@ossobuco,
ossobuco wrote:I'll add -
I don't equate myself to being a new yorker who lived through that day and lived past that day.
I do have emotional connection to New York City. When I lived there for a short time in my childhood, it was one of the happy times for my family, which got fewer fairly quickly after that. I was a spoiled girl in a magical place, which I got to understand more fully later.
9/11 was the day I had my needle biopsy that would turn out to be positive. Early that morning, a couple of hours after I woke up to the news at the friend's house was visiting, I went to see my long time ob gyn because of my suspicious mammo and ultrasound of the day before. So, I was in double shock. He was a wreck himself, as it was at best midmorning and he had a old friend who was working in the towers. It was a memorable doctor's visit, as we were both vulnerable that day.
Together we decided I should see if I could get a biopsy right away at the bc center, as I lived in a small city far away and was only in town that week. Thus I spent the day trying to get my own procedure in a hospital that was freaking out, including just about everybody in it.
So, not all of us with a clear point of view of 'fine if they build' are emotionless about the planes into the towers or who did that. We don't equate who did that with the people who are going to build a place meant for communication.
I 'm a New Yorker. Except for 5 years, I 've lived here all my life.
On 9/11, I was in the Bronx, a few miles from the World Trade Center.
Looking out the window, the rising smoke was very visible.
I was in court. I heard false information over the radio
that the USSC had been hit and destroyed by another plane.
I passed that allegation along to other attorneys, by whom I was surrounded.
I never saw anyone lose his composure, thru out the entirety of the day,
tho, we found it all hard to believe.
In earlier years, I had tried several cases in the World Trade Center, Tower 2.
The World Trade Center was owned jointly by the States of NY and NJ.
The NY State Court of Claims was present there.
It had several floors between 80 and 90.
I used to take the E train (subway) into the basement of the WTC.
That was very convenient.
At the end of some days of trial (especially when the trial went well), I ascended to the roof and looked out;
each of the 4 directions had a very distictly different vista. I loved it; it was exhilarating.
(I 'm not going to climb to the top of any mosque and look out.)
I lost someone I 'd like to call a friend, Police Lt. John Perry,
who was retiring from the police force, that very morning.
He intended to practice law; he discussed that intention
for several years before 9/11/1. Tho I knew him for several years,
I did not know him closely, just from meeting him at libertarian meetings,
at Mensa meetings, and literally working side-by-side,
working the telephones for Republican Party functions.
He was putting in his retirement papers, giving them to a captain,
when the first plane hit; (so I was told). Thay were leading victims
out of the dark building (no electricity) into the street.
It was represented to me that the captain ordered Lt. Perry not to re-enter the building,
but that he did so anyway to rescue more victims, when it collapsed on him.
The following April, I read in the NY Daily News that John's remains were uncovered.
By co-incidence, my nabor across the street, Diana,
works for the NYC Medical Examiner's Office.
She said that she and a team of workers from her office
attended the scene of the burning World Trade Center,
standing in a group, conversing among themselves,
when the first collapse occurred; so close that her boss's arm
was broken by the force of the fall. The co-incidence was
that Diana performed the autopsy on John Perry's remains.
She was surprized that I knew him; "small world" thay say.
My friend, Vivian, is a member of the Opulent Mensan SIG.
Over dinner, she said that on 9/11, she was walking,
approaching the WTC, to enter it, when the first plane hit.
She was not harmed.
The most alarmed and disquieted person whom I knew
was my ex-girlfriend, Jayne, who was all the way out on Long Island,
in Suffolk County, when it happened.
In retrospect, I know that there was only one reason
that those Moslems did not nuke us on 9/11, to wit:
that was not within their ability. When thay
can do it, thay will.
David
