Letter to the editor
To the editor:
The events of Sept. 11, 2001 have caused me to consider what is evil, and what is a hero?
Evil isn’t a scaled monster slithering through a misted swamp. It’s an ordinary looking man with too much money whose conscience died years before he did.
A hero isn’t someone who can hit 70 or 80 home runs in one season. It’s a man or woman laboring in the remains of a shattered building with tears in their eyes and a heavy heart, defying hopelessness even as they sift through its ashes.
Evil isn’t a supernatural creature in a hockey mask. It’s men and women who live for months or even years in a country knowing that they would soon be using the generosity and openness of her people as a weapon against them.
A hero isn’t driving a race car; he or she is driving a truck filled with bodies, praying for the souls of the lost, and asking God to ease the agony of those who grieve.
Evil isn’t a fairy tale witch in a pointed black hat. Evil is real. Evil has the gall to call war holy. Evil will not be enlightened if we turn the other cheek and forgive.
A hero isn’t a fairy tale knight in shining armor. Heroes are real. Hundreds of them raced into a crumbling building to save the innocent. Thousands of them lined the bloody streets of New York to save the living and return the bodies of the dead to those who loved them. And at least three heroes wrestled with evil and won. They prevented one final attack, dying to save thousands.
When your children ask, tell that evil is real, but so are heroes.
Linda Romanowski
East Windsor

