p_p_man
The 'Euro' European
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2001
- Posts
- 24,253
E-mails from America
I'm posting this to remind us all what happened 4 short months ago. Some of the E-mails are tragic, some philosophical, some practical. But they all have one thing in common.
They're all genuine.
Copied from the London Times: Friday 11 January 2002
"We asked those who had witnessed events in Washington or New York, or received e-mails or phone calls from family or friends who were directly affected, to send us their recollections. Here is an edited selection of those e-mails"
I received an e-mail from a woman who had just witnessed the towers collapsing and business people covered in dust walking down the street in front of her apartment. She asked a question that all Americans are asking now: Why are these terrorists mad at the United States? Before September 11, we lived in a bubble and did not care what the answer was. Now we can join all the other countries lacking a bubble in caring what goes on outside of our own borders.
Eddie Ford, Aurora, Illinois
I work at Universal Studios in Orlando. Work this week has been difficult. How do you act happy and make the park guests feel happy when such a horrific event has happened?
I spoke to a man from Texas who was in Orlando to teach a class on, of all things, disaster preparedness. While the attendance for the class had skyrocketed, it was difficult for him to teach, since everyone was more concerned with the current disaster than learning about preparing for future events. The attack, when combined with Tropical Storm Gabrielle, made for very low attendance at Universal. This was unfortunate for the park employees, because what we really needed was plenty of work to take our minds off of the World Trade Center attack, but what we got was days of standing around, hoping that someone would decide to come out and play.
Topher Kersting, Longwood, Florida
It is a common complaint that American television is a series of commercials interrupted by occasional programming, but from early Tuesday until Saturday the major networks ran commercial-free, amazingly, around the clock. It was a revelation to surf our 70 or so channels. MTV and VH-1 (music channels) ran news feeds, probably for the first time in their histories.
But the most interesting factor was the Internet. The only phone calls we got were from overseas. Within America, all of our "Are you OK?" contacts came as emails. I tried ringing friends in New York, but the phone system was overloaded, but email never stopped. It always got through.
Bob McKay Westlake Village (NW corner of Los Angeles County, off the Ventura Freeway)
I was lecturing about the fundamentals of the United States Constitution for my introductory American Government course here at the University of Missouri-Kansas City while the tragic events were unfolding … explaining to the class that although the power to "declare war" was constitutionally given to the Congress it was the President that had to power to "make war" in case of invasion or sudden attack … because the Framers understood that the separation of powers would allow the President to act in a more decisive fashion than an elected assembly.
I take solace [first that] while the terrorists were attempting to maim our Constitution and the people that it serves I was extolling its virtues to a new generation. Second, the British Prime Minister and the United Kingdom have swiftly shown such wonderful & needed support in our time of great pain. I thought that Prime Minister Blair so clearly articulated what many of us over here want to believe, that "their utter barbarism would be their badge of shame for all eternity". Finally, the fact that Nato would invoke the "mutual defense" clause and Australia a similar clause in the ANZUS treaty speaks volumes about the allies of the United States. This truly is a war against democracy and democratic civilization and it is reassuring to us Americans that our friends will be there to help fight against terrorism.
David Sprick, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri-Kansas City.
On the way home I noticed I could see about 5 dozen stars in the sky, and for anyone who has been to New York they know that is an unusually large amount, about 5 dozen more than usual. I realized it was because of the lack of cars. There were no cars on the road in all of Manhattan. As I looked south the sky was bright, the rescue crews were still hard at work. I was still in shock.
Timothy Clegg
I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about a seven hour drive from New York, a four hour drive from Washington DC, and a hour and a half drive from Somerset, PA. I saw the whole episode unfold in front of me on a six-inch television set in my office. It feels like a dream, even today, that this type of cruel act could occur in the name of religion.
Maybe I am just a naive Pittsburgher who has never left the United States to experience first hand another country and its uniqueness. In case you've never been to Pittsburgh it is a blue collar steel mill and coal mining town that drinks beer and cheers wildly for its Steelers of the National Football League, the Pirates of Major League Baseball, and the Penguins of the National Hockey League. But never in my life did I experience the feeling that I felt as I sat in my apartment watching tv late last week. I saw with my own eyes how another country could touch me in a way no other ever has, and probably never will. I cried as I watched a nation’s tradition transformed to honor the fallen Americans who had perished in the terrorist attacks.
