Jews who worked t the center, everyone else were kept in the dark.
They did not sacrifice their lives, but lost their lives in the course of their duty.
418 first responders died because none of them believed the towers would collapse, and one fire chief already had a plan to tackle the fire.
Now that indicates a great degree of optimism on their situation.
I am not being callous in the loss of so many lives, but America has taken the tragedy of 9/11 and turned into theater, thereby diverting public scrutiny of that days events, and the wars that followed.
"We The People are dedicated to the restoration of our republic and its established principles of rights and duties, beginning with the Democratic Party nomination and general election of President Gary Hart, should he decide to accept such an awesome burden on our behalf."
Why not? Right now we see "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," as our leaders speak eloquently but do the opposite as others do the opposite even of their own ideas. Common denominator? Money & Time: 80% of service time wallowing for big money to 'win' more money?
But now, with pre-9/11 Commission member and presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, Senator Hart may credibly fire up debates on why we must end our wars and reinvest savings to honestly protect our people. Enlightened education requires our young citizens to understand the dangerously imploding trajectory of our wealth gap at home and our exploding credibility gap abroad, both now endangering our overall security.
Again, as someone else wrote elsewhere ...
"We The People are dedicated to the restoration of our republic and its established principles of rights and duties, beginning with the Democratic Party nomination and general election of President Gary Hart, should he decide to accept such an awesome burden on our behalf."
When all is said and done - though more is said than done - it is our duty too!
As the horrible day went on, there were many others that deserve our gratitude today too. To all the construction workers and bucket brigades that dedicated themselves & volunteered their time to find survivors, extinguish fires, and helped dig out the wreckage &debris. To the doctors & nurses that treated the injured and traumatized. Anyone that was there to help out, often working overtime & for days on end. The least we could due is pay their medical bills, monitor their health & treat any diseases or injuries caused by this horrible event.
One of the reasons for this war was the belief that Saddam was involved i the attacks.
who led 1/2 the US population into believing that? how did so many people come to such a wrong idea?
we should look close and expose those who misled us.
While the towers were still burning, firemen, policemen, emergency response teams, went into harms way to help those that so desperately needed it. Without question, one of America's finest moments, and a source of pride for all who watched from afar. The Nation was unified by crisis.
10 years later..............those that so valiantly put their life and health on the line, can't even get health care treatments for their exposure to toxic chemicals..........their counterparts across the country are vilified as Government leaches, that don't deserve the right of collective bargaining, and should be laid off "en masse" as the over paid drain on "working people" that they represent. The country is about as divided as I have seen it, and worse yet, it's political and intentional.
Oscar Wilde once penned..........."A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
Seems to be no shortage of cynics wanting to be the next president of the United States.
I wonder how many of THEM, would purposely put themselves in harms way to help others?
No one would listen. No one was listening. The previous administration had the intelligence report "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US", knowing full well that an attack, while not immediate, was imminent. These are the same people who willfully attack the warnings of global warning without the evidence to back them up and it begs the question that Pete Seeger posed 40 years ago: "when will we ever learn?"
When will we ever learn?
In Mr. Hart's case - even IF he had done everything he now feels he should have - it's is highly improbable anything would have been different.
What happened ... happened... we hope to have learned from it.
Well, Secretaries, Senators, Congressmen -- Isn't it your job to make sure these things don't happen?
You did not fail us, yourself, or America. But, if you feel this persistent guilt and would desire a path of atonement, here's what to do: return to public office. Please. Your voice will be so much better heard and it needs to be better heard. The sins of the past are irrelevant. Your wisdom trumps all.