But for another reason- after spending the night at Vulgar Greek's on 25th St Tuesday night (after walking 60+ blocks to Houston- in loafers without socks- might as well have worn 6" heels, my feet were so ripped up- and being turned away), I walked to work (another 40 block walk) early in the AM yesterday. When I passed the Blood Donor Center on 67th, there was a line around the block to give blood. I have lived in NYC 8 years and worked on the Upper East Side just as long, and I have NEVER seen a line to donate blood, ever.

It warmed my heart to see people who wanted to help, were willing to wait to give blood. I was almost in tears...

That everyone seems Ok. I feel sad for all who are not. I feel sad for those who did this, for those who dispise what we stand for and for those who cannot understand what brings us together as a family. We may be despised for being New Yorkers or Americans or whatever epithet you care to throw, but, we are of a family here and the seeds that all of us cultivate can change a world. The monster that feeds this type of hate is the idea that we are different from everyone else. We, defined as whatever small circle that one chooses to surround onself with. Hate begins by exclusion. The only way then is to realise that there isn't a circle at all; There is only a little blue sphere in the middle of a big black void.
we are all each other.


T

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. - Mother Teresa.

[This message was edited by Ted & Di on 09-13-01 at 05:26 PM.]

Family, extended and otherwise:

I'm sorry I've been out of touch.

As you might imagine, in order to maintain composure and sanity, I've let myself become a machine, with short lists of tasks and functions to spend the waking hours. Via the TV, internet, the occasional newspaper, information is sucked in without much processing or reaction, just accumulation.

Past the initial shock, watching the towers burn and crumble, I've felt very little. I'm maintaining while this city, this crossroads of the known universe, is shut down a few degrees north of full-on martial law, with armed officers and soldiers on every corner. I've thought very little of it; if anything, through my filters, I've felt mild irritation at the transit inconveniences.

Unfazed, I have made soup and grilled cheese for the past two nights.
Untroubled, I have slept through the endless sirens of ambulances passing almost overhead on the Manhattan Bridge.

Knowing a fact and feeling the reality it represents are distinctly different experiences, and it is only today, on the third day, that my emotions have begun to creep out from under denial's rock.

My reaction is prismatic; I am simultaneously:

-proud as hell of my neighbors, who have turned out by the thousands upon thousands to donate blood, time, money, sweat, and endless compassion for those directly affected by this disaster. New Yorkers are a tough lot, with more heart than our 'Fuck You' reputation would bely. The violence visted upon us is more than matched by the love we've responded to it with.

-impressed with the capability, strength and sensitivity our mayor, whose policies and performances I've seldom agreed with. Rudy Guiliani, who've I've often felt to be a despicable tyrant, has risen to the occasion better than we could have hoped for, and I'm very grateful for whatever he's made of under these conditions.

-scared to my core with every new bomb threat that comes in. The rumor mill is relentless with talk of Tuesday's attack being but phase one of a much larger assault on the U.S., the next involving chemical and biological warfare amid more sneak attacks. I know that worrying will do little good, but it's inevitable in human nature.

-far less microcosmic in my vision. A friend, who was all too close to ground zero at the time of the attacks, forwarded a list I'm on the following URL, which I feel the need to circulate as well. It's an eye-opener, puts a lot of what we already know and dismiss in perspective:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,551036,00.html
...I then read the following article written by someone who represents all-too-broad a cross-section of the U.S., and my fear at further attacks are replaced by fear and loathing of the attitudes and potential actions of the common American reactionary:
http://www.nationalreview.com/coulter/coulter091301.shtml
...I consider the international witch hunt for those responsible for Tuesday's attacks, realize that our rage, pain and confusion are all-too-easily mobilized into further violence, on scales both large and small. It's just as likely that my local Arabian-American shopkeeper gets lynched as it is that our Great Nation turns Afghanistan into a parking lot, and I pray that neither possibilities come to fruition.

-determined, to go on living as a New Yorker. I know a growing number folks who have fled town out of fear and horror-driven survivalism. While I understand their actions, I cannot bring myself to do likewise. For my end it would only give our attackers more of a victory...and until something other than the smoke of the fallen WTC touches my building, I will continue to live in and love the city I've chosen to call home.
I currently share my loft apartment with a jew and a muslim, and that's a living testament to the fact that love is bigger than religion, that humanism is bigger than patriotism.

..................................................

The best thing most people can do, beyond giving anything they can to ease the suffering of the victims of these acts, is to maintain their own lives as usual. I will not offer the military my services, like so many overzealous youths and their outraged veteran fathers. I will not use my passion to foster hate; the last thing we need, from the most intimate community to the world in general, is to feed this fire with that most destructive fuel.

My greatest hope for the nation at this most pivotal of moments is that, from the highest elected official down to the pimple-faced high school freshman, we are forced into a new age of awareness. Nothing like a national invasion to get Joe Average hip to the global scene...to find that nobody is innocent.

I am now going to mount up on my bike and venture over to Manhattan, donate some food, (I can't give blood). Then I'm heading over to Tomkins Square to sit with my smokes, a pad of paper, a pen, and, under the advice of my beloved Aunt, some Puccini.

La Boheme lives on in Greenwich Village...I'm sorry I've been out of touch.

Yours in times of mad love and war,

Minerva

Whitney Houston OD'd and is dead

A 20something year old girl was raped and murdered behind Payson
House
on 70th (b/w 1st and york) Tuesday night.

Di

Hattie,

They won't take me. I'm too old.

