The Heroes of 911

Eight years ago, we discovered what we should have already known without the tragedy of that day. We learned that there are superheroes and they do not wear their underwear over their tights and don capes. The superheroes are very regular people called to rise to new heights of strength by new depths of evil.

            On September 11, news of heroically selfless acts abounded. Firefighters rushing up the stairs of the World Trade Center in full turn out gear ready to battle a jet-fueled inferno in the midst of the upper floors of two of the world’s tallest buildings. Policemen fought to maintain order in the chaos as thousands of New Yorkers tried to find a way to retreat from an attack on impossibly large scale. In the cavern below the towers, Catholic priest and firefighter chaplain Mychal Judge was killed as he administered last rites to a firefighter. Inside the Pentagon, soldiers dug through the debris in an unstable building to reach their co-workers as terrorism struck he heart of our command and control center for war. And in a plane high over Pennsylvania, airline passengers took national defense into their own hands knowingly courting death to stop their jet from being used as a missile to attack our capitol.

            As news of that day unfolded, we heard again and again how ordinary people found extraordinary courage. Jesus said, “No greater love has no man for this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” And on that day when thousands of lives were taken by brutally senseless acts of violence, hundreds of lives were freely offered in service to others.

            In the daze that followed those attacks, the New York Fire Department, police department and other first responders were extolled for their heroism. Around the country, many found a new respect for their own local fire and police departments. Much of that passion has cooled, but the selfless work of those men and women who keep the thin blue and red lines of protection strong continues.

            We the people moved on to commend our heroes who wore Kevlar rather than capes as our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were called again to combat in distant lands. No matter where we stood on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we tried to find ways to support those called to fight or to stand the watch in service of our nation. But in time, the signs of support have largely waned. Even though Americans almost to a person still want those in the military to know we have their backs, the “Support our Troops” stickers have faded and not been replaced.

            The problem is that the work of emergency services and military personnel grinds on day by day. Most days a policeman or firefighter will not need to call on extraordinary courage to charge once more into the breach knowing his or her life is at risk. But every domestic dispute and traffic stop has the potential for a lethal outcome as does every house or car fire. One never knows which one of these encounters will prove deadly. The same is true for patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan.

            And so those who serve in law enforcement, emergency services and the military are not called on frequently to lay down their lives in one great act of self sacrifice on behalf of others like we saw on September 11, 2001. Instead, they are called on to lay down their lives one day at a time in small acts of serving others.

The DUI stop that prevents unnecessary suffering is an act of service and being out in the middle of the night to make it means a sacrifice for the police officer and his or her loved ones. For the families of those deployed on submarines, that feeling of giving up your husband or father for months at a time is all too familiar. The selflessness is required not just of those who serve, but their families who support them in that service to our nation.

On this eighth anniversary, I do not mark the violence of the day or the terror that it caused. Instead, I choose to point out the selfless acts of bravery that made that tragic day great. Some of our ardor in support of those who serve day by day has cooled. We should not let it do so. For what 911 revealed is how many otherwise ordinary Americans were trained and at the ready to stand up to extraordinary evil by laying down their lives for others.

Jesus taught by both word and example a love that is more concerned about someone else than with ones own life. Jesus would not give up on that love even when the cost was pain and death.

Please don’t hear me saying that a policeman, firefighter or soldier is doing something so great as Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. It would take more space than I have here to make those distinctions clear in how the sinless Jesus took on our sin in order to purchase our redemption. But do know that anytime someone lays down his or her life for another, that act of selflessness points to the foot of the cross.

Those who are called to this sort of service rarely have to lay down their lives in one great act. Instead, they lay down their lives day by day shift by shift. In that way it is usually the same as with the nurses, doctors, teachers, and many others whose jobs are a service to others. The difference is that I am writing of careers that carry built within them the likelihood of danger, and the possibility of death, on any given shift. This is true for the sailors who work in the silent depths of the sea, the firefighters who charge into the flames and the police who kick in the door.

Those who stand in these roles need our support day-by-day and week-by-week. We don’t get to stand and applaud and then walk away forgetting their selflessness. They deserve our ongoing respect. This is the debt we owe to the heroes of 911 who revealed hidden heights of bravery and goodness on a day filled with evil.

            (The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia.)

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