In­dra Dwar­ka-koch

Lance L Or­ton may be a hero with world­wide recog­ni­tion for his valiant act to the peo­ple of Amer­i­ca but his heart is in Trinidad. On May 1, in the heart of New York City, a group of Viet­nam vet­er­ans at a street stall on Times Square, ob­served smoke com­ing from a parked ve­hi­cle across from their stand. Alert and act­ing like brave mil­i­tary vet­er­ans, aware of the pop­u­lar New York safe­ty mot­to "If you see some­thing, say some­thing," they in­formed the po­lice.

Po­lice ac­tion went on its way and Times Square was evac­u­at­ed for the first time in its his­to­ry. A bomb was found in the car and luck­i­ly it didn't go off. Or­ton, one of the ven­dors, soon be­came the "hero of Times Square," with ra­dio in­ter­views, news­pa­per head­lines across the globe, an ap­pear­ance on prime time TV, phone calls from the pres­i­dent and din­ner with the May­or of New York City, to men­tion a few. That May Day could have been an­oth­er 9/11 for NYC.

A new hero and a mes­si­ah

God in­spired him, Or­ton told the hun­dreds of tourists from all cor­ners of the globe who stopped at his stall to catch a glimpse of the new hero, and show ap­pre­ci­a­tion for his coura­geous act. Pho­tographs, au­to­graphs and boom­ing sales of T-shirts and caps from the vet­er­ans stall fol­lowed. But Or­ton re­mains a meek man.

Tri­ni con­nec­tion

Even Tri­nis found their way to his stall and Or­ton took that mo­ment to open his heart, telling them he had lost con­tact with his child­hood sweet­heart "Niesha N" from Trinidad. So Niesha, wher­ev­er you are, call 623-8870 (Ext 2705), or e-mail Pe­ter Ray Blood, at the Trinidad & To­ba­go Guardian (blood­line@ttol.co.tt), and get in touch with Lance L Or­ton; he may be your hero, too. He has nev­er for­got­ten you and would like to see you again...the hum­ble hero from Times Square.