Reluctant Hero: A 9/11 Survivor Speaks Out About That Unthinkable Day, What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget (27 page)

It’s coming. I know the fire is coming again. That’s life. But I know now not to mistake what I do in the fire as some kind of defining moment. It’s just another moment, in the endless and constant chain of moments, each as important as the next, where I get to define and redefine and define again who I am.

What proved true on 9/11 is what proves true now. It must be retold. This is my part. I have told you what I know, what I saw, and what I did. And I live today the best way I know how—a way taught to me by a thousand teachers that day ten years ago in the World Trade Center.

Lord knows I’m not perfect. I’m still a work in progress, and I’ve got a lot I need to do. I can’t tell you the “old Michael” is back, but I know
this Michael
is here. He’s definitely here. And if I’m going to be anything, I am going to honor—not fear—the memory of that day with my survival.

So I go to work in the mornings to my new job, and I try to be a good employee. I come home at night and try to be a good father and husband. I take care around my family to talk kindly and to give love. I see friends, and I let them know me again.

The end of this book is not the end of my story. Another 9/11 will come and go. Then another. Ten years later. Twenty years later. One hundred years later. My story continues, just like it does for all of us. We’re in this together.

I
N THE AFTERMATH
of 9/11, a general complaint often heard was that except for the soldiers, nobody asked us—our nation—to sacrifice, to give of ourselves, or give up something. There was no call to national service in response to the tragedy. I would like to make that call now.

9/11 was the worst attack ever on American soil. To this day, there is no formal, official national observance. There is no united national symbolic gesture. For example, on Memorial Day we hang flags. On Independence Day we set off fireworks. Here is what I propose we do for 9/11:

As I have stressed in this book, 9/11 showed as much as anything that there are enormous untapped reservoirs of extraordinary human kindness and giving just waiting for a trigger. Though three thousand people tragically lost their lives on 9/11, many more thousands who were not caught on camera and whose names we shall never know showed countless acts of courage, dignity, comfort, and selflessness. On that day, an act that manifested from the worst of humanity’s capabilities activated the best of humanity’s capabilities.

To honor those nameless heroes of 9/11 and the nationwide civic ethos that took hold but sadly dissipated in the aftermath of the attacks, I propose a 9/11 National Day of Service (a.k.a. Be Kind When Nobody’s Looking Day). Every year on 9/11, in observance of the events of that day, each of us, at least once that day, should do something kind for somebody else and not get caught doing it.

It’s as simple as that. Just do something nice. Help someone else, directly or indirectly. Then just keep it to yourself. Don’t tell anyone. Just know that you did it.

That’s the right tribute to the heroes of 9/11—the firemen, the co-workers who stuck together, strangers who comforted the injured and scared, the volunteers who dug for the remains. That’s the right way to honor this singular moment in history where we paused, if only and regrettably too briefly, to genuinely care for each other. This is how we should remember 9/11. By doing what the heroes did. If each of us does that—even if only 10 percent of us does that—imagine what a day it will be in this country.

In support of the spirit of this observance, I propose a few simple rules:

• 
There will be no awards.

• 
There will be no corporate sponsors.

• 
There will be no official Twitter feed, Facebook page, or YouTube channel.

• 
There will be no reality show.

• 
There will be no party affiliation or membership required.

• 
There will be no official press releases and no press conference.

• 
There will be no film rights or television rights.

• 
There will be no logo.

• 
There can be no winner or loser.

• 
No score will be kept.

• 
It will cost the taxpayers nothing.

The opportunities to do heroic things are all around us, every day. We just need a trigger. The 9/11 National Day of Service gives us that trigger. It takes us all back to the simplest lessons of 9/11—lessons that perhaps have been all too forgotten, but shall not be if this proposed day of observance is recognized and formally enacted.

Therefore, I urge every local, state, and federal government to adopt the 9/11 National Day of Service in order to let each of us be a hero, to be that person that so many were on the day the world now knows, and will always know, as 9/11.

Being interviewed by an ABC News reporter moments after the collapse of Tower 1.

Reunited with Tina Hansen the week after the attacks.
courtesy of eric o’connell

Joy and I on our wedding day, September 13, 2002.

The Network Plus gang (minus me) outside Harpo Studios after filming The Oprah Winfirey Show

One of the cards I received from the students in Mrs. Toussaint’s ffth-grade class from Heights Elementary School in Sharon, Massachusetts.

Another card from Mrs. Toussaint’s class.

Letter from President and Laura Bush.

Letter from Senator Ted Kennedy.

I
KNEW ALL ALONG
I could never write this book alone. But I also never could have expected the incredible amount of support from the amazing people with whom I was blessed throughout the process. I can never say thank you enough for what they did, but I will say what I can right here to each of them.

To my coauthor, Dave “the Most Interesting Man Alive” Hollander, for without his relentless dedication, unquestionable trust, and determined commitment to the truth, this book would not have been possible. I am truly a richer person for having him in my life and for being able to call him my friend.

To my gifted team of handlers and advisers: my agent Ian Kleinert, my editor Mark Weinstein, and my sage counsel Sanford L. Hollander, Esq.