When we turn our calendar pages on Thursday to September from August this year, many of us will find it unbelievable when we focus on the fact that THE September 11th was 10 years ago! This was an event that was to have forever changed our lives, our patriotism, and our sense of what is really important to us. As Danny Barnes says in his tribute song Nine Eleven written later that evening, “as we watched it all unfold before our eyes, it forced our hearts to see it all and be part of the pain. The sadness, the madness, the sorrow took over our lives”. Please give yourself some space and time to quietly look back and reflect on just what changes you have made in your own lives since that fateful day. (PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING.)
|
Sitting here ten years later I am struck by the incredible events that appear to be at the furthest ends of the spectrum – comparing these memories and how our countrymen responded with how our elected officials most times deal with crises. I can’t help but ask ‘how have their lives changed’? What really hits home for me is the difference in character between those who feel that what they say and how they say it are more important than anything they do or accomplish, and the hundreds if not thousands of heroes who just did their job that day ten years ago and the weeks following, without looking around to see if anyone was watching, without saying a word, without wavering at the call. That morning, they woke up, grabbed a cup of coffee, tied their shoes, kissed their kids goodbye and left for work, just like the rest of us. At that moment they were just firefighters, policemen, EMT’s, civil servants, doctors, nurses, passengers on a plane, or people just passing by. Many of them gave their lives that day. All of them became heroes. And not one of them waited for a television camera before doing what needed to be done. I can’t help shake this image in my head of someone standing before camera and a bank of microphones saying nothing with no one watching and a hero acting her or his part alone with no cameras rolling, but whom everyone sees. I have had discussions about heroism over the years with a dear and long time friend of mine who is a leadership guru and former Army officer. My attitude has always been that heroes are born at the moment that preparedness intersects with opportunity. It is in that moment that people just react, do what they were trained to do or felt called to do. Most of the time, the opportunities presented are not made for television events. Most of the time the acts of genuine heroism go unrecorded and some even go unobserved. Most of the time they do not have to sacrifice their lives to achieve it. I am frustrated when I hear people say that what we need today is a real hero. They are undoubtedly looking for a story, a movie, a video game, an action-doll. It’s even worse when they serve up their false heroes embodying pathetic images of heroism they want us to admire. There are real heroes operating around us every day. Your work at times may even be regarded as heroic. I cry in the presence of, in the thought of, and in the memory of these heroes. |