Note: I hadn't updated the blog for a week or so. Partly because putting these thoughts to the screen can be a difficult task, and also due to the occurence of the Jewish New Year, and a busy schedule on the work front. I appreciate the many e-mails and kind notes, and the incredible amount of links bringing readers to this space.
From Terror to Horror
It is far from over. According to local News reports, there are three fires still burning in the WTC wreckage, presenting difficulty to the NYFD. Despite rain and less oxygen paths to the internal rubble, these fires persist. Their existence presents increased difficulty and danger to the rescue/recovery crews.
An e-mail correspondent from Salt Lake City tells me that all has gone back to normal there. He writes,
Though there is the news that slowly has stopped covering the story, and that is all it is for many, another Bruce Willis short take. So many have not the faintest idea of what really happens in this world that they live in.
The news is all it is a sensationalism of reality.
People desensitized by movies.
His observation is that life outside of New York will return to normal, awareness and perceptions of the events will fade. The WTC coverage is minimal, he reports. He echoes an oft-heard comment: it was as though it was a real-life Bruce Willis movie. What, though, is the experience of seeing a film? One sees it, and then it is over, and then back to daily life. In real life one doesnít see ìTHE ENDî and get to go out the door to ìlife just as it was before.î
Here in the New York Metro area life remains markedly different. Yesterday at a street fair in my suburban village the attendance was way down. Beautiful weather or not, fewer people out on the main street. American flags are everywhere, and many of the people walking the fair wore t-shirts with flags, or other patriotic themes. A buddy of mine, a regular at the local Street Fairs (the Village does this 3 Sundays each year), was selling a special t-shirt with a flagÖthe purpose of which was to raise money for survivors. Not to go to an anonymous fund, but to the family of a friend of his.
The friend had been laid off at Bear Stearns the week before the attack. So, to get himself back on track and hired elsewhere in the financial community, the friend was attending a career enhancement seminar offered at one of the Twin Towers. Wife and children, mortgage, the obligations and responsibilities of oneís life ñ this is what motivated my buddyís friend to attend the seminar. He wanted to get back on track as soon as possible. Derailed.
So Ken, the vendor, printed up a t-shirt, and the proceeds go to his friendís family. He sold over 400 shirts by mid-afternoon. Everyone who bought one was asked to write his or her name into a spiral notebook. Ken wanted the family to know the names of people who cared enough to buy a shirt that would do a little something for them.
One man helping, in his own way.
On the news this morning there is an Afghan cleric, a member of the ìbin Ladenî crew, stating that. ìNot a single Jew died in the World Trade Center,î and blaming the attack on Israeli counterintelligence. Obviously this lowlife scumbag hasnít seen the list of names, jam-packed with Jews, Christians, Middle-Easterners and Asians.
The ìBlame It On The Jewsî tactic unites many, from numerous viewpoints. Various Arab, Middle-Eastern, and White Supremacist groups espouse this theory for everything that upsets them. One can and should expect the propaganda from that side to perpetrate their view.
Some will call this a ìHoly War.î Was there ever a greater oxymoron? What possibly could be holy in taking the lives of innocents?
New Yorkers far and wide are suffering the aftermath. The impact on oneís hearts and emotions can be mammoth, when viewing the posters with pictures of missing loved ones. Driving past the Family Center last week, seeing distraught family members, is a memory one cannot erase.
Near Bellevue and the NYC Medical Examinerís Office we saw the refrigerated truck. This is the transport for the body parts and remains, taken for DNA matching, to attempt to identify from the shreds of human remains a name, a match. Some element of closure for their surviving relatives.
Makeshift vigils and memorials seem to be everywhere. In Union Square people were sitting by candles and posters, flags, and those walking about with pictures of their lost loved ones taped to their chest, with some vital details and a phone number, just in case.
The awful truth is the diminished hope, which wanes a little more with each passing day. The hope wanes, so too the clutching at belief in miracles and the power of the missing personís soul, the power of prayer, and so forth. In place of hope comes despair, and the pain intensifies. Comfort remains a long way off.
Easy as it is to say, ìNew Yorkers,î that limits, and misstates the field. The WTC was workplace to people from New York Cityís five boroughs, neighboring Long Island, and nearby Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, and Orange Counties. People pour into the city every day, from Jew Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania. Surely they, too, were represented among the victims.
In Washington, D.C., Pentagon attack victims came on daily commutes from D.C., Virginia, Maryland, even West Virginia. Of course, being a partial military installation, all 50 states plus territories and other nations must have been represented at the Pentagon.
Depression, according to a report on MSNBC, is epidemic among New Yorkers. People are subject to crying jags, disorientation, inability to concentrate, disturbed sleep patterns, and feel as though their lives are upside down. Casual acquaintances may hug, and then burst into tears. A report in yesterdayís NY Times discussed how people are reaching out to contact old friends, lovers, distant and/or lost-contact relatives, as a reaction to the events.
The anger has not yet set in among most in the New York area. First came the terror, then the horror. In many cases the anger has not fully arrived. Thus some of the pain is still seeping in as the shock wears off and the despair morphs into depression.
After this will come the anger. That is a very scary thought.