The tradition I am speaking of was Great Britain’s playing of the USA's National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" at the changing of the guard. I have probably heard that Anthem played a million times before school, sporting events, etc. But never did it sound so beautiful as it did coming from our friends across the Atlantic. I can say from the bottom of my heart, that scene will forever be etched in my mind as a lasting memory of these horrible terrorist attacks.
So from my little laptop in western Pennsylvania I just want to send my thanks for filling my heart with a little joy and pride at a time when I needed it the most.
George Herbert, Marketing Director, Pittsburgh Builders Exchange.
I have read how after Pearl Harbor was bombed, people on the West Coast stared silently out to sea as if they might catch a glimpse of the events unfolding thousands of miles away, as if hoping to see what the future might hold. People in midtown Manhattan looked downtown in the same way. I set off for my apartment on the Upper West Side on foot. Central Park was crowded with office workers moving silently uptown. I stopped at a supermarket to buy long-life milk and other supplies for my two children. Suddenly there was a commotion and everybody threw themselves to the floor. I didn't hear the warning, "Get down! Get down!" and stayed standing. People looked up at me and then looked sheepishly at each other. False alarm. They picked themselves up and went back to cramming their shopping carts with canned food and bottled water.
The next day the wind changed direction and the smoke reached the Upper West Side. My three-year-old daughter watched footage of the towers collapsing on television. She knew a good friend worked there. "Will the fixers come and fix up Ian's house?" she asked. I turned off the air conditioner in her room to keep out the smell. It's now Friday and I am surprised by the grim civility of my fellow New Yorkers. That civility often disappears when talk turns to how the United States should react. In today's New York Times - a famously liberal paper - somebody is quoted as saying we should kill the Arabs and bury them in pigskins. So much for liberalism. So much for political correctness.
Glenn Johnston, West 110th Street, New York.
It was so far away from where I was, in Dallas. I called the management of the Tulsa Oklahoma building my staff was working in. No, they said, there were no Federal Government tenants; the building was probably not a target. We drove to Tulsa; the airports were closed, a 4 to5-hour drive north through the Creek and Choctaw Indian nations, a quiet pastoral of trees, water and hawks above. I ate a quick meal in a typical American diner, its population - white, flag boutonnieres, some surviving bouffant hairdos - all glued to the television. The diner’s owner walked out to see the latest; he had to be Lebanese, or Syrian. His regular customers never batted an eye, spoke with him as they spoke with each other of the loss of Americans. I never saw the distrust I had feared.
Then, a voicemail from a friend brought it home to me. A friend, a gentle bear of a man who taught me how to roast corn in its own husk with butter on the grill, had been in the forecourt of the World Trade Center on business. He was hit in the head with falling masonry when the first plane hit. Met immediately with an ambulance called for other matters, he was out of the mess and in a hospital as it all came tumbling down. He was declared brain-dead in a few hours. His wife and son, in Kansas City, couldn’t get to the airport; they were closed.
Tulsa is not far enough away, nor is any place.
Lee Chevalier, Dallas, Texas
I am a teacher in a suburb outside of New York City which is close enough for many residents to work in the World Trade Center. When they announced the tragedy many students were in total confusion and panic. It was heart wrenching to see these poor children crying because they did not know if their parents or relatives were alive or dead.
I live in a country which has faults like other countries but I believe that the intention of the US to do good or the correct thing is always present. Yes there have been times when we have appeared to be misguided, but show me another country of the world without this blemish on their record. The attack on the WTC and innocent people is an act that betrays the barbaric motives of terrorists. The live accounts of the carnage have left a scar on the souls of Americans, but it has created a resolve that this terrorism will stop; we will stop it and hopefully you will help us.
Respectfully, Bill Walsh, Huntington, New York
Most of my friends are accounted for, as most people were able to get out of the area before the buildings collapsed, but I still haven’t heard from a few. The great thing about New York (and this country) is its ability to persevere. Schools should start reopening tomorrow, and business should slowly return to normal. Fortunately my experiences have been more of an observer than a victim, but I have friends whose apartments are in that 10 square block area downtown and still have no place to go.
