Leaderboard

This is a facebook post from my youngest daughter, who will be 12 this week. I couldn't have said it better myself. She is referring to my nephew-her cousin- who was KIA in Afghanistan last November 1st, while serving in the Army. Rest. In. Peace. to all that were lost on 9-11 and everybody since then. If 9-11 did not happen Andrew Tiger Meari, along with thousands of others would still be with us. Thank you to all who risked their lives to save others. Please do not forget that if 9-11 did not happen, we would still have many people that we love. THANK YOU!! I LOVE YOU ANDY. ♥ :'(

I think that every religion, race and creed has bad apples. Not every muslim is a terrorist, not every white guy is a serial killer or pedophile. Not every christian is a crusader For every bad deed that past religions and societies have done, do we need to provide reparations for those acts? Apologies? Yep. reparations no. Unfortunately there have been terrible things done in the name of religion and Christianity is right up there at the top but that's not really the case anymore. I don't see an apology any time soon. I tend to like to look forward and not dwell on the past. It's counterproductive at times. Remember the past, make sure the past doesn't come back in a new guise and be ever vigilent. AK, CH, Dwayne, Dust and many others have lived in those communities and amongst the Muslims and I can't share a common frame of reference so I defer to their comments. But to lump in all muslims as terrorists is simply stupid and ludicrous. Even a pure bread white guy can understand that.

Since I took the weekend off from the world and unplugged I missed this thread earlier. I glanced through most of the thread to get the jist of where it was heading so I think I can post and be part of the thread. 10 years ago on a bright sunny 68 degree Tuesday I watched my world fall apart before my eyes. I watched as 3000 people laost their lives and many many more were effected because of it. I watched as everyone turned grey, no creed, no color, no nationality, GREY. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I watched as human beings became one. I worked 72 hours on a pile of steaming debris with my fellow humans. We as humans cried together, worked together, prayed together, felt pain together. I was on a bucket brigade and some folks on the same were Muslim. They cried the same tears as I did. Felt the same pain as I did. Had the same anger at 11 men that I did. I still talk to them today and they still feel what I feel today. 10 years later they hate the same 11 men that caused this atrocity. This wasn't a country that attacked us, this wasn't a religon that attacked us. This was 11 men that attacked us. I don't think 11 men represent an entire religon, country or community. Just as Oklahoma doesn't represent all Americans 9/11 doesn't represent all Muslims. It is the short sighted, fear mongering, nieve people that belive they do. I have never been to the Middle East or Indonesea but I would like tothink that if and when I do I would be looked at and treated as a fellow human being. I know I may be looking for rainbows but hopefully not. Hopefully this makes sense....

More useful to this thread is the understanding that untrained people cannot be expected to know that there are differences between a trainer AED and a working one. Institutions just don't get it when it comes to health and safety issues. I once ran on a 17 year old unresponsive for 8 hours because the minimum wage personnel entrusted with their safety didn't realize that unresponsiveness (albeit with pulse and respirations) is a life threat. The economic downturn and people expecting to do more with less has resulted in a lack of funding for a lot of programs. Health and Safety looks like something that can be cut when bean counters sit down to balance the budget. Without a strong advocate for these things, stuff like this happens. Pretty bad news for the person that has a witnessed arrest with a shockable rhythm and a non-functioning AED. Unfortunately, unless risk management personnel are aware of the issue; or if the financial repercussions are not clear, then someone has to die before something like this is rectified.

I have been thinking alot in the last week about 9/11 just the same others. I have had a bit of trouble trying to feel anything good about the celebrations that have happened in NYC. I think that when we celebrate (that might not be the right word) disasters it makes things worse for those that are left behind. Im not saying we shouldn't recognize these events but watch 2 weeks of commercials and listening to the news has been nothing less than depressing. A friend has posted this http://ambulancedriverfiles.com/2011/09/11/september-11-2011/ to their face book and when I read it, it really said alot about how I was feeling. Today I got up and thought of those that have died, gave a wished to the families hoping their day may bring more closure and not more grief, I mowed and raked my yard, washed my back deck down and did a call, I still have to BBQ beef tenderloin for my family. I will have a nice cold beer and a nice hot bath and then go to bed and tommorrow I will go about my bussiness, as life goes on. I hope that everyone everywhere today moved forward in the wake of this tragity.

Considering they only vindicated Galileo in 1992 (23 years after we landed on the moon), I wouldn't hold your breath waiting.

However, I've yet to see major Christian leaders come out and say, "hey about the whole dark ages thing, the Inquisition and the crusades, our bad, sorry about that." I think we can all agree that there exist factions of radical Islam; however, I am not about to label entire nations of people based on this fact. Also, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in states of near chaos with drug trades, massive corruption and unstable governments running amuck. I am not sure they are the best examples of countries that have the capability to stop radical Muslim terrorism. While I agree that more can and should be done and perhaps Muslim leaders should take the lead, but the situation is far more complicated than many could imagine. Finally, both countries are not primarily the same religion in the sense that many factions of Islam exist and this causes significant tension among Muslims. The struggle between Shiite and Sunni Muslims among other groups is well known to illustrate one example.

Probably the best thing you've ever posted. There have been plenty of Muslims who have spoken out against the Sept 11th attacks. The difference between the Muslims and the Catholic church is that the Catholic church has a central institution that carries the power and acts as the voice of the entire church. The Muslims do not have this central pulpit so when some small mosque speaks out, no one listens. When the pope speaks, he has a huge audience. There are extremists from all religions. How much coverage they get depends on the size of their targets. The bombing of an abortion clinic that kills 2 people will not get as much play as 2 planes that bring down the towers and kill almost 3000.

How very true. We always see only a momentum in the life of our patient and because that`s the only impression we get of him/her, we (unconsciously) define him through that picture, though we should never forget, that there is a whole story behind that moment, that leads to us being there. My condolensces and I wish you the strength to get through this hard time as best as you can.