9-11 Service Day

9/11 to be a national service day. Click on the image on that page to enlarge.

No, damn it, No !!

We have 364 other days to be service days. This day, this one day out of the year, has been and will continue to be set aside for one purpose only, and that one purpose is to stop and remember the firefighters, police and EMS workers who gave their lives in the attacks on this day, and all the innocent victims of those attacks in New York City, Washington DC, and Shanksville Pa.

I have no argument with a service day, I guess, but I have to admit that if someone gives service on only one day, then they might want to reconsider the rest of the year and what might be done on all those other days. But aside from that snarky thought, this one day, 9/11, is NOT the day for this. This day is sacred to many of us, a day of deep sorrow and mourning over all of those who gave so very much for others, who lived up to the pledge that they made when they signed on as firefighters or police or EMS. "Others before self", "The Finest" or "The Bravest"....whichever one you want to recall, they all did what they felt had to be done to save others. And Mr Beemer and the other passengers in the plane over Pa, who knew what was happening, decided what had to be done to prevent another disaster, and did it, giving up their own lives in their actions. All of these men and women deserve at least this one day, this one 24 hour period that is theirs and theirs alone. It must not be diluted into a feel-good day of service, but kept as a solemn day of remembrance in their honor and a day to recall what heroism really is.