Staff Reports
As the country prepares for the 25th remembrance of 9/11, two things are happening at once: Townhall is running an “American Heroes of 9/11” series that brings Father Mychal Judge’s story back into the light, and the FDNY and FDNY Foundation have premiered a pair of short films — Remembering Judge and Resilience — to do the same work on screen. These efforts matter because honoring a hero is more than a hashtag. It is a reminder of who we are, what we owe, and how badly we sometimes forget the living people who still bear the scars.
FDNY’s films put Father Mychal Judge center stage
The FDNY-produced Remembering Judge is a short documentary about the Franciscan friar who was the department’s chaplain and came to be called Victim 0001 after he was killed at Ground Zero. The film premiered with a companion piece, Resilience, which focuses on the long-term health toll suffered by first responders. Screenings are scheduled at the Firehouse cinema in Lower Manhattan, and the FDNY is using these films as part of its larger 25th-anniversary program. “These films help us tell the FDNY story,” Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said, and she’s right — it’s the department’s story to tell, not the politicians’ press release.
Why Father Mychal Judge still matters
Father Mychal Judge was more than a photo from the day of the attack. He spent decades ministering to firefighters, helping AIDS patients, counseling the lost and lonely, and standing with New Yorkers who were most in need. Townhall’s profile in the “Heroes of 9/11” series does the necessary work of reminding readers of that life: the shoeshine boy who gave away his pocket change, the friar who answered countless calls for last rites, and the man who prayed even as rubble fell. Remembering Judge is about more than sorrow; it’s about a model of service that media trends and political theater too often ignore.
Resilience: the other story most Americans still don’t see
The second film, Resilience, yanks the camera back to the responders who survived the towers but are still dying because of what they breathed in 2001. The toll is more than a statistic — it’s a promise we made and haven’t fully kept. Reports show responder deaths tied to 9/11 exposure are well into the hundreds, and the FDNY is using this anniversary to put that fact front and center. If “Never Forget” means anything, it must mean better health care, faster benefits, and relentless pressure on officials who delay help. We can have ceremonies and emblems, but let’s not let them be the substitute for actual care.
Honoring properly: more than ceremonies, it’s accountability
It’s good that Townhall is reminding a new generation who Father Mychal Judge was, and it’s good that the FDNY put real effort into films that tell the department’s story. But remembrance should come with an ask: fund the care, reform the bureaucracy, and keep these stories alive in schools and communities, not just on anniversaries. We can laugh at politicians who stage empty tributes, but we should demand they do better for the living heroes among us. The films and the profiles do the remembering. Now let’s make sure remembrance becomes action.
