Andrew Pollack's Blog

Technology, Family, Entertainment, Politics, and Random Noise

This 9/11, Remember more than just the attack

By Andrew Pollack on 09/11/2003 at 09:50 AM EDT

As a firefighter I have some very conflicted thoughts on this anniversary of the September 11th attacks. At the time of the attacks I had just started the process of becoming a volunteer firefighter here in Cumberland. My background check had not been completed, and I hadn't started training and going on runs. I most definitely did not feel like a firefighter, and barely knew the few people on the department I'd met. For me, it may have been the actions of those men we all watched on CNN that gave me the final push to get going. Taking part in the ceremonies that followed, listening to the speeches, and hearing the reaction of the men I was learning from gave me the feeling of an outsider privy to a very private picture.

Some of you know that each month at our supper meetings we stand and honor each firefighter fatality in the course of that month anywhere in the country. We listen to their name, their age, their rank, and the cause of death. Sometimes we are reminded by this of our need for caution, safety, or exercise. Sometimes we are simply humbled by the actions of these men.

Today marks two years since the attacks, and in many respects the act of rebuilding has gone amazingly well. In other respects, we're only just waking up to what was lost. As you go through this day and the rest of the week take some time to think about firefighters and police, the rescue workers, and the families who have suffered direct loss. Think also, however, on the loss of rights and liberties and the potential for suffering that may come as a result. Think also of the thousands held in off-shore prisons run by our military and supposedly "not subject to the jurisdiction" of either world courts or our own. Think also about detainees being denied right to council. Think also about how the budget for "secret" projects within our government continues to skyrocket.

The men and women who died for your freedom and liberties did not die so that you could abdicate that freedom or those rights.

I started this missive saying as the aftermath of September 11th was being dealt with, I did not feel like a firefighter. Today I do. I've trained, I've risked, and I've worked to be part of that community. I'm no hero. I'm not even a very good firefighter yet. But this I will tell you: I will willingly risk myself to save you, if I believe it can help. I will do it knowing the risk I take. In return, I ask only that you do not abdicate the power you have in your own life to make things better for the people around you.


There are  - loading -  comments....

Exceptional Post, Andrew. Well said.By Rock on 06/23/2004 at 11:21 AM EDT
*Excellent post. Thanks for the post and for being a firefighter.By Ben Langhinrichs on 06/23/2004 at 11:21 AM EDT
:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
in response to
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a firefighter I have some very conflicted thoughts on this anniversary of
the September 11th attacks. At the time of the attacks I had just started the
process of becoming a volunteer firefighter here in Cumberland. My background
check had not been completed, and I hadn't started training and going on runs.
I most definitely did not feel like a firefighter, and barely knew the few
people on the department I'd met. For me, it may have been the actions of those
men we all watched on CNN that gave me the final push to get going. Taking part
in the ceremonies that followed, listening to the speeches, and hearing the
reaction of the men I was learning from gave me the feeling of an outsider
privy to a very private picture. Some of you know that each month at our supper
meetings we stand and honor each firefighter fatality in the course of that
month anywhere in the country. We listen to their name, their age, their rank,
and the cause of death. Sometimes we are reminded by this of our need for
caution, safety, or exercise. Sometimes we are simply humbled by the actions of
these men. Today marks two years since the attacks, and in many respects the
act of rebuilding has gone amazingly well. In other respects, we're only just
waking up to what was lost. As you go through this day and the rest of the week
take some time to think about firefighters and police, the rescue workers, and
the families who have suffered direct loss. Think also, however, on the loss of
rights and liberties and the potential for suffering that may come as a result.
Think also of the thousands held in off-shore prisons run by our military and
supposedly "not subject to the jurisdiction" of either world courts or our own.
Think also about detainees being denied right to council. Think also about how
the budget for "secret" projects within our government continues to skyrocket.
The men and women who died for your freedom and liberties did not die so that
you could abdicate that freedom or those rights. I started this missive saying
as the aftermath of September 11th was being dealt with, I did not feel like a
firefighter. Today I do. I've trained, I've risked, and I've worked to be part
of that community. I'm no hero. I'm not even a very good firefighter yet. But
this I will tell you: I will willingly risk myself to save you, if I believe
it can help. I will do it knowing the risk I take. In return, I ask only that
you do not abdicate the power you have in your own life to make things better
for the people around you.
re: This 9/11, Remember more than just the attackBy Carl on 06/23/2004 at 11:21 AM EDT
:Andrew thanks for this great post. It scares me to see the American govenment
taking similar steps to the ones that were taken in Northern Island about 30
years, only to find out many years later it was a big mistake and didn't solve
the problem.