But we must respond and deter, or it will just get worse. We are dealing with religious fanatics who are highly indoctrinated, hate us, and do not reason as we do.

BTW the Japanese were the cruelest and most murderous nation during WWII. Thousands of American and Allied lives were saved by us not having to invade Japan.

Darla (Miss Conservative Viewpoint) Diamond

Ted/ Where did you get that fact? Is it rumour? Is has not been on the news today. Please post asap.

Evie,
as they say, out of the ashes.

we will go on, i'm so happy for your sister and you aunt evie. kisses to the new girl!

Darla,
I agree, we must respond and deter. How we should do that is another matter altogether. I guess I just don't have the faith that you do in the former governor of Texas and his advisors.
In my life I have seen numerous atrocities cloaked in the star-spangled banner. I would not like to see those atrocities repeated. For any reason.
I might also remind you that this country is rife with religious fanatics as well. Read the final paragraph of the National Review piece that Minerva has graciously and geniusly provided the URL to. THAT is why I am worried.
You are currently stranded in what might be considered the American heartland Omaha; I would be interested in hearing what people are saying from there, outside of our somewhat insulated community.
And BTW, I am also too old for the army. WAY too old :-)
Love, Red Hattie Hathaway

She sent the info to me.

I believe that it came through her channels.

I can't find it either might just be a rumour. If so, sorry.


T

[This message was edited by Ted & Di on 09-13-01 at 08:17 PM.]

Yes Hattie, I share your concern about the way our response is carried out. However, all talk of retaliation that I have heard has been predicated on first having good hard evidence of who is responsible. On CNN, that is exactly what is being discussed right now with Senator Graham.

The government will make mistakes, we all do. But our government knows that we will gain nothing by hitting out blindly. That will only result in a propaganda victory for our enemies and the disintegration of our coalition.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" - Edmund Burke

As for the viewpoints of people in the heartland, the folks here feel what I think people all over the country feel. Shock, sadness, anger. But the anger isn't blind. We all realize the importance of bringing to justice those responsible, based on incontravertable evidence.

[This message was edited by Darla Diamond on 09-13-01 at 08:20 PM.]

whitney houston is ALIVE, not dead... radio stations in NYC and LA falsely reported this... E!online www.eonline.com has the info from the publicist denying the rumor...E! online

so, if she gets off the drugs, maybe she can sing the national anthem again...

I love the Rumour Mill.

but I really hate E!

I'm with Hattie 100%. All the flags, hate & bullshit... it's as unnerving as the Palestinian kids celebrating in the streets. The human tragedy is incomprehensible to me. I still can't really process it. But somehow I can't help thinking that in alot of ways we are the Romans now and they are the Christians. And Darla, I know you are new to the fringe but I feel I must point out that most of these flag wavers hate your guts and everything you represent. They wish you were dead (waving an American flag or not). I'm sure your new friends in Omaha haven't met Darla.

Darla,
I just re-read all the posts and I misunderstood your point I think. Sorry.

I may be wrong, but was Burke referring to the constitutional crisis during George III's reign?

As I always tell my students, while the high road appears miles above our heads, the low road seems a few steps down. In my opinion the our purpose in life is to work towards that higher road when we can. The low road represents defeated mob mentality. Please rise up in the face of this tragedy. I implore you.

Sincedrely,
VP

today on the east river park (which is mostly fenced off).
i was on my rollerblades, a group of men had used gaffer tape to mount 5 american flags, 1 pow/mia, 2 gulf war and 4 smaller american flags flanking.
as i passed he offered me a small american flag, i didn't want it so i didn't take it but said thank you.
just happened to notice the most handsom man in their company. i decided to sun their as it is my usual spot.
i looked at lady liberty and cried.....

soon after i overherd the men carring on about those faggots... french faggots...
it took me directly to chi chi's words from an earlier post.
i packed up and left. is that what it means to be american.
i don't want to group everyone who waves a flag into one but these guys scared me.

IIn the posting I left above I mentioned taking the high road, which in my opinion is the smar, crafty road. For Instance, I
have a wonderful boy in my class who might as well be a muslim these days the way people treat him. I mean the way the other boys treat him is awful and I try to protect him as best I can, but I can't always be there. Secretly I gave him a knife and I told him the next time one of those boys gets near him he should "take home a little souvenir and maybe that boy will think twice about trying anymore shenanigans. Boys like that would rather die than tell they've been castrated by a "Faggot". In thinking of my own advice, maybe we should start slipping boxcutters to the women of Afghanistan. Keep our hands clean of the whole mess and sit back and read a good book. Write Me if you need any recommendations.
I'm in the book,
Virginia Pell

Although I will not be at Daddy tonight, I wanted to let everyone know how happy I am there will be a place to go. I hope you all gather, show your love and raise a lot of money for the Red Cross. I had to get out of my neighborhood, (I live on 25th and 1st next to Bellevue) the site of one more desperate family member clinging to a photo and looking so helpless was more than I could handle. My block became one of the saddest sites I have ever witnessed. Words can't express how overwelmed I became ,so I had to escape for the night.I will see you all at Saturday's DADA though.

I'm so thankful that my Click/Mother/Daddy family is safe and please have a drink for me...make mine an Empress!

Much love to all
Rob R

also, my friends and I can not get in touch with our friend Tracy, she lives in Battery Park city and no one has heard from her in days. please say a little prayer that she will be ok.

[This message was edited by glamnerd on 09-13-01 at 10:16 PM.]

[This message was edited by glamnerd on 09-15-01 at 04:32 PM.]