I pray to God in Heaven
That heroes never die.
Someone brave must lead the way so others may survive.
My heart is proud and thankful
Like the warm rays of the sun.
In memory of my brother
And the men from Rescue 1.
– Michele Little
Today marks the first Sept. 11 anniversary observance in New York City that Michele Little is missing. Instead, the Encinitas mom and her two teenage daughters will read aloud the names of fallen firefighters and first responders as bells toll aboard the Midway. Local N.Y. firefighter retirees are conducting the memorial at 2:30 p.m.
This evening, after a 1.5-mile remembrance walk through Balboa Park, Little will lead a candlelight vigil at the Veterans Memorial Center.
People cannot forget Sept. 11, she says, because its wound is still festering. “A Band-Aid can't be put over it.”
The ghost of Sept. 11
Human remains still are being uncovered at the Staten Island disposal site where World Trade Center ashes and debris were dumped. Plus, many first responders, who worked in dangerously polluted air, now are suffering health problems and struggling to pay for their care. Numerous survivors suffer from post-traumatic stress.
Little's younger brother, David M. Weiss, was a member of FDNY's elite Rescue Co. 1.
His heroism was well-documented. In 1997 he jumped off a highway bridge trestle to rescue the driver of a car that had plunged into the East River. His act took more courage than people realized, Little says: “David had a fear of pools and swimming when we were kids.”
The night before Sept. 11 they had talked on the phone. David said he was moving in with his girlfriend because, finally, he had discovered true love.
At 4 a.m. the next day, Little suddenly awoke with a premonition that something terrible had happened. A couple of hours later she learned a jet had crashed into the World Trade Center. She knew her brother would be there.
To this day, David's family has received no tangible proof of his death – Little has only a dented Rescue 1 flashlight – a gift from her brother's colleagues. Plus, she has notes and e-mails from friends, strangers and even a South Carolina firefighter who wears a David Weiss remembrance bracelet and her brother's picture taped inside his helmet.
The firefighter, Brian Rowe, told her he shaves his head every morning, just as David did, calling it “a small price to pay to never allow a true hero to be forgotten.”
A call for action
A few days after Sept. 11 she organized a town hall meeting at La Paloma theater in Encinitas. She followed that with a concert to aid victims. The next month she organized a burger barbecue on a New York pier for firefighters and their families.
She quit her marketing job with management trainer Ken Blanchard and funneled her savings into creating a nonprofit group, Unite in Peace. Her organization reaches out to children around the world with messages of peace and stirs awareness of the lingering aftereffects of Sept. 11.
On Oct. 18, Little's Unite in Peace is holding an all-day “walk-in fest” at the County Administration Building to raise money for ailing responders. She gives speeches around the country but never uses written texts: “I just speak from my heart.”
“If my brother were alive today he'd be one of us speaking up. I'm his voice, and I'm speaking up. We need to help first responders so they're not stuck in poverty. They need our help.”
At last year's ground zero service, hundreds of family members left roses in a temporary memorial pool and wrote messages on the wooden barricade that surrounded it. To Little's dismay, shortly after the ceremony ended, the entire makeshift memorial was dismantled, fueling her mantra that Americans must not forget Sept. 11.
What would her brother say if he could see his sis now?
She paused, lowered her voice and imitated David's tough-guy accent: “Ya know, Michele, yur doin' a really good job in thuh world, jus' keep it up.”
Diane Bell's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Fax items to (619) 260-5009, call (619) 293-1518 or e-mail to diane.bell@uniontrib.com
