[Elfsea] Fwd: [Consortium] Courage

[Jhan Knebel]

This is an inspiring story to read. It made me stop
and  count our blessings to have so many wonderful
people in the SCA!

Rixende

--- Bob Bock <tatheg at hotmail.com> wrote:
> To: Consortium2 at yahoogroups.com
> From: "Bob Bock" <tatheg at hotmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 11:58:36 -0400
> Reply-to: Consortium2 at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Consortium] Courage
>
>   Greetings all,
>
>   Courage usually means faceing up to your fears and
> continueing on in spite
> of those fears. Some examples that have really
> struck home to me are the
> Firefighters and police officers in NYC that rushed
> into the WTC to try to
> help evacuate people. There was a discription of the
> scene after the towers
> had collapsed and rescuers began to return to the
> site; "...burnt out
> firengines with hoses connected. The hoses seemed to
> end in a pile of
> rubble, but they continued on and at their end were
> the brave fireman that
> had tried to put out the flames."
> Many more acts of courage could be seen all around
> the site. Many people
> risked their lives trying to save others. One lady
> guided a blind person
> (and the seeing eye dog) down 71 flights of stairs,
> getting all 3 to safety
> moments before the first tower callapsed. Another
> gentlman carried a wheel
> chair bound person down 55 flights of stairs to
> safety. These people acted
> not in their own best interest but risked their
> lives to save others.
> I have one other very powerful story to share with
> you. There was a man that
> after hearing about the disaster, went to NYC to
> volunteer in the rescue
> efforts. He had some training in rescue and could
> not sit idley by. He had
> to help. He was onsite by the 12th and busy helping
> in the search. He had a
> hard hat, but it got in the way of the digging and
> the crawling into the
> tight spaces so he left it at his side while
> searching for the living. All
> around him were the reminders of all the people that
> would not be rescued.
> Yes, there was a fireman's helmet that had been torn
> off the fireman, yes,
> there was the beginning of the smell of decay. And
> yes, there were small
> pieces of the people that hadn't survived. Yet he,
> and others, dug on.
> Crawling into the small pockets that might have
> harbored the living. Before
> long, some of the rubble shifted, trapping him and
> several others under the
> pile of those dead twisted buildings. For 4 hours,
> other rescuers dug until
> they were released from the pile of concrete and
> rubble. The doctors
> examinined him and were worried about the amount of
> dust in his lungs. He
> could easily have said, "I've done enough." But no,
> there still might be
> someone alive under all that. He would risk his life
> again to try and find
> any survivors. He continued on and was buried yet
> again a few days later.
> And again he was saved by the efforts of others that
> risked their lives
> beside him trying to do what they could to save
> anyone that might have lived
> through the collapse.
>   There are many virtues that we all try and portay
> on the field of combat.
> I for one will never think again that putting on a
> steel helm, padding and
> other armor and facing some powerful Duke or
> standing for a charge against
> those that I will be feasting with later and perhaps
> shareing a beer will
> ever come close to the courage that was demonstrated
> to me in NYC. Standing
> up for what is right takes courage, admitting when
> you are wrong takes
> courage and placeing your life on the line in the
> hopes of saving others
> takes the most courage I can imagine.
> By the way, the person who was buried twice while
> trying to save others, is
> known as Mangus or Bubba or even Robert. He lives in
> the sleepy little shire
> of Camdon Tor, He is a Meridian.
> Yours,
> Tatheg
>

=====
****************************
Lady Rixende de Rouen
Privy Secretary to TRM Duncan and Larissa, Ansteorra
Apprentice to Mistress Signy Dimmridaela
http://www.timelessbeads.com       rixende at timelessbeads.com
****************************
Quidam audet valde, facit valde

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