I also appreciate it as a non citizen living in the US, Bush could get his
cronies to come and take me any day and not have to tell anyone why he has me
with the current rules,and that is just plain wrong.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
in response to
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a firefighter I have some very conflicted thoughts on this anniversary of
the September 11th attacks. At the time of the attacks I had just started the
process of becoming a volunteer firefighter here in Cumberland. My background
check had not been completed, and I hadn't started training and going on runs.
I most definitely did not feel like a firefighter, and barely knew the few
people on the department I'd met. For me, it may have been the actions of those
men we all watched on CNN that gave me the final push to get going. Taking part
in the ceremonies that followed, listening to the speeches, and hearing the
reaction of the men I was learning from gave me the feeling of an outsider
privy to a very private picture. Some of you know that each month at our supper
meetings we stand and honor each firefighter fatality in the course of that
month anywhere in the country. We listen to their name, their age, their rank,
and the cause of death. Sometimes we are reminded by this of our need for
caution, safety, or exercise. Sometimes we are simply humbled by the actions of
these men. Today marks two years since the attacks, and in many respects the
act of rebuilding has gone amazingly well. In other respects, we're only just
waking up to what was lost. As you go through this day and the rest of the week
take some time to think about firefighters and police, the rescue workers, and
the families who have suffered direct loss. Think also, however, on the loss of
rights and liberties and the potential for suffering that may come as a result.
Think also of the thousands held in off-shore prisons run by our military and
supposedly "not subject to the jurisdiction" of either world courts or our own.
Think also about detainees being denied right to council. Think also about how
the budget for "secret" projects within our government continues to skyrocket.
The men and women who died for your freedom and liberties did not die so that
you could abdicate that freedom or those rights. I started this missive saying
as the aftermath of September 11th was being dealt with, I did not feel like a
firefighter. Today I do. I've trained, I've risked, and I've worked to be part
of that community. I'm no hero. I'm not even a very good firefighter yet. But
this I will tell you: I will willingly risk myself to save you, if I believe
it can help. I will do it knowing the risk I take. In return, I ask only that
you do not abdicate the power you have in your own life to make things better
for the people around you.


Other Recent Stories...

  1. 01/26/2023Better Running VirtualBox or VMWARE Virtual Machines on Windows 10+ Forgive me, Reader, for I have sinned. I has been nearly 3 years since my last blog entry. The truth is, I haven't had much to say that was worthy of more than a basic social media post -- until today. For my current work, I was assigned a new laptop. It's a real powerhouse machine with 14 processor cores and 64 gigs of ram. It should be perfect for running my development environment in a virtual machine, but it wasn't. VirtualBox was barely starting, and no matter how many features I turned off, it could ...... 
  2. 04/04/2020How many Ventilators for the price of those tanks the Pentagon didn't even want?This goes WAY beyond Trump or Obama. This is decades of poor planning and poor use of funds. Certainly it should have been addressed in the Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Reagan administrations -- all of which were well aware of the implications of a pandemic. I want a military prepared to help us, not just hurt other people. As an American I expect that with the ridiculous funding of our military might, we are prepared for damn near everything. Not just killing people and breaking things, but ...... 
  3. 01/28/2020Copyright Troll WarningThere's a copyright troll firm that has automated reverse-image searches and goes around looking for any posted images that they can make a quick copyright claim on. This is not quite a scam because it's technically legal, but it's run very much like a scam. This company works with a few "clients" that have vast repositories of copyrighted images. The trolls do a reverse web search on those images looking for hits. When they find one on a site that looks like someone they can scare, they work it like ...... 
  4. 03/26/2019Undestanding how OAUTH scopes will bring the concept of APPS to your Domino server 
  5. 02/05/2019Toro Yard Equipment - Not really a premium brand as far as I am concerned 
  6. 10/08/2018Will you be at the NYC Launch Event for HCL Domino v10 -- Find me! 
  7. 09/04/2018With two big projects on hold, I suddenly find myself very available for new short and long term projects.  
  8. 07/13/2018Who is HCL and why is it a good thing that they are now the ones behind Notes and Domino? 
  9. 03/21/2018Domino Apps on IOS is a Game Changer. Quit holding back. 
  10. 02/15/2018Andrew’s Proposed Gun Laws 
Click here for more articles.....


pen icon Comment Entry
Subject
Your Name
Homepage
*Your Email
* Your email address is required, but not displayed.
 
Your thoughts....
 
Remember Me  

Please wait while your document is saved.