My folks wanted me to come home to Boston to get away from the city, but I couldn’t imagine leaving, as I couldn’t think of a more important place for me to be. I am very proud of the heroes of this city, from the heralded sacrifices of our rescue squads, to the steadfast hope of searching families, to the unsung ranks of the volunteers that include almost everyone I see - friends, shopkeepers, citizens, neighbors and strangers alike, all willing to lend a hand in any way they could, or a shoulder to lean on.
Mark Goldberg, East 11th Street, New York
Television can not do justice to what it is like to see it firsthand, and I often wonder how many of the people I rode with on the subway into the World Trade Center that morning are now dead. But I’ve realized over the past few days that it doesn’t do any good to linger over those few horrible moments. What I want to remember is what’s happened since then.
What’s occurred in the aftermath of the attacks has created a new legacy for New York, one which I doubt many in this city will ever forget. That’s what I want to take from all this—not the fear or the terror, but rather the memories of millions of New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike joined together by a common strength, compassion and will.
Lana Chen
My children had been in school at the time of the attack and their TV screens had mercifully been blacked out by the principals. Too many of them have parents who work downtown. After-school activities were cancelled on Tuesday for practical considerations but things got back to normal schedule next day, apart from a small number of staff and students awaiting news of loved ones. It is difficult to know how this will affect them in the future. My 16-year-old was terrified by her own anger - the first time she had experienced horror like that. I don’t know if my 12-year-old actually believes it really happened.
We have been “coping” with a houseful of British refugees. Alternative accommodation is now being made available as the thousands of evacuated residents and landlords get organised. The choice ranges from shelters in high schools, or, rather better, vacant rooms being made available by volunteers. One couple has found a small low-cost temporary apartment in the Upper East Side with the help of the owners of their apartment building. The couple with the baby were offered an empty room in a friend’s large apartment. This accommodation will be more suitable but they are still paying astronomical rent on their apartments, one of which will not be reopened until October. Two substations serving their apartments were knocked out, the gas is turned off and there is no water.
Jane Peach, South Hempstead, NY
My biggest fear, and you can see shades of it now and then, is that New York, one of the most foreigner friendly cities in the world, is starting to get xenophobic. I was walking out my apartment building today, and an elderly woman who lives in my building, surely well educated and otherwise rational, was telling the doorman - “All Arabs are guilty”. I’m from India, and could pass for someone from the Middle East. I haven’t had anyone scream at me yet, though I have gotten a few stares that have made me uneasy.
Roy J. Rodrigues
In 1963, my oldest sister went to an early Mass the Sunday after John Kennedy was shot. While we were at Mass, she was home and watching TV when the assassin Oswald was killed on live TV. Over the years, she has said how watching him murdered live on TV still haunted her. After all these years, I now know what she meant.
Reid Bronson
It has been a terrifying week here in the greater New York area. Tuesday afternoon, I ran outside terrified when I heard a plane overhead, knowing that all air traffic was grounded. It was a fighter plane, patrolling the skies. I guess I won’t garner any sympathy from countries that have been in attacked in war, but for myself, I wondered at that fear. We Americans have thought ourselves immune from it.
Susan McNicholas, Rahway, NJ
Here in Glen Rock, in the northern New Jersey suburbs of New York City, many people work in or near the World Trade Center. I was working there at the time of the 1993 bombing, but now work several blocks away on Water Street. The first plane must have hit no more than five minutes after I emerged from the complex on my way to work.
I’ve been struck by the unfamiliar presence of dads around town, since none of us have been able to return to work. My house is directly across the street from a primary school. One can’t help but remark on the number of dads holding their children’s hands and walking them to school in the morning, retrieving them for lunch, returning them after lunch, and finally picking them up at the end of the school day. Dads everywhere - and then, with the children deposited with the school, dads and moms holding hands for the stroll home.
Clint Winstead, Glen Rock, NJ
By Thursday we wanted to leave our neighborhood for the day. We live in the southern area of the city that was banned to all non-residents and cars this week. So the shops were shut and the streets eerily quiet. We caught a cab uptown and ran into a traffic deadlock right by Grand Central station - there seemed to have been a bomb threat and a large number of people were gathered outside the station. So we left the cab to walk the rest of the way.
