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 Our Real Role Models
By Jerry Norton
No longer need we debate whether professional athletes are worthy role models for our children. The tragic events of this past week have demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt who among us should be helping to shape and influence young lives. Certainly it should be people like Jeremy Glick, Tom Burnett, Mark Bingham, William Feehan, Peter Ganci, Ray York, Mychal Judge, Dan McWilliams, George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein and the other heroes of last week’s terrorist attack. Unfortunately, too many of these people are no longer with us. Still, by their courage and their actions, they have earned the respect, the admiration and the gratitude of Americans both young and old.
These ten people are neither wealthy or famous, at least they weren’t prior to Tuesday September 11. Except in the eyes of their families or perhaps their coworkers, they were not super stars. Until Tuesday, few people had ever heard of Glick, Burnett or Bingham. Nor were the three men acquainted although they were all passengers on United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco on that fateful Tuesday morning. It is believed that, because of the courage of these individuals, the highjackers of Flight 93 failed in their attempt to crash the Boeing 757 into their designated fourth target, perhaps the Capitol Building or the White House.
As swarms of people exited the damaged World Trade Center’s twin towers on Tuesday, Deputy Fire Commissioner William Feehan and Chief of the Department Peter Ganci led companies of their courageous brothers, including fire fighter Ray York, the opposite way, into the ravaged buildings. They were the first of more than three hundred firefighters lost in the disaster. Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest and chaplain of the NY Fire Department was also in that group of fire fighters rushing to aid in search and rescue. He was at “ground zero” giving the last rites to one of the injured when tower one collapsed, killing him.
Brooklyn firefighters McWilliams, Johnson and Eisengrein were searching in the rubble for survivors just before World Trade Center Building Seven collapsed. During their hasty evacuation, the three provided inspiration for their comrades when they stopped to raise an American flag atop the debris.
The list of heroes emerging from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is long. There were hundreds more than the ten mentioned here. On the list are other firefighters, policemen, Port Authority officers, office personnel, doctors, priests, military and civilian personnel… all ordinary people with extraordinary courage who put their lives at risk to help save others.
The story of this horrible tragedy is difficult for anyone, especially children, to comprehend. Hopefully young people will come to realize from these events that the heroes of September 11, 2001 represent their ultimate role models.

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