My cousin-in-law Jack is a NYC fireman. Apparently there was an awful fire awhile back in the city where 5 firefighters lost their lives. Those firefighters were from his company.
Today he had the day off. He is alive.
He is currently doing triage about 3 blocks away from the WTC.
My cousin Joe was coincidentally down in the city also(they live in Albany…where I was born) for training when this happened. He too has been called into service.
I come from a family of Irish Catholics. We know how to tell a good joke, how to drink, and how to pray.
I suspect the first talent is not appropriate right now…I’m not sure which of the last two is…
This was the kind of thread I’d been looking for today. I don’t feel the intense hatred or desire for revenge many seem to feel, just a terrible sadness. Things like this are really what help us heal. Thanks.
We may grin wildly when an asterroid smashes into the Big Apple.
We may root for one of the NY teams to lose.
But when something like *this * happens we realize that New Yorkers are just like one of us and no one, but no one, gets away with such a heinous crime against one of our own.
My old boyfriend is a NYC cop. He was the first one I thought of when this entire ordeal unraveled. I pray he is ok.
Today during English Comp, I couldn’t concentrate on the teacher’s lecture. The teacher couldn’t concentrate on her lecture either, for that matter, but she gave it anyway. But instead of listening to her, I looked out the window, into the student parking lot.
There I saw your standard-issue Mississippi redneck, stereotypical Jethro type, scraping a Confederate flag sticker off the back window of his beat-up pickup truck with a razor. He replaced it with the American flag, giving up his view of the US as a split country, and showing solidarity with the entire nation.
There’s a lot of separatism down here, masquerading as “Southern pride.” a lot of anti-Yankee rhetoric, even bumper stickers that say “I’d rather be dead than a Yankee.” But today, all of those southern vs. northern, old civil war scars were forgotten.
Thanks, Manhattan, for posting that. I’ve been struck today through all the news coverage that people in NYC have not freaked out and panicked, but have banded together and have been amazingly orderly in dealing with this trajedy.
Most of us are here because our forbears sought a better way of life, travelled through hardships to get there, and helped to create a place where people could get along together to the best advantage of all. Sometimes this country seems fractured and divided, but when struck in the heart, we react with an outstretched hand towards others. We’ve created a system that has trained all the fine folks in NY who are now helping others under the worst of circumstances. It’s working, probably better than anyone’s grandaddy stepping off the boat would believe possible.
People in NY don’t suffer fools gladly, even of the Evil sort.
My friend Chuck teaches biology at Dickenson College in SW Pennsylvania. It is a part of the Mini Ivy League Schools. Costing around $30k to attend. Most of the kids that go there are from the East Coast.
Just before he walked into his class another professor caught him and told him about the attacks. Walking into class he broke the news to the students.
One student has two parents that work at the World Trade Center.
Another has a parent that works at the Pentagon.
Another has a parent that was suppose to fly from Boston to the West Coast that morning.
If you could imagine our own sense of helplessness watching the devestation yesterday, imagine what these kids went through knowing that they could not get through to anyone.
Chuck explained to the students that if they didn’t not take class, if they gave into their fears, the terrorists would have won . He asked for a raise of hands of who wanted to be excused and who wanted class to go on as scheduled.
Everyone voted to carry on as usual. *Even the kids who had parents in NY and DC *
I have no idea of the outcome for those kids’ parents.
Super big thank you to you lovely Canadians! I can’t believe you let all those planes, any of which could have been carrying suicidal hijackers, land in your airports! You have been great friends to my country!
Tremendous thank you to the New York firefighters and policemen, those who still live today and those who are dead or dying under the rubble. You guys have amazing guts. As long as we have people like you, we are not going to be beaten.
Huge thank you to the volunteers all across the nation; the ones who drove in ambulances and police cars from as far away as Hackensack, the steelworkers and everybody else who came to help sift the rubble for survivors, and the millions who are baring their arms for the blood-drawing needles. Terrorist scum, if you want to destroy us, you’ll have to kill every one of those volunteers!
After the OKC bombing the Oklahoma Today magazine published a book on all aspects of the tragedy. Pages 100-103 contain comments made in the world press. The best one, that fits this OP and thread, goes like this. “Those inspired by the human drama of caring people working in the midst of the Oklahoma bombing should take comfort that society isn’t defined by its maniacs but by its saviors.–Barbara Reynolds, USA Today”
Manny, I had worried about you all day yesterday, knowing you worked downtown in the Fine Antshull District (Well, that’s how they say it on the news! ;)) but not where. I’m so glad to know you’re OK, and inspired by your stories. While the Big Apple is a flavor that has never appealed to me, it has class and humanity like nothing else on earth. Thank God that attitude is there, to help pull you all through!