It goes without saying that there is a different breed of hero that thinks it's nothing more than part of their job to run into danger. Whether it's a soldier on patrol in a war zone who runs into a hail of bullets to save a fellow countryman or a police officer who reaches into a burning car to pull out an injured victim. This is true of firefighters everywhere, in my personal opinion. I remember growing up all the firemen and women I ever met, thinking that they were put together in some factory somewhere out of old machine parts and installed with superhero powers. It seemed that they had a character that matched no other. They were gentle, kind, friendly, generous, and jovial, but when the alarms sounded, nothing else mattered than getting to the danger and extinguishing it as quickly as they could with no loss of life. I saw pictures of them fighting fires in the heat of summer and seeing icicles grow longer off their trucks as they worked to kill the flames on a sub-zero winter day.
Yesterday, a piece of steel from one of the twin towers was dedicated here in Monroe to all those heroes and first responders who never thought about what could have happened on that terrible day. They had no other goal than to help out wherever they could to rescue the stranded and contain the destruction. Molten steel, falling glass, burning bodies, and everything else unimaginable to us at the time was raining down upon them as they kept running into the fire. When I saw this hulking and rusting artifact, I noticed the bent rivets in the side and thought about the sacrifice those brave souls gave in order to save those they never met. I tried to capture a feeling with the photo, pay respect to them, and thank them for their duties, at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment