Last Friday, "Stand Up To Cancer" aired on the three major networks plus E! TV. It raised over $100 million to help fight cancer. I'm very proud to say that my favorite, Patrick Swayze, opened the show and received a standing ovation. I was practically in tears. I know how much that meant to him, and I'm so proud of him for participating in the event. He's still fighting pancreatic cancer and is a bit thin, but he looks healthy and is continuing to film his new A&E TV series, "The Beast", in Chicago.
There was no announcement that Patrick was going to participate. I'd known about the event for quite a while and though I hadn't said anything to anyone, I really wanted him to go. Patrick fights his battles in his own way, but he needed to put his face on this battle. I'm sure it wasn't easy for him, but he did it. He stayed for the entire show and was clapping and swaying to the music at the end of the hour-long broadcast.
It's been a long weekend for the victims of Hurricane Ike. It was so sad to see the how wide spread the damage has been thus far. It's regrettable that more didn't heed the warnings to evacuate. Human nature kicked in for too many, I fear. We always think it won't happen to us. On the flip side, for others, all they have are their homes, so why leave? I wish there was an answer, but it's a question this world isn't prepared to answer as yet. Maybe some day, though.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the passing of 9/11. I spent much of the day watching special programming on the History Channel and MSNBC that were aired without commentary and mostly without commercial interruption. MSNBC began with the remark that many say we must never forget, and I agree. That's why I watched. We can't forget the horror of that day, when America was attacked on *our* land. It's painful, seeing people jumping to their certain deaths, watching the twin towers crumble into a murderous debris field, seeing the faces of firemen as they headed in to rescue the people in the World Trade Center, faces of men who wouldn't ever be seen alive again. Painful - hard - difficult. Tears were shed and my heart ached, but it is necessary not to forget and to pay tribute to those people.
This is why I watched "United 93" and various documentaries during this past week for those of the fourth hijacked aircraft. Those passengers were heroes. Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, and so many others. Names I've never forgotten. They were people I never knew, but they did what we hope we could do in similar situations. They died, but they did so bravely and heroically.
I believe each of these people deserve declarations. There was talk about something for a while, but I've never heard any follow up to it. I just paused my writing and did some research, and it looks like while many bills have been brought up in the Houses in the past several years, they've never passed one. Shame on political men and women who can't come together to award an honor that is now long overdue for these brave people of Flight 93. They banded together and prevented more deaths, not to mention physical destruction, at the Capitol or the White House. Get your acts together, Congress Persons. This is exactly the reason why I'm not fond of any of you right now. This one should be simple.
With all due respect and in the spirit of unity for our nation and those who belief as we die, as we move forward to a new week, I say, let's roll and let's make it count!
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