This post has nothing to do about blogging – except that in writing about a topic close to my heart, I’m really writing about the core essence of blogging.
I’m in New York City on a two day trip – and as I believe is appropriate when visiting the greatest city in the world – one should take a few moments to visit the hole in the ground that once held two of the tallest buildings in the world – and where nearly 3,000 of my fellow citizens were killed. Nearly 400 of which were police, firemen, and other rescue personnel.
No matter one’s political view – 9/11 is an event that has changed many of our lives – personally, professionally, and spiritually in many cases. It’s hard to fathom or think back to a time before 9/11 and how things were different, almost more innocent perhaps.
One photo and story that has always stuck with me about 9/11 is this picture that I first saw months after 9/11 in Dennis Smith’s book Report from Ground Zero.
It’s a photo of Lt. Ray Murphy of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). He was walking away from the cameraman following the collapse of the first WTC Tower. He was shaken and probably felt lucky to be alive. He had just recovered from that tower collapse and was headed into the still standing WTC tower in order to help others.
He was killed in the collapse of that tower.
This picture has always reminded me of both heroism and sacrifice given freely by the men and women of the FDNY, NYPD, PAPD, and others that day —
In the end, I think we all have the responsibility to remember what happened that day – to us – to our fellow man – here in our own country.
A few weeks ago, while having coffee with a dear friend in Minneapolis, our conversation steered towards the impact of September 11th on our lives – both personally and professionally.
She pulled out her PDA – tapped on it a few times – and spun it around so that I could read it.
It was her calendar – turned to September 11th, 2006 – and it showed just one word:
Remember
Yesterday, at St. Paul’s Chapel just across the street from the World Trade Center, at the memorial wall where one could leave a note.. I scrawled my own simple reminder to myself.
I have not forgotten.
I’m not really sure why I chose to post this here… except to say that sometimes we all get caught up and emotional about things like “Blog Network Wars” and “Who’s business model is better than another’s?” or “Why isn’t Karl Rove indicted?”.
The reality is that none of that really matters. And one only has to visit the World Trade Center to understand why.