After a few blocks, on a rather wide street full of people, someone shouted “Run, Run!” and the entire street of people began sprinting towards us. More people yelled “Run!” and we joined in on the stampede. It was terrifying - I had no idea what we were running from. Then about a half block later everyone stopped, not knowing what they were fleeing from.
It may have had something to do with the numerous bomb threats - we later found out that 90 bomb threats had been called in that week for New York City buildings, including the Empire State Building. We passed several buildings that day that had been evacuated, their people standing nervously outside. It is staggering to think that there are people out there who want to add to the misery of all this.
The first few days we had an electrical-smelling smoke in the neighborhood and people wore face masks to filter the potentially asbestos-laden air, but that has passed since it rained yesterday. You used to be able to see the twin towers by looking south from almost anywhere in Greenwich Village and now there is a big hole, just bright blue sky with perhaps a few wisps of the smoke remaining from the rubble.
Melissa J. Bracken
Astoria is a suburban/urban working class section of New York City. We used to have a serendipitous view, straight down some avenues, of the World Trade Center towers. Policemen and firemen live here. Lived here. There are impromptu candle displays on every corner. There are flags everywhere. The news media no sooner asks for something - blood, clean socks for the rescuers, paw pads for the rescue dogs, eye solution, aspirin - than 15 minutes later they rescind the call, explaining that they are overwhelmed with contributions.
Elizabeth Frank
I became senseless in rural Wooster, Ohio, knowing my daughter was there. I told myself I was not alone. All those people have mothers. She is not in the World Trade Center towers. But where is her office and what route does she take to get there? How could I not know that, I am her mother. The first phone call from her cell phone ... we are in the center of our building, we can’t leave. There is a bomb threat at the UN Building. I am next to the UN Building. Then silence. Soon after, an e-mail. There are fighter planes over us and we don’t know who they are. There is too much smoke. We are leaving. We will be running north. North took her home.
How could she become a New Yorker in a year. She’s only a child. How can she tell me she will be alright, she’s a New Yorker. I know better, I am her mother.
Name and address withheld
My family and I are waiting on word of our missing relative and three more friends of the family. The outpouring of support and solidarity from our UK friends brings joy to my heart in this time of sadness. Thank you all.
Sheamus Barry
I’m here directing my first Broadway musical - Mamma Mia! For three weeks I’ve revelled in this city. Each day I run in Central Park, one of the seven wonders of the world. On Tuesday as I left for rehearsals my Spanish doorman said “Did you hear a plane hit twin towers?” My assumption that a tourist plane had missed its mark made me vow to cancel my proposed helicopter flight trip round Manhattan for friends arriving for the premiere.
At Union Square I joined a crowd gazing at the smoking towers. Minutes later actors were howling into the rehearsal room that the first tower had collapsed. We thought we were under military attack. Back in the street escapees from ground zero were fleeing screaming and nuclear dusted past us, as if King Kong were chasing behind. Three hours later, rehearsals abandoned, I walked north through silent sunlit streets. A man approached with a printed leaflet “upset by today’s disaster - free counselling - Church of Scientology west 46th st.” - another offered us one of his “last five” shaking snow scenes of the Manhattan skyline “with twin towers”. At Times Square an exhausted lady, a white dusted escapee from the conflagration, fell into the arms of a friend.
The atmosphere here is pregnant with rage, panic and grief. One’s feeling for those searching for relatives, left pinning notes on trees or queuing to get a sliver of time on one of the cable stations to advertise their faces, is overwhelming. The level of media debate is lamentably low, there’s ballooning jingoism, alienating to those of us not hell-bent on nuking the opposition and hoping to leave peacefully after the opening of our show.
I’ve been trying to act as leader of the acting company. I but know that the Dunkirk spirit is inappropriate to meet the complexities. One actor’s boyfriend is missing presumed dead. There’s already an explosive generation gulf yawning between those who urge a maintenance of a finger on the national safety catch (the twenty-somethings) and those of the senior generation who urge a more retributive path. I’ve proposed that our rehearsals, though at present hard to inhabit (especially the musical number “under attack”), will eventually produce balm, even exquisite relief, for broken spirits.
Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia!"
