QUOTE: Originally posted by paulnchamp
We must never forget - and we must never let it happen again.
Let's also remember (and thank!) Canada, who opened her borders
and airports to hundreds of our aircraft who had nowhere else to
land on that dark day.
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Thanks for making a point to thank Canada.
After our Prime Minister decided not to offer up Canadian military personnel for the ensuing war in Afghanistan, we got quite a bit of trash talking from some Americans (including the ambassador) in the press. It was tough to take because the Canadian military is continually stretched to its limits in spite of the willingness of its troops to have been part of the operation.
In anger some folks forget the true scope of the human spirit, its not just in making right a terrible wrong by bringing the fullness of your might onto those who committed it, its also (sometimes more so) the compassion to take those who had the act commited upon them under your care and help them back on their feet.
When I look at society, read in the news about all the bad that people do to each other, what the latest assault or muder case going to trial is... watching the newscast on T.V. and realizing that sometimes the footage you're seeing was shot by some money hungry coward with a video camera who would rather cash in by collecting money from the news station with their video of someone else's suffering than to get in there and stop the wrong thats being done, I come to realize that sometimes the truest measure of a person's courage is not how quickly they can take up arms against a distant enemy, but by how quickly they can open their hearts to a stranger in need or peril on their own street.
Its a big dangerous world and its not easy to help the person next to you sometimes.
I'm very proud of my fellow Canadians who opened up the airports, their homes and hearts to unscheduled landings and guests. Those planes had to land sometime, I'm glad we could be there and even happier for the Americans who voiced their appreciation for us opening our hearts in their time of need when others criticized us and called us cowards for not being a combatant in the war that followed 9-11
9-11 changed my life at the personal level in one lasting way: I had never donated blood before 9-11, now I do it regularly
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say which we won't understand
Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of other's suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
(Pink Floyd, from the song
On the Turning Away)
May we always find it in ourselves to open our hearts more often that turning our backs.