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New York Values: Remembering a Hero
When Peggy Noonan is good … she is very very good.
In today’s WSJ Opinion column, Ms. Noonan recounts the story of Welles Crowther on that fateful day, now 15 years ago, with her poignant article … Remembering A Hero 15 Years After 9/11
Talk about a much needed perspective in our otherwise gloomy world. The anniversary of 9/11 and the reflections on the heroism and innate goodness of the majority of the ordinary people of this great country helps to prioritize what is really important in life.
A time to put divisions and politics aside for a weekend. A couple of excerpts:
Published in GeneralHe was 24, from Nyack, N.Y. He played lacrosse at Boston College, graduated and got an internship at Sandler O’Neill, the investment bank. In two years he was a junior associate on the trading desk. He worked in the south tower of the World Trade Center, on the 104th floor.
When United Flight 175 hit that tower at 9:03 a.m., it came in at a tilt, ripping through floors 78 through 84. Many of those who never got out were on those floors, or the ones above. Welles Crowther had already called his mother, Alison, and left a voicemail: “I want you to know that I’m OK.” Only one stairwell was clear. He found it. Most people would have run for their lives, but he started running for everyone else’s …
Judy Wein of Aon Corporation had also been in the 78th floor. She too was badly injured and she too heard the voice: “Everyone who can stand now, stand now. If you can help others, do so.” He guided her and others to the stairwell.
Apparently Welles kept leading people down from the top floors to the lower ones, where they could make their way out. Then he’d go up to find more. No one knows how many. The fire department credits him with five saved lives …
As a child, Welles Crowther had wanted to be a fireman. Few knew he’d decided to apply for the FDNY while he was still at Sandler. After his father found his application the department did something it had done only once in the 141 years since its founding. It made Welles an honorary member …
People see the fallen, beat-up world around them and ask: What can I do? Maybe: Be like Welles Crowther. Take your bandanna, change the world.
This is what Americans do at their best. This is what we are capable of when the need is there.
These are the people we need to honor.
I was on a plane out of LaGuardia on 9/10/01, and saw the towers in the skyline as we took off and gained altitude.
Over the next few days news of friends who were gone dribbled in. The rage and sadness will never leave, just diminish in intensity.
Americans step up, not kneel down. Americans give a hand , not shrink in fear of pretended offense. Americans run into the fire to save others, whether it is in a building in New York , a plane in the air or a train in France.
Occasionally we get leaders who believe America is great because of the people who are Americans. It has been a while.
Thank you for bringing this story to Ricochet.
Thanks Columbo. There are no greater people than Americans. May God bless us.
Oh my . . . Oh my.
I hadn’t read this piece yet. Thank you.
Powerfully stated. Sadly true. One can hope.
I was also moved by her article. I cried in my morning coffee.
The horrors never seem to stop coming from these terrorists:
Wonderful.
Thanks, Columbo, tales of courage like this are certainly needed today.
Peggy Noonan wrote amazing articles after 9/11 – I printed some and kept – Welcome Back Duke was one. She lived in the thick of it and saw the aftermath for years to come.
Among the muck and mire of this year’s political campaigns, this piece reminded me of why American and it’s people are great and strong. Flawed candidates come and go, but the kindness and generosity of our citizen’s character remains.
Hats off to you Peggy.
If you haven’t, go and read the whole column. It really gives context to the bandanna comment. What a great and honorable young man.
Thank you, Columbo.
God Bless America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWKPjSirbcU
Thank you @johnniealum13 for adding this beautiful video testimony of this most awesome display of selfless love. Welles Crowther truly personified the second greatest commandment.
I start to cry after the first line of that ESPN piece: “What would you do in the last hour of your life.”
@columbo & @johnniealum13: Thank you both for the remembrance and the video.