THE COST OF BEING A HERO

''IT IS WELL,...WITH MY SOUL''...

The Bible [John 15;13] says "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  Our brave New York City Firefighters...New York City police officers...Port Authority police officers...EMS workers...health care workers...court officers...and uniformed service members---they laid down their lives for strangers.  They were inspired by their sense of duty and their love for humanity.  As they raced into the Twin Towers and the other buildings to save lives, they didn't stop to ask how rich or how poor the person was, they didn't stop to ask what religion, what race, what nationality.  They just raced in to save their fellow human beings.  They are the best example of love that we have in our society.  -Mayor R Giuliani, Yankee Stadium, Sept.23,2001

"They are the best example of LOVE in our society"....I do not think I have ever heard firefighters called this before by anyone-"-love"-nope-I am real sure I have never been called that!  I will never forget that day or the days that followed soon after.  I was able to make it to the command center there, only to be told they couldn't take anymore volunteers.  But I was given a bed to sleep in that night and any nights after if needed as a thank you, in a naval ship at the pier.  That was one of the most sobering, helpless moments in my adult life.  I was surrounded by THOUSANDS and felt completely alone.  Here's the catch... nobody made me feel that way BUT me!  I was offered anything, I was rewarded you might say for just being there, those in charge genuinely felt horrible when they heard how far I had come.  But the actual fact was that fear (false evidence appearing real) overwhelmed me. Nothing but that.  Fast forward to driving back home to Fla   I can still hear the conversation I had with my Mom,  "I failed Ma, I failed big time.  I got there too late and they couldn't use me.  I wasted my time and everyone else's, whine, whine, whine"  and her response through  her tears were ...."FAIL"???What do you mean fail? "You have done something very, few people have done, you did something that most of us only thought about doing, but you went Tom.  How did you fail?  You went on your own to help, you went into a city everyone else was getting out of.  No Tom, you didn't fail you showed people that there still are caring people in this world.  I love you and am so proud of what you did"   Mom's are great! ( she also told me to quit whining)  911 let people see us for what we are.  It's a shame it takes something so brutal for people to see what is right in front of their eyes.  Those firefighters did what they do everyday of their lives.  They gave of themselves to save others.  They weren't being heroes, they didn't all the sudden get super powers , they did their jobs.  The same job a lot of them have been doing for years.  I wonder how many times they were called "love" when they cut someone out of a car or delivered a baby?  Or blew a cat out of a tree with the hose?  How about when I shut the highway down because we are working a multiple car accident? How bout when a citizen called them at 3 am for a general illness that is very contagious and they take it back to their own families all because that citizen doesn't want to ask a friend or family member to take them to the Dr at normal hours! That is what people just don't realize I guess.  I was sickened by the lives lost that day. I was sickened by the actions my brothers and sisters had to take because we don't have the choice to say "NO" I'm not going into that fire or I'm not taking this call.  I think of that day now and then and the pit in my stomach is still there.  I have talked to guys who made it out that day and they told me how they just knew, while riding to the call that it was going to be their last.  And still they went knowing that, they didn't try to turn and run the other way like so many others were. As the Towers were falling they were still going.  And we also keep on going. We are no different here, we would do and are doing the same thing...Why?  Because that is how we were created.  It's not learned as much as you were made to do this, your DNA has IT,

we are cut from a different cloth.  Why does the person next to you comes first?  Your life comes before mine?  WHY?  We may try to act like that ain't so when were not on duty but just let something happen and you will see what I am talking about.  The firefighter, the real firefighter reacts by going towards the danger in an instant to help...doesn't even question it. You know what I mean.  It's just part of our nature, I know I didn't ask for this immense love for my fellow man, I didn't ask to have the need to be drawn to such a breed of men and women like us!  It is so hard to explain to common, "normal" folk why we do what we do, they just don't get it and I know they don't want to get it.  Because when they ask us, "How did your shift go honey"? and you tell them that a child died in your arms because her daddy left the gate unlocked to the pool or how you found a 10 year boy burnt to a crisp still in his bed BUT the parents were outside safe and sound or while cutting a 8 year old girl from Ohio out of the back seat of the car, she keeps asking me is her Mom and Dad okay and you have to lie because in the front seat the headless couple is still there, and the only reply is "Oh, that's too bad," and they keep cooking or watching their favorite tv show.  They don't get it.   Most folks don't want to know what we do....so I guess that is why they call us heroes.  What we share with each other we can't take for granted.  The bond we share is OUR  blessing, it's our strength, the little bit of time we get to share together, we need to take serious.  Because if we ever lose that bond that keeps us together, that keeps us strong.  If we lose that, then who will take care of the rest of humanity?