Wednesday night, I took some time to watch the No. 1 Auburn Tigers take on the LSU Tigers in men’s basketball. 

As you know, this is really one of the most amazing basketball seasons Auburn has ever had. They are 19-1 and could break the record for the best start in school history Saturday against Ole Miss.

Even though they’ve won a lot, I still get nervous watching them play, and Wednesday was no different. The lead got down to five points, and I was starting to worry that they were going to blow it.

Fortunately, they were able to put the game away and win by 13. 

As I am watching the game, I always typically scroll X formerly Twitter to see any tidbits or jokes from fellow fans who are commenting about the game. 

As the game neared its end, I happened to see some people start tweeting about a possible plane crash also involving a helicopter. Before I texted my brother about it, I stopped watching the game and started trying to verify this report.

Once I started seeing some legitimate news sources talking about it, I realized that this was bad. Then I saw the video of the crash, and my heart just sank. I was hoping someone might’ve survived, but I also realized that a crash like that was worse than anything I’ve seen in a long time.

And then as the images of all the first responders who were lining the sides of the Potomac River, the images made me think that this was the kind of response that reminded me of a certain day in 2001.

First of all, thank you to all of the first responders who were there moments after the crash ready to put their lives on the line to get any survivors. I especially thank the dive teams that navigated the chilly waters that still had chunks of ice to try and rescue and recover the souls aboard both aircraft.

These folks are our heroes even though they’ll just tell you that they’re just doing their jobs. But they are. I have no doubt that our police, firefighters, EMS and other response units would do the same.

As far as what caused the crash, I can’t tell you anything that you don’t know already. The people who investigate it know more than I will ever know. Please seek out that information because this is far outside of my area of expertise. They will probably review everything from the personnel and see if protocols were followed, and perhaps, they’ll even investigate whether the protocols were sufficient and see if additional changes are made.

When I saw all of this happening, it made me think of all the times I’ve flown. You never think twice about making that final approach that something could go wrong like that. 

Moments like this remind us that the things we were worried about — like sports — just don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. But what does matter is your family, friends and loved ones. God can make something good come out of it, but we won’t know why it happened, at least on this side of heaven.

 

Brent Maze is the publisher of The Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at brent.maze@selmatimesjournal.com.