"I refuse that order..."

The run up the 10th anniversary of 9/11 has been what such things have become in the last few years, a finite series of events being chewed over by an apparently infinite number of media personalities, TV shows, web casts, radio shows and probably a dozen other things I'm leaving out.  I'm not sad or upset that we remember.  I am however tired of the noise. 

As a nation, we seem to be developing a knack for monuments.  The Vietnam memorial, with it's large dark presence reflecting those who look upon through the names of those that died in the conflict is astonishing.  As we look into the darkness of that memory, we see ourselves distorted through the names of those who gave us the right and ability to ponder what it meant and what it means.

The new monument at Ground Zero is of similar character.  This monument is an excavated area surrounded by black stone with the names of the deceased upon it.  Water flows over the stone into the excavated area to create a waterfall.  Thus, this artificially created void presents us with the void created in each of us by the loss of 3000 souls.  The water flows over it all just as life washes over us and carries us along. 

I only want to make sure that one brief thing does not get lost in the TV, the radio, the speeches of politicians or even in the very fine monument. I want to re-tell the story of Pat Brown.

Pat was a fireman that died in the North Tower on 9/11.  Just a few minutes before the North Tower collapsed, Pat's chief ordered him out of the building.  Pat, from transcripts gleaned from several witnesses spoke this into his radio in response:  "I refuse that order. I have too many burned people. I'm not leaving."  Pat and his men as well as those people died that day.  



I think this will strike some people as futile, silly or maybe even negligent considering his men followed him to their respective deaths.  I would strongly challenge that however.  Pat sacrificed himself and his men in order to give comfort and even hope to the dying.  As long as he was there, the injured on that floor could hold on to the hope that there would be something else.  And I will even offer as pure conjecture, the idea that Pat would not have offered his life had he not understood the value of his presence to those in need.  Indeed, why else would he have stayed?

What of his men?  The answer there is I think that they were following Pat on a mission.  They'd all seen the hilltop and determined it was both attainable and infinitely valuable.  I cannot think of another reason why they would have stayed.  

What we all too often miss in the idea of hope is that hope is not at all dependent on a cheery outcome or a "happily ever after."  Hope is instead completely dependent on God and the human soul.  But for these two, hope would not exist.  It is a gift to us from our Father and is an important part of the way resemble Him and when carried through love, it is the best we have to offer others. 


When Pat Brown refused to leave, he acknowledged that the hope he carried in his person that he could in turn offer to others, was more important than his life.  I believe he was right in this.  

God bless you Pat.  The hope, care and love your sacrifice gave to the dying is the greatest monument any such event can ever produce...and it is more than enough.


John 15:13 -
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.