Nine One One

Sydney NSW, Australia – 9935 miles (15,989 km) away from New York City and yet it could have been next door for the heartbreak we felt, even this far away.
I thought I was the last to know, arriving at the front door of the college I’d been studing at for almost 2 years. The world was at our feet as we began to plan for the following year… the big one. Kirky, best friend and accomplice, met me at the front door with a peculiar look on her face… “Have you heard?” the question on her lips.
“Heard What?” my reply.
Terrorists have attacked the World Trade Centre, hijacked planes, thousands dead, the towers fallen, etc. etc. etc.
Disbelief the immediate response, silent respect, prayer for the lost, for the rescuers and for the remaining. That and an addiction to CNN alone for the following weeks.
For our parents it was the assasination of JFK, the man on the moon. For us? The death of Princess Di, the World Trade Centers falling…
These are the days the world stopped for us.
There are other days, the day a hurricane destroyed a city, the day a tsunami flattened a nation. There are other tragedies… civil wars that are starving their people, men and women held captive lest religious freedom destabilises governments. There are men and women whose children will not live past tomorrow, or worse still, past the time it takes you to read this post.
Yes, it is important to remember the tragedies of the past but let us not lose sight of the tragedies that happen every day in our present, and let us do what we can to make a difference to somebody’s future.
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.worldvision.com.au/