We’ve got a duty to die,” Lamm said, “and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life.

When deciding whether or not to go for your dream, remember that you don’t need a bigger net, you just need bigger wings.

As they discussed disaster preparedness that afternoon, Rick Simmons argued that Katrina showed what worked best was a central, top-to-bottom command. He gave the example of the Coast Guard, perhaps not knowing that many in the Guard attributed their Katrina successes, conversely, to the initiative of ground-level crew members who were empowered to solve problems impromptu and worked with great autonomy.

Sometimes the ethical – the most important ethical question sometimes is the one you ask not at the moment of crisis, but the duty you have to anticipate certain kinds of crises and avoid them.

Always be open to inspiration. You never know where it may come from. Begin with an open mind, end with an inspired heart.

The long-repressed masses outside the hospital, brandishing looted guns and rifles, would revolt and overtake them. The enemy was near. A rowdy gang squatted in the credit union building across the street from Memorial.

Emergencies are crucibles that contain and reveal the daily, slower-burning problems of medicine and beyond – our vulnerabilities; our trouble grappling with uncertainty, how we die, how we prioritize and divide what is most precious and vital and limited; even our biases and blindnesses.

Gunshots assumed to have been aimed at rescuers may have been gunshots aimed, however misguidedly, at alerting those rescuers to the presence of desperate survivors.

Don’t be anyone’s firefly in a jar! A lot of people are attracted to the light. Some are also intimidated by it. They selfishly try to keep it for themselves. Sometimes it happens so fast, you don’t even realize you’re being captured. There is magic within you that will suffocate in a jar. If you wake up one morning and realize there’s a lid above you, do whatever it takes to free yourself. Life is much better beyond the jar. The world needs your light! Shine, Baby, shine!

That being said, even if we cannot achieve it, journalism that strives toward objectivity and fairness has an important place in our society. So, too, does being honest and open when presenting our own opinions, as you do so well in your book.