Heroes: a letter for Floyd Maxey

When I was small, and still today, I had a hero, someone that would help me be strong, that would give me guidance, and teach me about courage, friendship, brotherhood – my father.

We all have heroes. We find them in comic books, literature we read, maturing, we find them as sports figures, and as adults, they turn from action figures, to figures of action.

We all know the heroes of September 11. Not by name, not by who they were, but by their courage, their bravery and their willingness to help by overcoming their fears. Yet, there was still one, humbled by his duty, asking not for recognition, but for forgiveness for fear that somehow he may have failed his country. If it were not for the spontaneous decisions, the steadfast courage, and the foresight to act without reservation, who knows what crisis we would have been faced with. I believe because all planes were simultaneously grounded all across the nation, 10s of thousands of lives and 10s of billions of dollars were saved. We don’t know what the entire impact would had been, had these steps not been taken.

You ask who am I. Simply stated; my father’s brother, the uncle I never knew, was shot down and killed during a bombing raid over Berlin during WWII. My father, at one time the youngest crew chief in the air force retired from the Pentagon.

I come from many countries, I come from many fathers, I come from many faiths. I believe I’m Christian and Catholic, protestant and Presbyterian, Baptist, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish. When I look to the east, and as the sun awakens our nation to a new dawn, I see those first rays of sun, first as a flicker, then as a flame which lights the torch of the statue of liberty. I believe I’m American; and within my patriotism, I am void of nothing but fear. Fear within our nation is an emotion which has no relevance; and regardless of your faith, may the fathers of all religions bless the children which worship them in freedom from oppression for their beliefs. For it is in a divine, regardless of name, which unites us in this country as one, and makes us all Americans.

Michael Maxey