(September 12, 2016 at 2:46 pm)abaris Wrote: Yeah, I saw that. Tasteless doesn't even cut it. But hey, everything to make a buck, isn't it. Although I guess that one backfired like a bottlecap mine.
(September 12, 2016 at 2:45 pm)Lek Wrote: I think much of the emphasis in remembering 9-11 is in the wrong place. The civilians who died in the towers, as a whole, were not heroes.
Sure, and that makes it even more tragic. The firemen and police officers weren't heroes by choice either. Some committed themselves to saving others, which makes them heroes in my world. Trying to save lives by putting your own on the lines is always heroism.
But they were there by choice. They joined their services voluntarily. And while I don't know police protocol, as a firefighter I was trained that you need not, and indeed should not, enter a building threatening collapse. The firefighters in there were there pursuing their duty beyond what was called for by their protocol; they gave their lives, almost certainly knowingly, and that commands my solemn respect.
They didn't have to be inside. That they were is a measure of their devotion to duty.
Anyone got a Kleenex? I'm leaking a little.
