Thinking About 9/11

I want to say something about heroes.



Ever since 9/11, everyone who died that day has been referred to as heroes over and over.



I hate to say this, but that devalues greatly the contribution of those who were in fact heroes that day.



Folks, if you Just. Plain. Die. Then you are a victim, and that is a tragedy, and should never be forgotten. The people who died at the Pentagon, and the WTC, and the passengers on the planes were victims of a horrible crime, and one which should never be forgotten.



If you die in a drive-by in gang territory, are you a hero? No; you're a victim. If you get killed during a bank robbery, are you a hero? No; you're a victim. If you get hit by a truck, are you a hero? No; you're a victim. Heroism does not consist of getting killed; it consists of willingly giving your life that others might live.



There were heroes that day, and they, too, should be remembered, because they didn't HAVE TO go out the way they did; they CHOSE to, because it was helping others.



You want to know who the heroes were on 9/11?



The firefighters and police that were going UP the stairs when the WTC came down.



The passengers on Flight 93, who despite the conspiracy theorists, in fact DID rush the cockpit of Flight 93, and bring it down, thus preventing another building - maybe the Capitol building - from being destroyed.



The rescue workers who as I recall worked in some cases for DAYS without relief, after the events of 9/11, to rescue everyone they could from the rubble.



Those are heroes.



Their contribution should stand apart; they chose it. It didn't "happen," it wasn't coincidence, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the malicious action of deluded, small-minded religious fanatics that caused it; they chose to give their lives in the service of others, just as members of our Armed Forces have done since this country began, and continue to do.



I feel great sorrow for those who are lost, of any stripe; that they had to die is a shame, a tragedy, and a crime against humanity whose magnitude cannot be overestimated.



But the true heroes ought to be called heroes, and not lumped in wholesale with everyone else, to be considered the same as those whose enormous sacrifice consisted of going to work on time that day.