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Let’s not quench this spirit *UPDATED*

Bookworm on Jul 01 2009 at 8:02 am | Filed under: Uncategorized

“They just harnessed me up and dipped me down in the water and I grabbed her and the crane drug her to the boat and that’s it,” Oglesbee said. “What are you going to do if she’s like that? It’s no big deal. The whole crew did it.”

So spoke Jason Oglesbee after being the last man in the chain of the daring rescue of a woman who got swept into a dam.  The story says so much about the ingenuity and courage that we see — most of the time — in the average American.  I hope that the nanny state doesn’t leech us of those qualities.  We know that it can, because that’s what has happened in England, where dependency on the government has rendered people helpless.

(P.S.  Check out the photo that goes with the story.  It’s a great picture.)

UPDATE:  More incredible pictures here.  In fact, here’s one:

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12 Comments »

12 Responses to “Let’s not quench this spirit *UPDATED*”

  1. on 01 Jul 2009 at 8:37 am 1expat

    Book,

    After 9/11, media types here in Germany were laughing at New Yorkers who were sealing their apartment windows with duct tape and plastics (they assumed the New Yorkers thought that would stop bombers). I’ve had a few duct tape experiences myself and thought that we should be proud of our duct tape ingenuity. Sure, when you have the time and resources, do the job right. But if all you have is duct tape, use it and be proud.

  2. on 01 Jul 2009 at 9:58 am 2billm99uk

    We know that it can, because that’s what has happened in England, where dependency on the government has rendered people helpless.

    Nuts!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/8126553.stm

    People still try here, even when it doesn’t work, it’s just the government threatens to kick them out of their jobs, post event :(

  3. on 01 Jul 2009 at 11:54 am 3BrianE

    Stories like this remind us of the American spirit, and are especially important in a time when we are seeing an abdication of that same spirit by our administration.
    I think United Flight 93 also stands as an enduring symbol of Americans answering a call to action.

    Beamer, 32, an account manager for Oracle, called a stranger. He picked up a seat-back phone and hit “0,” and at 9:45 a.m., he was connected first to a dispatcher for GTE Airfone, and then to Lisa Jefferson, the operator’s supervisor.

    For 13 minutes, Beamer told Jefferson everything he could, passing along information he gleaned himself and from a flight attendant. The passengers remained in their seats, she said he told her, and the flight attendants were forced to sit in the back of the plane.

    He told her how much he loved his pregnant wife and two sons, and he asked her to call them. He asked her to recite the Lord’s Prayer and 23rd Psalm with him.

    Moments later, Beamer told Jefferson about the plan, that the passengers were going to run up the long, narrow aisle to the first-class cabin and attack the hijacker there.

    “I’m going to have to go out on faith,” Beamer said.

    He turned to someone else, and he said, “Are you ready?” Then, in the last words Jefferson would hear from him, “OK. Let’s roll.”

    Just one of the incredible stories of heroism that day. Firefighters entering the towers, ignoring their own safety– so many examples.

  4. on 01 Jul 2009 at 12:28 pm 4Danny Lemieux

    That’s just what real men do. Real men…not liberal community organizers.

  5. on 01 Jul 2009 at 1:02 pm 5Charles

    As the son of a truck driver (the knights of the road!) I would like to say everyone of those construction workers is a true working-class hero.

    Somehow or other the working class know that they must do things for themselves. It is for that reason when I worked in NYC I felt much safer riding the subway at 5:00am with the construction workers than at 8:00am with the “suits.” I always knew that if something were to happen the “suits” would all stand around waiting for someone else to do something while the construction workers would jump in to handle things themselves.

    BTW, on 9/11 not only did firemen and police respond to the World Trade Center; But, it was reported that almost all construction sites around the city were abandoned as their workers all headed down to ground zero on that horrific day.

  6. on 01 Jul 2009 at 4:54 pm 6Deana

    OK. I’m going to go on the low road, here, but WOW!!! Did ya see the muscles on that guy???

  7. on 01 Jul 2009 at 5:34 pm 7Bookworm

    No low road there, Deana, unless we’re all low together, because that was my thought too!

  8. on 01 Jul 2009 at 5:38 pm 8suek

    I’ll join you on the low road, Deana…

    They said it was a married couple, and the man was in his 60s…

    That woman does _not_ look to me like she’s in her 60s.

    Of course, there was Nicole and her ninety year old husband – for a few years anyway…

  9. on 01 Jul 2009 at 5:41 pm 9suek

    Hey you women…

    None of that ogling now… I guess we know why Obama wants everybody to go to college and get an education. Can’t have those guys out there building up muscle like those construction guys. Get them _good_ paying jobs with their college educations.

    Of course, we’ll still have a problem…who’s going to do the construction stuff? why would a guy with a degree want to be out there getting slung from a crane to rescue a fair damsel?? I mean….he didn’t even have a _tie_ on!

  10. on 01 Jul 2009 at 5:52 pm 10Bookworm

    The thing about his muscles is that they’re not merely decorative — they’re functional. It’s obvious that, if he did not have that strength, he would not have been able to rescue that woman. If he was merely a weightlifter, I wouldn’t be half so impressed. This was a man, with a man’s body, doing a man’s work.

  11. on 02 Jul 2009 at 3:07 am 11Deana

    So right, Bookworm.

    And I thought the same thing, suek. That woman appeared very young to have a husband who was in his 60s. Whatever their relationship, it appears that he cared for her a great deal by giving her the life jacket. I feel for them.

  12. on 07 Oct 2009 at 11:49 pm 12Bookworm Room » This is what happens when excessive rules sap all initiative

    [...] me remind you what initiative and courage look [...]

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