Sunday, September 11, 2011

9-11

I was tired and a little gloomy on the eve of 9/11 this year, so my tribute was very short. Today I went back and reviewed my 2009 tribute and found that it still echoes my feelings today. Here it is again, for what it's worth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Everyone has their own memories of the moment they heard the news. My first thoughts were of the firefighters that I knew were certainly inside the World Trade Centre, trying to save what they could.

Some people asked me why they entered in the first place. A few even suggested that the emergency responders acted foolishly. Here's my opinion: they entered because they chose a very unique, risky career . . . and because they wanted to help the folks inside. If they had known the building was going to come down would they have gone in? Maybe not. They didn't know, they were willing to take the chance, lives were saved because of what they did. Click here to see a video clip of firefighters in action on that fateful day. Nearly 3000 people were murdered in cold blood. 343 of them were firefighters.

The next prominent thought was the certainty that there would be war. I remember telling my son, who was six years old, that many, many innocent people were going to die because of this hateful act. An idiotic idealism masked as religion was going to bring unthinkable misery on the Afghan people, many of whom had as much interest in jihad as they had in going to the moon.

The Americans make plenty of mistakes, and part of the world believes they are evil. Here's my take on that: if the Americans are evil, lunatics that fly jets into skyscrapers are the sludge on the bottom of the sea of depravity. True, the Americans - and Canadians - are responsible for much death and destruction. War is despicable, there is no escaping the fact. The jihadist mentality, on the other hand, loves war. It doesn’t care who dies, enemy, friend, foreigner or countryman, man, woman or child . . . it’s happy as long as someone is being murdered. The goal? World slavery. Those consumed with this doctrine won't be content until every person in every corner of the globe is chained by their garbled parody of religion.

My tribute to the 9-11 victims is to remember the firefighter. They aren’t gods, and they aren’t angels. They’re humans with the same shortcomings as everyone else. They make mistakes and screw up sometimes . . . and they pay a heavy price physically and emotionally. Not all of them will be blazing heroes on the front page news. But if the Devil shows up . . . like he did eight years ago . . . they will be at the head of the line to meet him.

If you are interested knowing the challenges that still face the 9-11 rescuers - fire, police and paramedics - click here.

1 comment:

Have a comment? Go for it! It's lonely out here in bloggerland . . .

Search This Blog