Today I hope you take at least a few moments to remember our fellow Americans who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on our nation eight years ago.
In the years since, we have seen life change in many ways as a result of those attacks. Some of those changes have been good, some have been frustrating at best, and in many cases they have been downright aggravating. Homeland Security started as a way to protect us from the madmen of the world, but seems to have deteriorated into just another huge bureaucracy that accomplishes far less than it complicates.
In one way or another, we all have been affected by the events of that terrible day. It’s harder to board an airliner, or to ship a package, or even do such mundane things as renewing your driver’s license or opening a bank account. While our nation’s southern border remains as porous as a sieve, senior citizens who spend a day in Mexican border towns getting cheap dental work and eyeglasses, and stocking up on booze and Viagra, face long lines crossing back into the U.S. as Customs agents scrutinize them looking for anyone who may actually be an Al-Qaeda operative in grandma disguise.
Of course, nobody’s lives have been affected as much as those of the families of the people who were killed in the attacks. While I sympathize with them, and while it still enrages me that it happened, I do have to say that I also take offense to the common practice of calling those who were lost, heroes. They were not heroes. They were victims.
There is nothing heroic about getting on a commuter train and going to work in an office building. Because your desk happens to be in the path of some religious zealot who hijacks an airplane and flies it into your window does not make you a hero. It makes you a victim. It doesn’t make your death any less painful to those who loved you, or any less a tragedy. But you didn’t do anything heroic.
There were heroes on 9/11. The firemen and police officers who rushed into those burning buildings to save lives, and lost their own in the process, were heroes. Many of them had to know that their chances of making it back out were very slim, but still they charged forward, trying to rescue whoever they could. That’s heroic.
The passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who took action and brought their aircraft down in a rural Pennsylvania field to keep it from hitting whatever target the hijackers were heading for, were heroes. But even then, we must keep in mind that almost certainly some, perhaps most, of the passengers on that airplane did not take part in the attempt to wrest control of the cockpit away from the terrorists. Those passengers were also victims, not heroes.
Every day police officers face dangers. They never know when the next routine traffic stop will be somebody wired on drugs, who would rather gun them down than take a ticket, or which domestic violence call will find them looking down the wrong end of a gun barrel. They are heroes. But we expect that. Cops get killed sometimes.
Every day, young American servicemen and women are putting their lives on the line for us, and every week we lose a few. They are heroes. However, their deaths seem to be almost taken for granted by some. People die in wars.
People don’t usually die while sitting in an office chair. But when they do, that doesn’t make them heroes.
Yet, when an American soldier, a hero, dies in combat, his or her family can expect a few thousand dollars in compensation. On average, the families of the civilian victims of 9/11 received over $3 million dollars, according to a 2005 RAND report. That just doesn’t seem right to me. What do you think?
Tags: 9/11 terrorist attacks, 9/11 victims, aircraft, airplane hijackers, Al-Qaeda operative, American servicemen, American soldier, board an airliner, bureaucracy, commuter train, Customs agents, domestic violence, firemen, hero, hijackers, Homeland Security, Mexican border towns, opening a bank account, police officers, religious zealot, renewing your driver’s license, rescue workers, routine traffic stop, senior citizens, ship a package, terrorists, United Airlines Flight 93, victim
[...] Bad Nick has some thoughts about 9/11 that may not be politically correct, but then again, when is he ever politically correct? Read his thoughts at They Were Not Heroes. [...]
Nick, I have often wondered why these people got $3mil per family for this terrorist attack and fully agree with you on this.
I also don’t understand why the people in New Orleans when Katrina hit still have their hands out for more money. I was raised in a coal mining area and 15 mines closed within 3 years and thousands of miners were out of work. These people picked themselves up and got other jobs, moved to where jobs were and got on with their lives. They didn’t expect or wait for the Federal Gov’t to support them for many years. Guess who I have the most respect for.
It is time for people to take responsibility for their own lives and not wait for a handout.
I have to agree Nick. The heroes were those firefighter’s and a few of the people in the towers that helped to get other’s out, and the passenger’s on the flight that fought for control. As you say, and rightly so, the others were victims of a horrible tragedy.
The money the survivor’s and their family’s received was as I understood to be compensation for the loss and tragedy. It was a lot in some cases, especially compared to the solder’s that die for out country and the families left behind who get a pittance.
I know some would say that is life even unfair at times. But that is life, not always fair and not always equal.
I have to agree with you, and those victims, all they got was death. It has left a scar on this country that will never go away. It only gave the government another excuse to go to war, spend out tax dollars needlessly, put our young men at risk, and have an excuse to create fear in our lives that we don’t need.
