The Heroes of Sept 11: My reflection at Fellowship on the 10 year anniversary

On September 11, 2001 a total of 2,893 people, excluding the high-jackers, died in the World Trade Center. 2,482 of those people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were tragic victims, people like any of us, who went to work that day with the expectation of returning to their homes and families that night, but instead perished in the attacks on our country.

There were 411 other people from New York killed that day who fall into a different category than victim: the heroes from emergency services who chose to rush into the place where everyone else with any sense was racing to get out of.

It takes a special type of person to run into a burning building. You have to push aside your fear, defy every survival instinct that you have, to deliberately place yourself in circumstances that could kill you as you try to save another. Yet that’s exactly what those 411 brave men and women did. Not just because it was their job and they had to: many firefighters already off shift choose to jump on a truck instead of leave, or responded to the Towers even though they were off duty. As the situation deteriorated they sensed they weren’t coming back out: before entering many firefighters received quick absolutions from two Catholic priests, and then they went into the burning towers.

On that horrible day FDNY lost 340 firefighters, 2 paramedics & a much loved FDNY priest. NYPD lost 23 officers, Port Authority PD lost 37 plus a K-9 officer. Eight EMTs & paramedics from private or hospital based ambulances also died. They died in the line of duty, attempting to save others. Their deaths account for 15% of the casualties—a high number for a group who deliberately chose to put themselves in danger. There are many stories of their heroism that day. They are the embodiment of the verse from the Talmud “whoever saves a life it is as if he saved the entire world.”

More of these brave men and women continue to die every day, suffering from the consequences of their tireless work at the destroyed WTC site. They also deserve our praise and recognition, their sacrifice for the greater good.

Ordinary people also gave up their lives for others as the Towers collapsed. There are many stories of co-workers, or even strangers, staying with someone who was injured or moved slowly, giving up their own chance to escape. We will never know how many people made decisions in those last moments that cost them their lives because they were caring or comforting another. They are the unknown heroes.

Webster defines a hero as : ‘A person of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger…a prominent or central personage in any remarkable action or event…’ The passengers and crew of Flight 93 personify this definition. They learned of the other attacks from cell phone conversations to their loved ones, they knew their plane would be used to take more lives, and rather than sit passively, or hope for a last-second rescue, they collectively took matters into their own hands, knowingly sacrificed themselves to prevent their plane from being used as yet another missile. They were the first Americans to defend their country on that terrible day, fulfilling a verse from John 15: “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”


Let us pause a moment to recognize the sacrifice of these Heroes of 9/11.