| A 911 Diary: Day Two In Memoriam...and Renewal |
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9/12 p.m.: report from ground zero: i'm home, my isp is back up, i'm exhausted and stunned. will write more tomorrow. i spent all day today down there and at chelsea pier; worked more with the rescue workers than the families today. and mediated a fight between union construction workers and the emergency service people trying to direct them. everyone is so frustrated and so wants to help. i had seen everything on tv, but the reality is far, far different...absolutely surreal and yet all too real...some compared it to the worst footage from war-torn europe but it struck me almost like something from a sci-fi movie. while i grieve for all the victims and their families, i have a special horror for the victims in the planes--they knew they were going to die, and the interviews with family members who got cell phone calls from loved ones on the planes minutes before they died were heartbreaking. just from those i spoke to and worked with today, i can tell you that these people and our country are scarred forever...the aftermath of this attack sends devastating ripples far beyond the tragic victims themselves. just as war often does, for the killers as well as the killed, and their families, communities, and cultures. of all i saw today, the image that stays in my mind right now is a big burly cop, his face blackened by soot streaked white by the tears streaming down, staring dazed off into space, alone amid the rubble with his thoughts. |
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