All of you are right on target. I also agree about the folks in New Orleans. Guess what — it wasn’t hit as hard as Mississippi and the other Gulf Coast communities. Those areas are moving on without whinning. It IS past time folks take responsibility for themselves. I think a lot of people in this country are starting to look at those outstretched hands with some pretty dark thoughts.
One thing for sure — our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are heros for being there where stepping out of a tent can get them killed. It makes no matter what the politics are they are serving their country and right now they are in a war. The shameful thing is how our country treats our armed forces personnel — low pay, substandard medical help, and failure to admit when they have been exposed to chemicals or acknowledge for decades about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS) and its health related issues. Not to mention the number of times they have been used, without their knowledge, as test subjects for various medical experiments. Also shameful, is treating our disabled vets to long drawn out appeals for higher benefits. Their medical histories prior to service, during service and after service are put under microscopes with vague explanations as to why their symptoms can’t be proven to have anything to do with the years they were in the military. Yet, another vet with the same exact circumstances will have his approved. Those appealing with PTSS are required to tell every incident in detail that they experienced which could have led to this. Most listening to these horrendous events never served in war time conditions except at a desk. Their minds cannot visualize the bloody pictures being described to them by those men and women being forced to relive these events. They have not lived with daily fight or flight reactions for one to two years. But those telling the story hear the gunfire, smell the blood, re-experience the fear and see the body parts of their friends at their feet along with brains splattered on themselves. All this in living color and real time in their minds. Depending upon the number of appeals a vet files, these stories sometimes need to be repeated two to three times to different “experts”. A friend of mine wanted to stop the process after his first encounter regurgitating his experiences and receiving a denial. Friends and private doctors kept supporting him and stood behind him through two more appeals so that he has now reached 40% disability for his Viet Nam service. He has had to re-live his experiences three times now. I’ve seen him after these retellings. Our heros should not have to be repeatedly victimized by their own country.
The one thing I remember most after the attacks was how all countries of the world came to our aid and support. Wait, what was I thinking. No country ever came to our aid and support. A few sent there condolences but not a dime or a helping hand that I ever heard of. We always go to the aid of other countries; they never come to our aid. Any time there is a earthquake, tsunami, or other natural or man made disaster in the world we are there with money and a helping hand.
As usual Nick your spot on in what you say. To Gary I agree with most of what you say with one exception Canada sent fire,police and red cross personnel and equipment to help and possibly financial aid I am not sure on that part.
Nick,
Could not agree with you more. It seems like we’ve forgotten the true definition of a Hero.
What we dislike in the heroization, if that’s a word, of football players, baseball players, basketball players, etc. who earn millions of dollars a year playing boys’ games. And they are called “football heroes” for catching a ball coming right at them.
You’re on the mark, Nick. You always are.
It has always bothered me when the victims of 9-11 got such cash
payoffs,and me being ex-military knowing how little comp.was paid
to the families of military that were killed doing their jobs in the pentagon!I guess so many felt America was at fault for the
whole thing,many still do,Dumb,Dumb,Dumb Remember-It’s not what
our country can do for you but what we can all do for her!Those
Heros Payed with their lives !THANKS
Nick,
Again you are right on.
Thanks.
Cal
Thanks for the honest reflection today, Nick. I took your definition of a hero to school today and shared it with my elementary-aged kids who were too young to remember 2001. They get it. But what they don’t get who wins when we go to war. Sure would like your help on that one!
Laura, the sad truth, of course, is that while there may be victors and those who are vanquished in a war, nobody really wins.
Nick, you are a day ahead on the date of your article. If I remember right this happened on 9/11/01.
Gary may not remember, but the day of 9-11 there was 33,000 people in the air that were not allowed to land in the USA. Here is the quote of Pres. Bush:
President Bush offered a belated “thank you” to Canada on Wednesday for helping Americans in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, as he wrapped up a two-day visit aimed at warming frosty ties between the neighboring nations.
Noting that some 33,000 passengers on diverted U.S. commercial flights got stuck in Canada on Sept. 11, Mr. Bush said, “Canadians came to the aid of men and women and children who were worried and confused with nowhere to eat and sleep.”
“How does a person say thank you to a nation?” he said. “Well, that’s something a president can do. So let me say directly to the Canadian people … Thank you for your kindness to America in an hour of need.”
CBS News.
Actually, Paul, I posted it on the 11th my local time in Indiana, but apparently the computer time was set to the Mountain Time Zone, so it shows it as being posted on the 10th.
Nick I totally agree with you. But one thing that was missing in this discussion is each family recevied money based upon the “worth” of their missing loved one. How unfair and morally wrong is that? If we are going to be giving money to family members, why not an equal amount? Is a Wall street trader worth more to his/her family than the maintenece worker? What ever happened to all men (and women) are created equal? Congress should be ashamed of themselves for making decisions based upon a person’s financial worth, rather than on basic humanity.