(Kenneth M. Ruggiano for TIME)
How about those first responders! “First Responder” has become the buzz word of the millennium. What we really mean are those brave souls who are first on the scene of any disaster, large or small. Those are the people who rush into burning buildings, who scrape us up off the highway or who dodge bullets running into schools when a another mad-man decides to go out in a blaze of glory, mowing down as many innocents in cold blood as possible.
Those are the folks who travel great distances to places like Boston or Moore, Oklahoma just because they are needed and have skills that might be needed in a time of crisis. Those are the folks you see pouring through the 17 miles of rubble that the residents of suburban Oklahoma City used to call home. Those are the folks who gaze on the most horrific scenes in the aftermath of fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, shootings, and terrorism.
