REMARKS TO THE MICHAEL LYNCH MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
By Diane Ravitch
March 21, 2005
I am honored that the Lynch family invited me to speak tonight and to join them in paying tribute to the memory of Michael Lynch, as well as to the other men and women who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
None of us will ever forget that terrible day. No American should ever forget that day. No decent person from any nation in the world should ever forget that day.
For the rest of our lives, we will remember where we were that day, what we were doing, how we found out about it, what we saw, how we reacted. We will tell our children and our grandchildren. We will never forget and we will always honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt called Pearl Harbor Day a “day that will live in infamy.”
9/11 will be remembered in history as a day of great villainy. It was a day in which evil and demented conspirators rained death on thousands of innocent people. Their evil did not go unanswered. Because of what happened on that day, two nations—Afghanistan and Iraq—have been liberated from the iron grip of cruel tyrants, and fifty million people have been freed. Because of what happened on that day, a wave of change, a hint of freedom, is now sweeping through the Middle East, a region where for many decades, dictators have been allowed to oppress their peoples and to breed terrorism. The world has changed because of that day.
But we are here tonight to recognize that 9/11 was also a day of unparalleled heroism and sacrifice. And everything we know about the man we honor tonight, Michael Lynch, speaks of heroism, sacrifice, and service to his fellow man.
I did not know Michael Lynch. I wish that I had.
Michael’s sister Maureen told me that Michael was seventh of ten children. I can relate to that because I was third of eight children.
She told me that their parents Kathleen and Jack immigrated from Ireland in the 1950s; that they settled in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, and that they put always stressed the importance and value of education. The Lynch children attended parochial school; eight of the ten earned college degrees; four of the ten earned graduate degrees.
Michael and his nine brothers and sisters attended St. Francis de Chantal Elementary School in Throggs Neck. Maureen told me that he was born on the feast day of St. Francis and his middle name was Francis. He was a shy boy, and not until fourth grade did Sister Betty Ann help him overcome his shyness. He was ever after grateful to Sister Betty Ann, and he often sought her out to help her in school.
Michael then attended Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, where he played soccer and was captain of the team. He had a special love for science, and was close to his science teacher, Father O’Herlihy.
Michael graduated from Iona College. Then he went to work as a stockbroker at Morgan Stanley. He worked in the Morgan Stanley offices at the World Trade Center.
But something in Michael was not satisfied to be a stockbroker. Michael wanted to be a firefighter, so he left Morgan Stanley and joined the Fire Department of New York. Michael was assigned to Ladder 32, Engine 62 in the Bronx, but on September 11 he was on rotation at Engine 40, Ladder 35 in Manhattan. Engine 40 lost 12 of its 13 firefighters on that fateful day.
I live in Brooklyn, three blocks from New York Harbor. Minutes after 9 am on September 11, I was in my kitchen, having a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper. I felt an immense jolt; it felt and sounded like a sonic boom. A friend called to say, “turn on the television; something terrible has happened.” I did. On the screen, I saw one of the buildings ablaze, and I immediately hurried to the waterfront. When I reached there a few minutes later, I looked up just as the second plane hit the second tower, directly across the harbor from where I was standing. It was a sight that I will never forget. I stood with a small group of people, all of us in a state of shock, all of us weeping at the terrible sight about which we could do nothing.
We watched as helpless bystanders, but on the other side of the river, others soon arrived to bring help and seek survivors. Michael was one of the brave rescue workers who rushed into the buildings as everyone else was rushing out.
A few weeks ago, I went to the website of the Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation to learn more about Michael and his family. It is impossible to read the letters to Michael from his family without crying. It is impossible to read the letters to Michael’s family written by friends and strangers from all across the United States and the world without being deeply moved.
After reading about Michael Lynch, seeing the photographs of his family and friends, and reading the tributes to Michael, a strange thing happened to me. I felt his spirit. I felt his presence in the memories of his family and friends. I felt as though their letters were reaching him in heaven, and he was smiling. It sounds odd to me to hear myself say this; I could scarcely believe it, but in some amazing way, the love of his family has preserved or inspired or invoked Michael’s spirit on the website. It is there for those who look for it. Their loving thoughts circle the globe and somehow reach into every part of the stratosphere.
