Authorities had every reason to believe the threat was real – and ominous.

A few weeks ago a local man was served a protection order prohibiting him from having contact with his wife and children, according to police.

His response was to tell a family member he would “go down in a blaze of glory” if police interfered with him taking his children out of Central Elementary School in South Williamsport, according to an affidavit.

We have seen how this story plays out in countless tragedies across the nation where children in our schools have been brutally murdered by wayward individuals.

That did not happen in South Williamsport and it’s important to know why.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, the family member notified authorities that the man had been served a protection-from-abuse order, had not turned in his firearms and was en route to the school from his place of employment to pick up his children. The family member claimed he was armed and could not be “talked down.”

Imagine, for a moment, just how difficult it would be for one family member to basically turn in another family member. And how many postmortems have we witnessed in which neighbors and family members admit observing bad signals that were, tragically, not acted on.

But they were this time. The school was locked down, with all appropriate people notified. A unified coalition of the borough, schools, state police and multiple agencies resulted in the allegedly threatening individual being located at his job site and taken into custody without incident.

Because a whole bunch of people and organizations did the right things, parents and grandparents aren’t dealing with a tragedy today.

•••

A couple weeks later we were at an Eagles cover band concert at the Community Arts Center.

During a particularly rocking number about three quarters of the way through the performance, the guitarist veered from his solo moment into a soaring rendition of the National Anthem while the video screen behind him portrayed a waving American flag.

The crowd, which certainly included people of all political stripes, rose spontaneously in a prideful salute and cheered loudly.

In that refreshing, somewhat unlikely moment, we were reunited and it felt so good.

•••

Sept. 11 always leaves me feeling like I have a bowling ball lodged in my stomach.

The bowling ball is composed of overwhelming sadness at the lives needlessly and horribly lost that day. It is composed of anguish that we have not carried forward the unity that swept this nation in the months that followed Sept. 11, 2001. It is composed of regret at lives sacrificed since that day by military personnel and others trying to eliminate the terrorism that made that tragedy possible.

And, yes, there is anger that so many fellow citizens seem to have forgotten so quickly how fragile freedom is, how special it is to live in a country that reveres it, and how vulnerable that freedom is when we devolve into politically inspired disunity.

Those who rode through the dreary rain in this year’s 911 memorial ride and those who ignored the elements and watched with waving flags kept their promise to “never forget.”

They channeled their sadness, anguish, regret and anger into a lesson we need to teach our children and grandchildren – freedom, so much greater than petty politics and tasteless, divisive speeches – is not free.

•••

A potential tragedy averted through selfless honesty and bravery, competent execution of a school safety plan. Spontaneous, unabashed pride in the place we are fortunate enough to live in together. A soulful, patriotic demonstration in the rain to show freedom matters and the threat to it must never be forgotten.

That’s what happens when we are unified and put doing the right thing above anything else. We are capable of unity. We are capable of doing the right thing. We have seen it locally in the past month. We need to start living it – and teach our children how to live it – more often.

David Troisi is the Sun-Gazette’s retired editor. None of the opinions expressed necessarily represent those of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.