Ordinary people

Good morning to all of you.  I don't have to tell you that today is 9/11, one of the most memorable days in our nation's history.

There are a few dates that stand out, where just the mention of them reminds of the events that happened that day, whether good or bad.  Regardless, they live forever in our mind and will forever.

July 4th, December 7th, and of course today, September 11th or as we so often refer to it, 9/11.

As I was finishing my coffee this morning, I was on my phone.  I had just finished talking to my mother and was checking email.  I noticed I had a message on Instagram and checked it.  There were two Messages from my good friend Allison Blair.  The first message was a video she had forwarded, the second just contained two words, "Must watch."

It has been written that 9/11 we saw the worst of humanity and at the same time the best of humanity.  What our Canadian friends did in handling hundreds of jumbo jets that were not being allowed in the United States, and the wonderful citizens of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and others did in taking thousands of people into their homes, people they had never met, is extraordinary.  For three days they housed them, fed them, and gave them a place that was safe.  Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.  As Americans we will always be grateful.

But the video Allison sent was about another aspect of 9/11 and is no less incredible.  Once again, this time ordinary Americans rose to an immediate need, an immediate cry for help, and did a most extraordinary thing.

After the two planes hit the World Trade Center and following their subsequent collapse, lower Manhattan became an island.  The highways were closed, the subway had stopped, the tunnels to Long Island were closed, every airport in the United States was shut down.  Citizens were pretty much on their own.

Many people, in trying to escape the immediate WTC area headed south, to the banks of the Atlantic and Hudson River.

In the video, the Coast Guard puts out a plea for help.  Anyone with a boat please come to a designated spot, to help carry the distressed citizens to safety.

More than 150 vessels responded.  Tugboats, FDNY fire boats, ferries, commercial vessels, and scores of ordinary citizens in their private vessels all responded immediately to the Coast Guard cry for help.

Over the next nine hours, it is estimated that between 500,000 and one million individuals were evacuated from Lower Manhattan.  From a Staten Island ferry capable of hauling 6,000 souls, to rubber dinghies that carried three.  It was the largest evacuation since Dunkirk.  In fact, history tells us it took nine days to evacuate 350,000 at Dunkirk,  In New York, it took nine hours.

I hope you have opportunity to watch the video.  It is narrated by Tom Hanks and is about 15 minutes.  Not long.  In their own words, ordinary people recalling a day when they did something truly extraordinary