The Face of Courage

 Last night I watched a show on the History Channel called "102 Minutes That Changed America". The show was a collection of videos shot by witnesses in New York City on 9/11 from the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center until the collapse of the second tower. There was no narration, no interviews, no commercials...just raw footage spliced together from people who just happened to be there.

Right after the first tower collapsed and the dust had started to settle a little, there was a group of firemen walking towards the rubble. The camera panned across their faces and the look of shock and disbelief was unmistakable. They were beginning to realize that a lot of their friends and fellow firemen had just lost their lives. But they picked up their equipment and started walking anyway. They didn't know what they were going to find, they knew the second tower could collapse on them at any minute but they kept walking anyway. With hundreds of panicked people running by them in the other direction, they kept walking towards the biggest nightmare they had ever encountered.

These men showed us what true courage was that day. They put their lives on the line after seeing first hand what the cost might be. Sometimes, saying a simple "Thank You" just isn't enough.