eva05
09-11-2005, 15:06
Greetings all,
I took a walk across Hoboken today to the park that faces Manhattan. It's a nice day. Not much humidity, people are fishing, chatting, sun bathing...I remember 4 years ago on that morning...I never made it to Hoboken that day.
I was going to work, heading up the NJTPK to Hoboken to grab the path train into the city. I had a new contract downtown starting that day, and was planning to take the Path through the WTC. I had stopped at a record store to pick up the new Slayer CD, where I heard a few people talking about a plane crash in NY.
I had figured they were talking about JFK. I saw smoke off the highway, but figured it was out near Long Island. When I took the ramp for the Holland Tunnel, off the main drag I saw the first tower burning. I turned off Slayer and turned on the radio, Howard Stern happened to be tuned in and was talking about an accident...that's when the second plane hit and I switched the radio to 1010 wins, an AM news radio. Details were still sparse.
I got off at the next exit and turned back. Trying to get my Dad on the phone, but the lines were already maxed out. I got home about 20 mintues later and turned on CNN. Scraps of info kept coming over the air waves.
I watched the towers come down on live TV.
My Mom, showed up about an hour later, followed by my sister and finally my Dad. Luckily everyone in our family got out of the city. Actually I didn't lose a single friend that day. But my friends lost sisters, husbands and sons.
There were calls for volunteers that night. I hadn't done construction or carpentry since I was in high school so I did what I could. Went to Jersey City and loaded trucks with fresh water and work clothes (donations would start pouring in by the next day). That first night, they ended up carting some of us into the city to drop stuff off. It was surreal there. Lights were still going up, tons of people milling around and the air was salted with a thick grey dust. They made us put little respirators to even unload the trucks.
The place was just gone. I had been there not 3 weeks earlier for an interview with some financials place. Turned out they were not what I wanted and I wasn't what they wanted, so I kept looking. It was crazy to see the building I had just been to...obliterated. I expected there to be all kinds of stuff lying around but there wasn't more than a few spires still standing and they were buried in, what looked like, dirt. I couldn't smell much because of the respirator but it became clear real fast that everyone who came afte rus would need goggles. You couldn't see ****.
The truck ride back was pretty hard for the other three people in the truck with me. Two of them were crying. I was mostly numb.
By day two they were so over whelmed with people who came out to help there was no shortage and I got to stay in NJ. People from all over showed up to help. People put aside their differences and just tried to help.
It was a moment of pride for me as an American. I was born and raised here but it was one of the few times I really felt a sense of pride for being an American. I was glad I lived here and I was glad to keep living here.
In the aftermath of Katrina, where so much destruction has been rendered onto Americans by nature and then themselves...I wonder what has happened to that spirit? Have we become so used to tragedy and death after 4 years of war, that most people aren't even aware of on a daily basis, that these kind of things only make us pause for a moment and then go back to our lives? Politicians have become so polarized they are too busy pointing fingers and covering their asses to respond in any meaningful way. It is incredibly frustrating.
NY was lucky to have someone with their shit together as Guiliani. He was a tough bastard and there were definitely times when people out here really hated his guts but when it came down to the line, he didn't fall apart. He pulled people together and made it happen.
OK, this wasn't meant to be a rant but maybe the end turned out that way ^_^;
Thanks to all the people who've fought for this country, be it overseas or on the home front, be it through support or protest. It doesn't matter if I agree with or like you...because we are all Americans first ^_^
Have a better one.
j
I took a walk across Hoboken today to the park that faces Manhattan. It's a nice day. Not much humidity, people are fishing, chatting, sun bathing...I remember 4 years ago on that morning...I never made it to Hoboken that day.
I was going to work, heading up the NJTPK to Hoboken to grab the path train into the city. I had a new contract downtown starting that day, and was planning to take the Path through the WTC. I had stopped at a record store to pick up the new Slayer CD, where I heard a few people talking about a plane crash in NY.
I had figured they were talking about JFK. I saw smoke off the highway, but figured it was out near Long Island. When I took the ramp for the Holland Tunnel, off the main drag I saw the first tower burning. I turned off Slayer and turned on the radio, Howard Stern happened to be tuned in and was talking about an accident...that's when the second plane hit and I switched the radio to 1010 wins, an AM news radio. Details were still sparse.
I got off at the next exit and turned back. Trying to get my Dad on the phone, but the lines were already maxed out. I got home about 20 mintues later and turned on CNN. Scraps of info kept coming over the air waves.
I watched the towers come down on live TV.
My Mom, showed up about an hour later, followed by my sister and finally my Dad. Luckily everyone in our family got out of the city. Actually I didn't lose a single friend that day. But my friends lost sisters, husbands and sons.
There were calls for volunteers that night. I hadn't done construction or carpentry since I was in high school so I did what I could. Went to Jersey City and loaded trucks with fresh water and work clothes (donations would start pouring in by the next day). That first night, they ended up carting some of us into the city to drop stuff off. It was surreal there. Lights were still going up, tons of people milling around and the air was salted with a thick grey dust. They made us put little respirators to even unload the trucks.
The place was just gone. I had been there not 3 weeks earlier for an interview with some financials place. Turned out they were not what I wanted and I wasn't what they wanted, so I kept looking. It was crazy to see the building I had just been to...obliterated. I expected there to be all kinds of stuff lying around but there wasn't more than a few spires still standing and they were buried in, what looked like, dirt. I couldn't smell much because of the respirator but it became clear real fast that everyone who came afte rus would need goggles. You couldn't see ****.
The truck ride back was pretty hard for the other three people in the truck with me. Two of them were crying. I was mostly numb.
By day two they were so over whelmed with people who came out to help there was no shortage and I got to stay in NJ. People from all over showed up to help. People put aside their differences and just tried to help.
It was a moment of pride for me as an American. I was born and raised here but it was one of the few times I really felt a sense of pride for being an American. I was glad I lived here and I was glad to keep living here.
In the aftermath of Katrina, where so much destruction has been rendered onto Americans by nature and then themselves...I wonder what has happened to that spirit? Have we become so used to tragedy and death after 4 years of war, that most people aren't even aware of on a daily basis, that these kind of things only make us pause for a moment and then go back to our lives? Politicians have become so polarized they are too busy pointing fingers and covering their asses to respond in any meaningful way. It is incredibly frustrating.
NY was lucky to have someone with their shit together as Guiliani. He was a tough bastard and there were definitely times when people out here really hated his guts but when it came down to the line, he didn't fall apart. He pulled people together and made it happen.
OK, this wasn't meant to be a rant but maybe the end turned out that way ^_^;
Thanks to all the people who've fought for this country, be it overseas or on the home front, be it through support or protest. It doesn't matter if I agree with or like you...because we are all Americans first ^_^
Have a better one.
j