Just in case we forget...
ppman
I'm posting this to remind us all what happened 4 short months ago. Some of the E-mails are tragic, some philosophical, some practical. But they all have one thing in common.
They're all genuine.
Copied from the London Times: Friday 11 January 2002
"We asked those who had witnessed events in Washington or New York, or received e-mails or phone calls from family or friends who were directly affected, to send us their recollections. Here is an edited selection of those e-mails"
I received an e-mail from a woman who had just witnessed the towers collapsing and business people covered in dust walking down the street in front of her apartment. She asked a question that all Americans are asking now: Why are these terrorists mad at the United States? Before September 11, we lived in a bubble and did not care what the answer was. Now we can join all the other countries lacking a bubble in caring what goes on outside of our own borders.
Eddie Ford, Aurora, Illinois
I work at Universal Studios in Orlando. Work this week has been difficult. How do you act happy and make the park guests feel happy when such a horrific event has happened?
I spoke to a man from Texas who was in Orlando to teach a class on, of all things, disaster preparedness. While the attendance for the class had skyrocketed, it was difficult for him to teach, since everyone was more concerned with the current disaster than learning about preparing for future events. The attack, when combined with Tropical Storm Gabrielle, made for very low attendance at Universal. This was unfortunate for the park employees, because what we really needed was plenty of work to take our minds off of the World Trade Center attack, but what we got was days of standing around, hoping that someone would decide to come out and play.
Topher Kersting, Longwood, Florida
It is a common complaint that American television is a series of commercials interrupted by occasional programming, but from early Tuesday until Saturday the major networks ran commercial-free, amazingly, around the clock. It was a revelation to surf our 70 or so channels. MTV and VH-1 (music channels) ran news feeds, probably for the first time in their histories.
But the most interesting factor was the Internet. The only phone calls we got were from overseas. Within America, all of our "Are you OK?" contacts came as emails. I tried ringing friends in New York, but the phone system was overloaded, but email never stopped. It always got through.
Bob McKay Westlake Village (NW corner of Los Angeles County, off the Ventura Freeway)
I was lecturing about the fundamentals of the United States Constitution for my introductory American Government course here at the University of Missouri-Kansas City while the tragic events were unfolding … explaining to the class that although the power to "declare war" was constitutionally given to the Congress it was the President that had to power to "make war" in case of invasion or sudden attack … because the Framers understood that the separation of powers would allow the President to act in a more decisive fashion than an elected assembly.
I take solace [first that] while the terrorists were attempting to maim our Constitution and the people that it serves I was extolling its virtues to a new generation. Second, the British Prime Minister and the United Kingdom have swiftly shown such wonderful & needed support in our time of great pain. I thought that Prime Minister Blair so clearly articulated what many of us over here want to believe, that "their utter barbarism would be their badge of shame for all eternity". Finally, the fact that Nato would invoke the "mutual defense" clause and Australia a similar clause in the ANZUS treaty speaks volumes about the allies of the United States. This truly is a war against democracy and democratic civilization and it is reassuring to us Americans that our friends will be there to help fight against terrorism.
David Sprick, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri-Kansas City.
On the way home I noticed I could see about 5 dozen stars in the sky, and for anyone who has been to New York they know that is an unusually large amount, about 5 dozen more than usual. I realized it was because of the lack of cars. There were no cars on the road in all of Manhattan. As I looked south the sky was bright, the rescue crews were still hard at work. I was still in shock.
Timothy Clegg
I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about a seven hour drive from New York, a four hour drive from Washington DC, and a hour and a half drive from Somerset, PA. I saw the whole episode unfold in front of me on a six-inch television set in my office. It feels like a dream, even today, that this type of cruel act could occur in the name of religion.
Maybe I am just a naive Pittsburgher who has never left the United States to experience first hand another country and its uniqueness. In case you've never been to Pittsburgh it is a blue collar steel mill and coal mining town that drinks beer and cheers wildly for its Steelers of the National Football League, the Pirates of Major League Baseball, and the Penguins of the National Hockey League. But never in my life did I experience the feeling that I felt as I sat in my apartment watching tv late last week. I saw with my own eyes how another country could touch me in a way no other ever has, and probably never will. I cried as I watched a nation’s tradition transformed to honor the fallen Americans who had perished in the terrorist attacks.