The love that they express for him is so pure and so intense that it recreates a sense of this good man. It is often said that a person lives on in the hearts of those who remember him; in this case, the family’s love and longing have made some part of Michael Lynch live for everyone who seeks him.
Michael’s family wanted not only to remember him, but to create a legacy for Michael that would survive far into the future. They did this when they established the Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation, whose primary activity is to award scholarships to worthy young people whose family has been touched by tragedy.
Michael would have liked that. He was a volunteer soccer coach for boys in the Bronx. Obviously he liked working with kids and he wanted to help them. He would be happy to know that many young people will have an opportunity for a better life because of his family’s desire to honor his memory.
The one thing that struck me about Michael as I learned more and more about him was his decision to leave the world of high finance and become a firefighter. Michael was in a position to become very wealthy if he had remained a stockbroker. But he preferred to follow his dream. He had his college degree, and he could make choices. He made the choice to be what he wanted to be.
That is the wonderful thing about education. It multiplies opportunity. It opens doors that would otherwise be closed. It says to the student: You decide. The choice is yours. Set a goal and pursue it. When most people think about getting a college degree, they think only about career opportunities, and to be sure there are more of them for those with an education.
But there is something else about education that is valuable, something that the college brochures don’t tell you. When you have an education, it is an investment in yourself and your capacities that you can never lose and that no one can ever take away from you. None of us knows what life has in store for us. But one thing we do know is that education allows each of us to make the most of our God-given talents and abilities. Education, to the extent that we pursue it and use it, gives us the power to move into new worlds, to know what happened to people who lived hundreds of years ago and to put ourselves in the place of people who live in other civilizations. Education gives us more choices in our lives, more possibilities.
Education is a magic carpet that enables us to take part in other times and places. Education gives us the power to stand on the shoulders of giants and to see farther than they have seen.
I have been studying and writing about education for forty years, and I have learned a few things that I’d like to share with you.
Education begins at home. Education begins with family. A good education begins with good parents. Education begins when parents demonstrate by their actions to a child that he or she is loved and valued. Education happens when parents help their children develop good habits, good character, a sense of responsibility, a readiness to pitch in, an understanding of the behavior that is expected of them.
A good education happens when parents read to their children, share the stories and poems that they love with their children, talk to them at meal times, listen to their problems, help them think about how to act honorably, how to make good choices, and how to meet challenges.
A good education becomes even stronger when families are connected to community institutions that reinforce the values taught at home. In Michael Lynch’s case, the family was closely connected to its Catholic faith, and this faith reinforced Michael’s strong sense of service to others. Together, the family and the community of faith give children a clear sense of right and wrong, a sense of responsibility for those who are weaker than themselves, and the readiness to turn ideals into actions.
When Michael went to St. Francis de Chantal and Cardinal Spellman High School, it is a certainty that the values of Michael’s family were shared and strengthened by his teachers. Michael’s teachers were surely not swept up by the bizarre fads and trendy pedagogical fashions that have made such a mess of large segments of American public education. I suspect there was no “whole language” or “fuzzy math” at St. Francis. Michael no doubt learned correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. He may have experienced a bit of rote learning, with no harm done to him. No one worried about his self-esteem when they corrected his papers with a red pencil. He learned something far more valuable than self-esteem: he learned self-discipline, and he understood that self-esteem was to be earned, not granted by teachers.
I don’t mean to make out that Michael was a scholar. Maybe he was, but I really don’t know. Having seen his infectious smile, I rather suspect that he was a cut-up and that he occasionally got into trouble because of his incurable good humor.
But what I know—and we all know about Michael Lynch—is that he was a good man. He was a man of character who gave up an easy life and chose a life that was fraught with risk. He knew the risks. He didn’t have to take them, but he did. He chose a life that had meaning. Something in his family, something in his education, something in his religion, something in his character, whispered in his ear that he wanted, he needed to have a life of service and meaning. He followed his dream.
And his family now honors him and his dream by awarding scholarships to deserving young people. Through their accomplishments, Michael Lynch lives. As they engage in their studies and find their own lives of purpose and meaning, Michael’s name and memory will continue to be honored. Through their contributions to our society, the families they build, and the good lives that they make, Michael Lynch—Badge 2315—will never be forgotten.
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