Notes of Concern…
…Jackson Blair
APPROACH / AVOIDANCE
I wanted to write again this week on the “9/11” commemoration we had in our country last week. I recognize that we have all been exposed to a lot of written and televised material on this event. It has brought back unsettling memories.
It is good for us to be unsettled at times.
As I was watching some of the re-running of actual footage from that horrible morning in downtown New York City, it occurred to me that I was witnessing two very significant human reactions.
On the one hand thousands of people were running away from The World Trade Center. You could see them in the pictures. Some were walking, some were running, some were covered with ash, some were wounded, but the mass of people was making every effort to put distance between them and the horror of that day.
They avoided the danger.
On the other hand, hundreds of people were moving toward The World Trade Center as it was burning and smoke was billowing up the sides. These people were firemen, police and first responders.
They approached the danger.
The second group, those moving toward and into the towers were people who had chosen careers that required not only courage but a willingness to encounter danger in the hope of saving lives. Of course, they were especially trained. They knew what to do. Certainly, they gambled against the odds but they knew they were trained and experienced and had a good chance to actually help people in trouble.
So some people reacted humanly, normally and predictably. They fled the danger.
Other people reacted as they were trained; with high hopes and dedication they approached and entered the danger zone.
What separates these groups of human beings?
At the end of the day, not a great deal.
All of them sought and accepted jobs. All of them had hopes and expectations of the future. All of them had loved ones. None of them had done any harm to Muslims or to Middle Eastern people as a whole. All of them were trained for the work they did and, as far as we know, they all went to work on September 11, 2001. They didn’t know they had enemies who wanted to kill them.
The group of people we saw avoiding, or running from danger, had been at work, doing their jobs, and followed instructions and instinct to get out of harms way.
The group of people we saw approaching danger were at work, doing their jobs, following instinct and instructions to save lives.
A third group of people was left without choice. They were imprisoned above the point of impact, on floors above the flame and smoke. We know now they had no hope. But when the professionals approached and entered the towers it was with the sure knowledge that the only hope they had rested with those brave firemen, police and first responders. If they had all chosen to avoid danger and to escape the Twin Tower area, they would have left everyone who died with no hope, they would have betrayed their chosen professions and, more importantly, they would have had to turn their backs on everything they previously believed about the importance of their work.
Those civilians who died had no choice.
Those civilians who fled the Twin Towers had a choice.
Those professionals who entered the towers in the hope of saving others also had a choice.
We all must commend them for the choice they made that day. And we must never forget any of them, or the families and loved ones they left behind.
It was a dramatic example of giving one’s life so that others might live.
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