The tradition I am speaking of was Great Britain’s playing of the USA's National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" at the changing of the guard. I have probably heard that Anthem played a million times before school, sporting events, etc. But never did it sound so beautiful as it did coming from our friends across the Atlantic. I can say from the bottom of my heart, that scene will forever be etched in my mind as a lasting memory of these horrible terrorist attacks.
So from my little laptop in western Pennsylvania I just want to send my thanks for filling my heart with a little joy and pride at a time when I needed it the most.
George Herbert, Marketing Director, Pittsburgh Builders Exchange.
I have read how after Pearl Harbor was bombed, people on the West Coast stared silently out to sea as if they might catch a glimpse of the events unfolding thousands of miles away, as if hoping to see what the future might hold. People in midtown Manhattan looked downtown in the same way. I set off for my apartment on the Upper West Side on foot. Central Park was crowded with office workers moving silently uptown. I stopped at a supermarket to buy long-life milk and other supplies for my two children. Suddenly there was a commotion and everybody threw themselves to the floor. I didn't hear the warning, "Get down! Get down!" and stayed standing. People looked up at me and then looked sheepishly at each other. False alarm. They picked themselves up and went back to cramming their shopping carts with canned food and bottled water.
The next day the wind changed direction and the smoke reached the Upper West Side. My three-year-old daughter watched footage of the towers collapsing on television. She knew a good friend worked there. "Will the fixers come and fix up Ian's house?" she asked. I turned off the air conditioner in her room to keep out the smell. It's now Friday and I am surprised by the grim civility of my fellow New Yorkers. That civility often disappears when talk turns to how the United States should react. In today's New York Times - a famously liberal paper - somebody is quoted as saying we should kill the Arabs and bury them in pigskins. So much for liberalism. So much for political correctness.
Glenn Johnston, West 110th Street, New York.
It was so far away from where I was, in Dallas. I called the management of the Tulsa Oklahoma building my staff was working in. No, they said, there were no Federal Government tenants; the building was probably not a target. We drove to Tulsa; the airports were closed, a 4 to5-hour drive north through the Creek and Choctaw Indian nations, a quiet pastoral of trees, water and hawks above. I ate a quick meal in a typical American diner, its population - white, flag boutonnieres, some surviving bouffant hairdos - all glued to the television. The diner’s owner walked out to see the latest; he had to be Lebanese, or Syrian. His regular customers never batted an eye, spoke with him as they spoke with each other of the loss of Americans. I never saw the distrust I had feared.
Then, a voicemail from a friend brought it home to me. A friend, a gentle bear of a man who taught me how to roast corn in its own husk with butter on the grill, had been in the forecourt of the World Trade Center on business. He was hit in the head with falling masonry when the first plane hit. Met immediately with an ambulance called for other matters, he was out of the mess and in a hospital as it all came tumbling down. He was declared brain-dead in a few hours. His wife and son, in Kansas City, couldn’t get to the airport; they were closed.
Tulsa is not far enough away, nor is any place.
Lee Chevalier, Dallas, Texas
I am a teacher in a suburb outside of New York City which is close enough for many residents to work in the World Trade Center. When they announced the tragedy many students were in total confusion and panic. It was heart wrenching to see these poor children crying because they did not know if their parents or relatives were alive or dead.
I live in a country which has faults like other countries but I believe that the intention of the US to do good or the correct thing is always present. Yes there have been times when we have appeared to be misguided, but show me another country of the world without this blemish on their record. The attack on the WTC and innocent people is an act that betrays the barbaric motives of terrorists. The live accounts of the carnage have left a scar on the souls of Americans, but it has created a resolve that this terrorism will stop; we will stop it and hopefully you will help us.
Respectfully, Bill Walsh, Huntington, New York
Most of my friends are accounted for, as most people were able to get out of the area before the buildings collapsed, but I still haven’t heard from a few. The great thing about New York (and this country) is its ability to persevere. Schools should start reopening tomorrow, and business should slowly return to normal. Fortunately my experiences have been more of an observer than a victim, but I have friends whose apartments are in that 10 square block area downtown and still have no place to go.
