All Of Them Heros

September 11th is a sober memorial the world over, and today we remember those who lost their lives to hate and terrorism.  While most LGBTs remember Mark Bingham, there were many more members of our community who lost their lives that day.  Those who were flying, those who were working in the buildings and those who lost their lives trying to rescue the injured.   Here are the faces of our community, not that singling them out means anything other than recognizing those that are often completely overlooked...yet still, all of them are heros.

 

 

Father Michael Judge

Nancy Walsh

Mark Bingham

David Charlebois

Graham Berkeley

Pamela J. Boyce

Ronald Gamboa, his partner Dan Brandhorst and their adopted son David

James Joe Ferguson

Jeffrey Collmans

John Keohane

Sheila Hein

Roxy Eddie Ognilbene

Eugene Clark

Wesley Mercer

Luke A. Dudek

Michael Lepore

William Anthony Karnes

Tom Miller

Catherine Smith

Patricia McAneney

Waleska Martinez

Renee Barrett

Francis S. Coppola

 

Sadly, some of the missing rescue personnel were gay, and many of their lovers some of whom were Police and Firefighters grieved in silence and anonymity for frear of outing them.

 

 

I was getting ready for work, and trying to watch Martha Stewart in the process.  Yes, I know.  Every channel I turned to had images of a building w/smoke coming out of it, but I didn't grasp what was happening.  

 

My partner at the time said a plane had hit a building and that was when the phone rang.  It was a salesperson at the radio stations I worked at and she said "Brad told me to call you.  You're to come in right now" and she hung up.

  

I still didn't 'get' what was happening.   

 

Within the next five minutes the second tower was struck and I was out the door.    Racing inside  the station, I remember how quiet it was because everyone was in the back studio watching a small tv...but panic hung thick in the air, even in Idaho.  We knew we all had to be there...but none of us was sure what we were supposed to be doing.   It was a nightmare.

 

Like many people, I was glued to the television for the next month, watching the planes strike the Twin Towers over and over again and the constant coverage of victims and rescue efforts.  It was obsessive.... I couldn't look away.  I even slept on the couch in our living room with the TV on and the same horrific images playing over and over.

 

I know I'll never forget that day, and I'm sure you won't either.