I find as I look at my blog that I have blogged about 9/11 on every
September 11 since 2007. So I might as well blog about it this year.
Believe
it or not, even though I was slightly taken aback when I heard in
church last Sunday that the anniversary of 9/11 was coming up this
week----since I wasn't thinking much about 9/11----9/11 was somewhere in
the back of my mind even before then. Why? Because, when I think
about the first-responders and others who helped out at Ground Zero
during and right after 9/11, and I hear that a number of them are still
sick (if they have not already died) as a consequence of their helping
out, I become rather jaded and cynical about altruism. Granted, I
admire them for doing what they did, but was it worth it? I have to
admire the human tendency to want to jump in and help out, and I believe
that such a tendency should be cultivated. But that tendency did not
help those who became sick, did it? If I were at Ground Zero on
September 11, 2001, I'd be tempted to save my own skin.
I
hope that no one takes offense at what I just wrote. I won't publish
comments that put me down. But, if anyone wants to comment as to
whether they think that particular act of altruism was worth it, please
feel free. Or feel free to comment about acts of altruism in general
whose costs appear to be so heavy.