My folks wanted me to come home to Boston to get away from the city, but I couldn’t imagine leaving, as I couldn’t think of a more important place for me to be. I am very proud of the heroes of this city, from the heralded sacrifices of our rescue squads, to the steadfast hope of searching families, to the unsung ranks of the volunteers that include almost everyone I see - friends, shopkeepers, citizens, neighbors and strangers alike, all willing to lend a hand in any way they could, or a shoulder to lean on.
Mark Goldberg, East 11th Street, New York
Television can not do justice to what it is like to see it firsthand, and I often wonder how many of the people I rode with on the subway into the World Trade Center that morning are now dead. But I’ve realized over the past few days that it doesn’t do any good to linger over those few horrible moments. What I want to remember is what’s happened since then.
What’s occurred in the aftermath of the attacks has created a new legacy for New York, one which I doubt many in this city will ever forget. That’s what I want to take from all this—not the fear or the terror, but rather the memories of millions of New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike joined together by a common strength, compassion and will.
Lana Chen
My children had been in school at the time of the attack and their TV screens had mercifully been blacked out by the principals. Too many of them have parents who work downtown. After-school activities were cancelled on Tuesday for practical considerations but things got back to normal schedule next day, apart from a small number of staff and students awaiting news of loved ones. It is difficult to know how this will affect them in the future. My 16-year-old was terrified by her own anger - the first time she had experienced horror like that. I don’t know if my 12-year-old actually believes it really happened.
We have been “coping” with a houseful of British refugees. Alternative accommodation is now being made available as the thousands of evacuated residents and landlords get organised. The choice ranges from shelters in high schools, or, rather better, vacant rooms being made available by volunteers. One couple has found a small low-cost temporary apartment in the Upper East Side with the help of the owners of their apartment building. The couple with the baby were offered an empty room in a friend’s large apartment. This accommodation will be more suitable but they are still paying astronomical rent on their apartments, one of which will not be reopened until October. Two substations serving their apartments were knocked out, the gas is turned off and there is no water.
Jane Peach, South Hempstead, NY
My biggest fear, and you can see shades of it now and then, is that New York, one of the most foreigner friendly cities in the world, is starting to get xenophobic. I was walking out my apartment building today, and an elderly woman who lives in my building, surely well educated and otherwise rational, was telling the doorman - “All Arabs are guilty”. I’m from India, and could pass for someone from the Middle East. I haven’t had anyone scream at me yet, though I have gotten a few stares that have made me uneasy.
Roy J. Rodrigues
In 1963, my oldest sister went to an early Mass the Sunday after John Kennedy was shot. While we were at Mass, she was home and watching TV when the assassin Oswald was killed on live TV. Over the years, she has said how watching him murdered live on TV still haunted her. After all these years, I now know what she meant.
Reid Bronson
It has been a terrifying week here in the greater New York area. Tuesday afternoon, I ran outside terrified when I heard a plane overhead, knowing that all air traffic was grounded. It was a fighter plane, patrolling the skies. I guess I won’t garner any sympathy from countries that have been in attacked in war, but for myself, I wondered at that fear. We Americans have thought ourselves immune from it.
Susan McNicholas, Rahway, NJ
Here in Glen Rock, in the northern New Jersey suburbs of New York City, many people work in or near the World Trade Center. I was working there at the time of the 1993 bombing, but now work several blocks away on Water Street. The first plane must have hit no more than five minutes after I emerged from the complex on my way to work.
I’ve been struck by the unfamiliar presence of dads around town, since none of us have been able to return to work. My house is directly across the street from a primary school. One can’t help but remark on the number of dads holding their children’s hands and walking them to school in the morning, retrieving them for lunch, returning them after lunch, and finally picking them up at the end of the school day. Dads everywhere - and then, with the children deposited with the school, dads and moms holding hands for the stroll home.
Clint Winstead, Glen Rock, NJ
By Thursday we wanted to leave our neighborhood for the day. We live in the southern area of the city that was banned to all non-residents and cars this week. So the shops were shut and the streets eerily quiet. We caught a cab uptown and ran into a traffic deadlock right by Grand Central station - there seemed to have been a bomb threat and a large number of people were gathered outside the station. So we left the cab to walk the rest of the way.
