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Message of courage and fellowship
from Camila Zamora
September 25, 2001, I want to share with you this beautiful
message of courage and fellowship. From bad experiences or
difficulties such as the one on New York on Sep 11. 2001 we human
beings are capable of bringing about the best in own selves, to grow
and become more conscious people, I think this difficult times are our
opportunity to become the best that we are. What is apparently a bad
thing can become a great learning experience, it is our choice to see
or not to see that opportunity. So here is the message:
The following is from a letter by a professional friend and her
return flight to D.C. this week.
"I just wanted to drop you all a note and let you know that I
arrived safe and sound into Dulles Airport tonight [9/15] at about
6:00. It was an interesting flight. The airport in Denver was almost
spooky, it was so empty and quiet. No one was in line for the security
check point when I got there so that went fairly quickly, just x-ray
of my bags and then a chemical test to be sure nothing explosive was
on them. Then I waited 2 1/2 hours to board the plane. What happened
after we boarded was interesting and thought I would share it with
you.
The pilot/captain came on the loudspeaker after the doors were
closed. His speech went like this: First I want to thank you for being
brave enough to fly today. The doors are now closed and we have no
help from the outside for any problems that might occur inside this
plane. As you could tell when you checked in, the government has made
some changes to increase security in the airports. They have not,
however, made any rules about what happens after those doors close.
Until they do that, we have made our own rules and I want to share
them with you. Once those doors close, we only have each other.
The security has taken care of a threat like guns with all of the
increased scanning, etc. Then we have the supposed bomb. If you have a
bomb, there is no need to tell me about it, or anyone else on this
plane; you are already in control. So, for this flight, there are no
bombs that exist on this plane.
Now, the threats that are left are things like plastics, wood,
knives, and other weapons that can be made or things like that which
can be used as weapons. Here is our plan and our rules. If someone or
several people stand up and say they are hijacking this plane, I want
you all to stand up together. Then take whatever you have available to
you and throw it at them. Throw it at their faces and heads so they
will have to raise their hands to protect themselves. The very best
protection you have against knives are the pillows and blankets.
Whoever is close to these people should then try to get a blanket over
their head-then they won't be able to see. Once that is done, get them
down and keep them there. Do not let them up. I will then land the
plane at the closest place and we WILL take care of them. After all,
there are usually only a few of them and we are 200+ strong! We will
not allow them to take over this plane. I find it interesting that the
US Constitution begins with the words "We, the people"-that's who we
are, THE people and we will not be defeated.
With that, the passengers on the plane all began to applaud, people
had tears in their eyes, and we began the trip toward the runway. The
flight attendant then began the safety speech. One of the things she
said is that we are all so busy and live our lives at such a fast
pace. She asked that everyone turn to their neighbors on either side
and introduce themselves, tell each other something about your
families and children, show pictures, whatever. She said "for today,
we consider you family. We will treat you as such and ask that you do
the same with us."
Throughout the flight we learned that for the crew, this was their
first flight since Tuesday's tragedies. It was a day that everyone
leaned on each other and together everyone was stronger than any one
person alone. It was quite an experience. You can imagine the feeling
when that plane touched down at Dulles and we heard "welcome to
Washington Dulles Airport, where the local time is 5:40". Again, the
cabin was filled with applause.
Last night I saw a program with college students where one of them
said that at their campus there are no more hyphenated titles, i.e.,
African-American, etc., everyone is just an American. No one will ever
be able to take that pride away from us. "
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