Let us honor the sacrifice some make in doing their jobs

Friday marks the eighth year since 9/11. And while many of us will celebrate a three-day weekend, many others will not. Members of the military continue to search for Osama bin Laden and members of the Al Qaida cells who planned and executed that fatal attack. Likewise, the people who respond to our emergencies will also be on duty, ever vigilant in their duty to the community.

Pastor Dan Marcinkowski in conjunction with a number of local churches has organized a small ceremony of acknowledgement and thanksgiving for all emergency workers and first responders.

Promptly at 9 a.m., at the Purple Heart Memorial just outside the South Walton Courthouse Annex, community members and all emergency and law enforcement personnel are invited to gather for a moment of silence for those who died on 9/11 and about 10 minutes to acknowledge those who serve us locally.

Think about the events of late, a manhunt in which an armed gunman roamed the streets of a South Walton neighborhood. Law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies joined the search for this man. They went house to house and crawled through the same bushes and brambles the suspect did in their hunt for him. And while residents in that neighborhood were able to crawl into their beds and sleep, deputies remained watchful over the neighborhood. How many of those officers do you think are going to be off on Monday?

Likewise, doctors, nurses and EMS personnel will be at their stations Monday ready to help. Firefighters and paramedics are but a phone call away in the event of an emergency.

Celebrate this Monday, but on Friday, remember the people who just don’t work for a living but stand ready to give their lives so that we can live in relative security. Stop at 9 a.m. on Friday and give one minute of silence to honor those who died on 9/11 and on the battlefields since, and to thank God for those who continue to serve us daily in our hometowns.