After a few blocks, on a rather wide street full of people, someone shouted “Run, Run!” and the entire street of people began sprinting towards us. More people yelled “Run!” and we joined in on the stampede. It was terrifying - I had no idea what we were running from. Then about a half block later everyone stopped, not knowing what they were fleeing from.
It may have had something to do with the numerous bomb threats - we later found out that 90 bomb threats had been called in that week for New York City buildings, including the Empire State Building. We passed several buildings that day that had been evacuated, their people standing nervously outside. It is staggering to think that there are people out there who want to add to the misery of all this.
The first few days we had an electrical-smelling smoke in the neighborhood and people wore face masks to filter the potentially asbestos-laden air, but that has passed since it rained yesterday. You used to be able to see the twin towers by looking south from almost anywhere in Greenwich Village and now there is a big hole, just bright blue sky with perhaps a few wisps of the smoke remaining from the rubble.
Melissa J. Bracken
Astoria is a suburban/urban working class section of New York City. We used to have a serendipitous view, straight down some avenues, of the World Trade Center towers. Policemen and firemen live here. Lived here. There are impromptu candle displays on every corner. There are flags everywhere. The news media no sooner asks for something - blood, clean socks for the rescuers, paw pads for the rescue dogs, eye solution, aspirin - than 15 minutes later they rescind the call, explaining that they are overwhelmed with contributions.
Elizabeth Frank
I became senseless in rural Wooster, Ohio, knowing my daughter was there. I told myself I was not alone. All those people have mothers. She is not in the World Trade Center towers. But where is her office and what route does she take to get there? How could I not know that, I am her mother. The first phone call from her cell phone ... we are in the center of our building, we can’t leave. There is a bomb threat at the UN Building. I am next to the UN Building. Then silence. Soon after, an e-mail. There are fighter planes over us and we don’t know who they are. There is too much smoke. We are leaving. We will be running north. North took her home.
How could she become a New Yorker in a year. She’s only a child. How can she tell me she will be alright, she’s a New Yorker. I know better, I am her mother.
Name and address withheld
My family and I are waiting on word of our missing relative and three more friends of the family. The outpouring of support and solidarity from our UK friends brings joy to my heart in this time of sadness. Thank you all.
Sheamus Barry
I’m here directing my first Broadway musical - Mamma Mia! For three weeks I’ve revelled in this city. Each day I run in Central Park, one of the seven wonders of the world. On Tuesday as I left for rehearsals my Spanish doorman said “Did you hear a plane hit twin towers?” My assumption that a tourist plane had missed its mark made me vow to cancel my proposed helicopter flight trip round Manhattan for friends arriving for the premiere.
At Union Square I joined a crowd gazing at the smoking towers. Minutes later actors were howling into the rehearsal room that the first tower had collapsed. We thought we were under military attack. Back in the street escapees from ground zero were fleeing screaming and nuclear dusted past us, as if King Kong were chasing behind. Three hours later, rehearsals abandoned, I walked north through silent sunlit streets. A man approached with a printed leaflet “upset by today’s disaster - free counselling - Church of Scientology west 46th st.” - another offered us one of his “last five” shaking snow scenes of the Manhattan skyline “with twin towers”. At Times Square an exhausted lady, a white dusted escapee from the conflagration, fell into the arms of a friend.
The atmosphere here is pregnant with rage, panic and grief. One’s feeling for those searching for relatives, left pinning notes on trees or queuing to get a sliver of time on one of the cable stations to advertise their faces, is overwhelming. The level of media debate is lamentably low, there’s ballooning jingoism, alienating to those of us not hell-bent on nuking the opposition and hoping to leave peacefully after the opening of our show.
I’ve been trying to act as leader of the acting company. I but know that the Dunkirk spirit is inappropriate to meet the complexities. One actor’s boyfriend is missing presumed dead. There’s already an explosive generation gulf yawning between those who urge a maintenance of a finger on the national safety catch (the twenty-somethings) and those of the senior generation who urge a more retributive path. I’ve proposed that our rehearsals, though at present hard to inhabit (especially the musical number “under attack”), will eventually produce balm, even exquisite relief, for broken spirits.
Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia!"
Just in case we forget...
ppman
but our all sympathy should lay with his family. I only suffer fractions of what they are going through. But thank you, I sincerely apprechiate it. 
