The audience at Wednesday’s Opening Ceremony and General Session were called on to remember, reflect, promise, imagine, and commit as Robert Halton, editor in chief of188金宝搏是正规吗and FDIC education director, delivered the “Welcome toFDIC 2011” opening address.
The emotion-packed presentation started off with a Moment of Silence for Indianapolis (IN) Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Auch, who passed away on February 1. Auch was an integral component of FDIC for the past 14 years. Auch’s wife Donna was in attendance as this, the 83rd FDIC, was dedicated to her late husband.
Halton then used “statues and monuments” as mechanisms for evoking reflection and “to inspire to higher principles.” The Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial–each was used as a reminder of “the fire service’s dedication to that which is good and that which Lincoln called the ‘better angels of our nature’”
“Having monuments and statues to help us remember is very important,” Halton explained. “For within these monuments, we see the values and principles that sustained those who were engaged in those heroic struggles [that formed America and the fire service],”
He reminded the audience that “heroes, men and women who are willing to struggle against evil, whether that evil be from the barrel of a gun or the toxic gases and devastating power of fire, are all around us.”
He pointed to a “93-year-old gentleman (Colonel Dick Winters) who recently passed away quietly in an assisted-living center in Pennsylvania, whose story was the subject ofA Band of Brothers, by the author Ambrose.” Colonel Winters, on June 6, 1944, D-Day, parachuted behind enemy lines along with the 101st airborne; he fought through the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of Dachau, and on to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest,” Halton related. “He never claimed to be a hero. When people asked him if he was a hero, he would answer, “No, I am not a hero, but I served in a company of heroes.”
Halton drew the parallel between Colonel Winters and the 343 FDNY firefighters who gave their lives on September 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks:
This year, as we take time to remember the incredible bravery, the noble sacrifices and the unparalleled display of higher character by the heroes of 9/11, we will take stock of ourselves and reflect on how well we have appreciated the example they have left for us at such a dear price.
They taught us that bravery came not from a sense of invulnerability and a lack of fear– but just the opposite: We know that each of them recognized the terrible danger involved in fighting a fire so well developed and so high above the ground.
They drew their strength and quieted their fears because they knew they were serving in a company of heroes. But those 343 heroes would deny being heroes, just as did Colonel Dick Winters, who said that he didn’t do anything special, that he was just doing his job, and that any of his brothers in the unit would have done the same thing.
Halton stressed that it is important that these responders of 9/11 have “a separate and distinct monument …. one that depicts that valiant struggle by those men of higher character–a monument which will forever remind us of their unblemished honor and forever inspire us to be true to the better angels of our nature.” He noted: “Currently at Ground Zero, construction is underway on the freedom tower buildings, a memorial toallof those who fell on that tragic and mournful day 10 years ago .It is fitting and proper that this is done.”
In his final challenge to the audience, Halton exhorted:
Those of us who have sworn an allegiance to our communities, who have pledged to protect our neighbors, who have promised to never forget, cannot ignore what Colonel Winters and the 343 heroes of 9/11 so valiantly sacrificed to teach us: that success in war, as in firefighting, depends not on heroics, but on bonding, on character, on getting the job done, and on’ hanging tough.’
我们今天在这里所做的功德ourselves to our pledge …. If we are to be true to the better angels of our nature, if we are to be better people, better firefighters; if we hope to inspire future generations to do great things–extraordinary things– then we must continue to build monuments which memorialize today’s moments that reflect on that which is noble in our world. . We must be true to our promise to never forget.
So this year, let us visit the memorials we have, but let us dedicate ourselves to a new 9/11 National Responders Monument, a monument that solely memorializes the memory of these 343 men of noble character, who are gone but who are not forgotten and whose memories shall inspire greatness in generations to come …..
I want you to imagine a monument dedicated and devoted to, and deserving of, representing the sacrifices and the memory of those we lost on 9/11. You see, those hero firefighters all had a choice to make that day. They decided to stay in that building, and their chiefs made the decision to stay and not leave their men ….
The heroes of 9/11 deserve to have their stories told. They deserve the praise, the recognition, and the admiration we give them today. But not only today. Imagine if every day, we could hear their stories, and our children and our grandchildren could hear their stories!
We promise here today that we will never forget. We pledge that their sacrifices were not in vain, that their memories will live on in us, and that the example of honor they set will be the standard by whichweare to be judged.
