"Let's Roll...."

"You ready? Okay. Let's roll.." Those were the last words that we heard from hero, Todd Beamer, before he joined Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick and others in an organized effort to take control of a hi-jacked plane and save the lives of hundreds of people. 

Do you remember where you were when.......? I was sitting in my office at a treatment facility for people with Opioid Addiction in West Reading, PA, where I was the Lead Counselor. Another counselor named Dennis suddenly appeared in the doorway. That wasn't unusual. Dennis frequently stopped by to chat for a minute between counseling sessions. "I just got a call from my wife," He told me. "She said that two planes just clipped the top of the Twin Towers. They don't know whether it was an accident or terrorism." He said all this in a casual, nonchalant way. I instantly thought of the terrorist bombing of the Twin Towers in 1993, but this didn't sound as serious.

About an hour and a half later, I was walking into the chart room when the nurse practitioner came flying down a nearby staircase in a panic. "Do you know what is happening?" She breathlessly asked me. "No, what's happening?" I nervously replied, thinking that there was some type of crisis going on in the clinic. "The Twin Towers just collapsed!" She exclaimed. "They are gone!"  "What??" I gasped, in utter shock. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Now, I can't believe that its been twenty-five years since it happened. 

For the rest of the day, we kept our radios on in our offices to stay tuned to what was happening in our nation. Still in the office early that evening, I experienced a bit of hysteria. For some reason, they broadcasted the sounds of bombing in Afghanistan. Two words flashed through my mind at that moment - NUCLEAR WAR. Those were the two words that were constantly looming over the heads of my generation as we grew up. We were always being told that there were enough nuclear weapons to blow the world up fifteen times and that if they were launched, no one would survive. I was certain that if they attacked us and we were attacking them back, a nuclear war was on the verge of breaking out. I dashed down the staircase and out the door. I started driving home very fast. Somehow, I could accept the idea that the world was about to end, as long as I was in the right place when it happened. I had to get home to be with Mom! My only fear was that I wouldn't get there in time. 

"It's times like these that show us what we're made of." That's what Charles tells his daughter, Laura, in an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" in which Charles gets accidentally shot in the middle of the woods and Laura must go for help. September 11, 2001 was a paradox because on the same day that we saw the worst in humanity, we also saw the best in it. An act of unimaginable evil was met with an outpouring of goodness and compassion from first responders and people who stepped up to help those in need. A few weeks after the tragedy, I cut a bunch of pictures out of magazines to make a poster. The pictures were of all the ways in which people were helping each other on that horrific day. One picture was of a man carrying an injured woman out of the Pentagon. Another was of people digging through the rubble at Ground Zero trying to find survivors. There was a picture of dogs who were helping the rescuers in their search. The rubble was hard on the dogs' paws so someone made tiny boots to put on the dogs' feet. One of the pictures was of Robin Williams rolling up his sleeves as he joined a bunch of other celebrities who were donating blood. There was some kind of a hot dog or Braut Wurst company from Wisconsin, who came down to make food for the rescuers. However, the most memorable act of service and heroism took place among passengers aboard a flight from Newark to San Francisco called Flight 93. 

If anyone was justified in throwing up their hands and saying, "There's nothing we can do", it would be the passengers on that plane. They were being controlled by men with knives and bombs who had killed two pilots and steered the plane toward Washington, DC. They knew about what happened to the other planes. What made them think that they could take back control in such a hopeless situation? How did they have the presence of mind to do the planning and coordinating that they did? How much courage did it take to carry out a plan knowing that they were probably going to die while doing it? I never knew until recently that one of the men crashing through the door of the cock-pit was gay. When he broke through that door, Mark Bingham simultaneously broke down many of the stereotypes that people had about gay men. Knowing that he was facing the greatest challenge in his life, Todd Beamer asked the 9-1-1 operator to pray with him, and together they said the "Our Father". 

Whether they are real or imaginary, crises teach us what is most important in life. We should all begin every day doing what Todd Beamer and the 9-1-1 Operator did, because we never know what kind of challenges we will be faced with on what starts out as an ordinary, run-of-the-mill day. There are no guarantees - not even that you or your loved ones will still be alive at the end of it. Life is too short for grudges.

Twenty-five years later, the threats are bigger than ever. Our climate is doing scary things. A news story can sound like the theme of a science fiction movie - AI could wipe out the human race in ten years??? In the midst of all this darkness, I hold onto the memory of those brave, selfless people aboard Flight 93 as a beacon of light and hope. They showed us that even when things seem completely hopeless, there may still be something we can do, and it could make a big difference. They refused to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. They showed us the power of gathering with others and putting our heads together to solve a problem. They used everything at their disposal including coffee puts full of hot water. Instead of thinking of themselves they were thinking of others. They fought for people they didn't even know and they fought for them with everything they had. They showed us the type of people who we were created to be.  

We may not be called today to perform heroic acts that save lives. Like the 9-1-1 Operator, we may just be called to be a support for those who are. We may only be called to make food for hungry people or boots for dogs with sore paws. But don't worry, there will be plenty to do. You ready? Okay. Let's roll....