I was relaxing between calls today at the station, and looking at random YouTube clips. Something caught my eye and almost surprised me that it was really beginning to trend. It was an acoustic performance of Bruce Springsteen preforming “Empty Sky.” It is one of the tracks off of his 9/11 tribute CD known as “The Rising.” It is a song that makes you feel the pain from the second he takes his first strum of the guitar. I have embedded the video in case you have not seen or heard the song.
There is a line at the end of one of the verses: “I want an eye for an eye, I woke up this morning to the empty sky.” I have never been able to really discribe my feelings about that day before I heard this song. I could easily throw out a series of angry words, but never be able to simplify it like he did. I still want justice, because frankly I feel like it hasn’t been served. Yes, we did send Osama to his maker, and frankly I hope he was met by a merciless God and was sentenced to infinite torture and suffering in the lake of fire.
I don’t know if American’s will ever be able to get full closure for that horrible day back ten years ago. For now, we can hope.
As part of that, we get back out on the trucks, and respond to that job…who know’s if its gonna be our last. I am going to go out an honor the men and women that died ten years ago, and everyone that has died in the search of justice, by continuing to do what I do. (yes I did mean for that to sound like a Ladder 49 paraphrase)
Until we all meet again, I will always wake up “to an empty sky.”
God Bless, and stay safe everyone.
thoughtsofamedic 