NEW YORK — People shouldn't wait for a tragedy to focus on their priorities and should enjoy and value what is important more often, retired New York City Fire Chief Richard Picciotto told attendees at the America's Credit Union Conference & Expo today.
Picciotto, who was the conference's keynote speaker, gave a detailed description of his efforts to rescue people trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11. He also talked of his own near-death experience in being trapped under debris and thinking that he was about to die.
"I thought about my life, my wife and kids. I prayed. I didn't want to die but if I did, make it quick," he recalled about his thoughts on that day.
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He said that experience caused him to value each day and appreciate the sense of unity that was prevalent throughout the United States in the days and months after 9/11.
He criticized politicians for having undermined some of that unity because too many of them "stress our minor differences, not what we have in common."
Picciotto, a member of Municipal Credit Union in New York City, said credit unions embody all that is good about the world.
"You support each other. You support people who need help," he said
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