Roy Exum: I Am ‘Chattanooga Proud’

  • Thursday, July 23, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

I wouldn’t dare do a thing to dampen the great spirit and magnificent heart that the city of Chattanooga and its surrounding communities have exhibited to the world in the past week. I have read dozens of stories in my daily readings and, over and over, writers and announcers across the nation mention the ‘class’ that we have exhibited since five soldiers were killed and two other brave men were wounded in a terrorist attack here last Thursday.

It didn’t take long for some to call us “Chattanooga Strong,” copying the Boston trademark after the explosions at the 2013 Boston Marathon took five lives in another terrorist attack but, in my simple way of thinking, that great saying belongs to Boston.

You can still buy “Boston Strong” T-shirts on Amazon.

I believe we are rightfully “Chattanooga Proud.” In the half-decade I have been a news writer, I have never seen anything, anywhere, that can compare with Chattanooga’s dazzling response to an unthinkable tragedy. And I have never been as proud of the city I call home. What the people have done, in every shape and form, proves that Lou Holtz was right when he said, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”

Charleston should trademark forgiveness. There was a huge KKK rally in South Carolina last weekend and the best picture showed an aging white guy, wearing a KKK T-shirt, being helped to the shade by a black police officer who quickly offered him water. If I had been that aging KKK supporter, I would have immediately sought out religion because such a godly act can hardly be ignored.

I can easily see such a scene taking place in Chattanooga – and would be so proud I’d pop my buttons. Yet Chattanooga’s first responders have drawn praise all the way to President Obama and the Secretary of the Navy. My goodness, even Peyton Manning, America’s greatest superstar, stopped at the tearful memorial Saturday night just to thank our police officers from Chattanooga, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department and our state troopers.

Peyton did exactly what thousands of us wanted to do. Earlier this week I wrote a piece where I countered Donald Trump’s totally irresponsible jab that John McCain wasn’t a hero. “I like guys that didn’t get captured,” said the rube. In response, I received one of the best replies ever from a reader:

“You know, I never write letters to the editor or respond to things I read in the paper,  but tonight that changes.  Right now, I don’t give a hoot if McCain is a hero or not.  Nor do I care an iota what 'the Donald' says. 

“The only heroes I care about right now are the ones who risked their lives to save ours last Thursday. The men and women of the Chattanooga Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the soldiers and sailors at the Reserve Center!”

Brother, is that ‘Chattanooga Proud’ or what? And I just want to wallow in it.

A great newspaper story, written by Times Free Press reporter Kate Belz, described the trauma team at Erlanger Hospital, how every person who wears the team’s red trauma-team T-shirts moved with the precision of a Swiss watch. In her account, she told how the ICU nurses tending to sailor Randall Smith, learned his favorite song was “Sweet Caroline” so a host of Erlanger’s angels crowded around his bed and, queing up a cell phone, softly sang it to him. That’s Chattanooga Proud!

In the same edition, it was announced the funeral for slain Marine Sgt. David Wyatt would be held on Friday at 1 p.m. at “our” Hixson United Methodist Church and that he would be interred in Chattanooga’s most hallowed ground, the National Cemetery. That’s Chattanooga Proud!

The members of Mike Battery, our Marines, gathered together on Tuesday and, as they walked more hallowed ground, they hoisted the red guidon that goes wherever Mike Battery goes. “It showed that Mike Battery is here … We’re still here,” Sgt. Donovan Water explained. That’s Chattanooga Proud!

As Tony Parilli, an Army Lt. Colonel, told Police Chief Fred Fletcher and others as the accolades continued, “We are proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Chattanooga.”

That’s what I will carry from this past week. If some want to use “Chattanooga Strong” that is well and good, but I am overcome with pride, from the stirring motorcycle tribute of over 500 riders, the thousands of tears that rained at the makeshift memorial, our police, our mayors, our hospital … the list is almost endless.

That will forever be “Chattanooga Proud” in my heart. I’ve never been as proud to call this city my home after the way 100 percent of us responded when the whole world was watching and marveled at our true colors. That’s “Chattanooga Proud!”

royexum@aol.com

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