I Never Want to Say, "I Should Have" | 10@9 | 2026.10.11

Good morning. Today is Sunday, October 11, 2026. This year, I learned something new about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Maybe you already know this, but it was new to me. I watched a short video titled, Operation Boat Lift, an untold tale of 9-11 resilience. So I recommend this to you very highly. It's about a 12-minute video. It's widely available for free online. It's a documentary that was produced in 2011. It's narrated by Tom Hanks. And it tells the remarkable story of the evacuation of about 500,000 people from lower Manhattan by boat on September 11. When the towers fell, every mode of transportation out of Manhattan was shut down. The subways were closed. Tunnels were closed. Bridges were closed. Everything closed immediately. And boats, usually today, in our day and afterthought, in most New Yorkers' minds, for the first time in over a century, boats were the only way off the island. Captain Rick Thornton describes people pouring out of the buildings toward the ferries. The World Trade Center, the Twin Towers, are close to the bottom of Manhattan. And at the very bottom of Manhattan, it's called Battery Park. And there are a couple of ferries that go to Staten Island, some other places. So people ran to the ferries. They weren't asking where the boats were going. They simply wanted to get off Manhattan. In fact, Thornton remembers people actually jumping into the river and trying to swim away from Manhattan. But after the towers fell, an enormous number of people reached the waterfront of Lower Manhattan. Coast Guard Lieutenant Michael Day broadcast all available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard aboard the pilot boat, New York. All available boats, anyone who was willing to help evacuate Lower Manhattan, report to Governor's Island that's a small island close by. And here's the remarkable thing. Within about 20 minutes, more than 100 boats approached. Robin Jones was the engineer aboard a small boat, the Mary Galatly. And understand, these were all kinds of boats. These were tugboats and pleasure boats and everything that you could imagine. He gives in this documentary, gives an unforgettable description. If it floated and it could get here, it got there. Jones said he had worked on the water for 28 years and he had never seen so many boats assemble so quickly. One radio call and they all came. Now the scope of this is historic because the largest boat evacuation up until that time in history was the evacuation of British and French troops during World War II from Dunkirk. You may know about that. That was roughly 339,000 troops evacuated from Dunkirk over nine days. This evacuation was nearly 500,000 civilians evacuated by boat in less than nine hours. And here's what's remarkable. I mean one of the remarkable things. There wasn't any kind of 500,000 person evacuation plan. There were no boats that had trained for this. It was completely improvised on the spot. Jones recalled that essentially you could not have planned something to happen that quickly. No training. This was just people doing what they had to do that day. There was no time to ask whose responsibility is this? Who pays? Who gets credit? There was simply a need. And this is such an enormously important lesson for every single one of us. We never know when a moment like this will arise and we never know how each of us might be able to help. It might be in a way that we had never considered. But how we respond makes all the difference. Again, Robin Jones, a board that Mary Galakley says, average people, they stepped up when they needed to. And he said, I believe everyone has a little hero in them. You have to look inside. It's there. And when necessary, it will emerge. The film focuses on Vincent Ardalino. Now Vincent Ardalino was the captain of a small boat, the Amberjack Five. He was at home and he was watching what was happening on television. And here are his words. I thought I was watching the movie Towering Inferno at first. And then I looked really closely and I noticed it was the World Trade Center. I was compelled because I'm a type A person that can't stand by and watch other people suffer. And to me, they were suffering. They wanted to get off the island and there was no way for them to get off the island other than the water. They were feeling helpless and that's the worst feeling in the world. What was a person on the ground going to do? Buildings were down. There were people buried under the rubble, firemen, civilians, and my wife is sitting beside me. I turned to her and I said, I've got to do something. Just like that. And she looked at me and she says, what are you going to do, you maniac? And I said, I'm going to take my boat, the Amberjack, up into the city and I'm going to help. And she says, but what if they're attacked again? And I said, well, then that's something I have to live with. But I have to do what I have to do. And I said, nobody can stop me right now. Even if I save one person or I rescue one person, that's one person less that will suffer or die. And at that moment, what Artilino did not realize, he thinks he might go at that moment to save one person. He doesn't realize he is about to participate in the largest maritime evacuation in history. And so we must remember this. When you see something that needs doing, one more time, when you see something that needs doing, don't begin by asking whether what you can do is large enough to matter, because you could very well be part of something much larger than yourself. It doesn't matter how much you think you can do. If you can help, you need to help. And near the end of the documentary, we come back to Artilino. And Artilino explains his philosophy in life. I have one theory in life. I never want to say the words I should have. If I act and fail, at least I tried, and I teach that to my children. Artilino passed away in 2018, and there were interviews with his son, Michael. And the interviewer was reading this transcript, which existed, and said, Michael, does that sound like your father? And he said, absolutely, that is what he taught us. If you want to do something, you do it. These are words to live by. And we never know how enormous the impact will be, no matter who we are or what we think we can do. If you want to do something, you do it. Never say the words I should have. If I try and fail, at least I tried. 500,000 people in Lower Manhattan were saved on September 11th because of people like Artilino who came from every walk of life and did what they had to do. My friends, I wish you a great day, and I look forward to seeing you soon in person.