Thanks for putting this together. You put my
thoughts into words. My condolences and sympathy
to the people who posted about lost family and friends.

It took me til just a few hours ago to confirm
the safety of all my friends and family...the
relief is staggering and the survivors' stories
horrifying. One friend survived thru blind
luck--I grieve for him--most or all of his
coworkers appear to be gone. The waiting, and
waiting, and waiting over the past 2 days to find
out whether people are alive, dead, hurt--it has
been horrendous. I am still reeling.

Here in Wisconsin, only ex-New Yorkers seem to
truly "get it..." We run up to each other,
grasping each other's hands or arms and asking,
"is everyone you know all right?" We pour out our
thoughts semi-coherently, fears, memories, shock
and sadness. Wisconsin folks are not unaffected,
but, many times when they hear about my friends,
the tragedy hits them for the first time and they
go pale. And still they don't get why I'm shaking.

As for the buildings... all through the time I
worked at Bankers Trust, I never got tired of
looking at them. They were just beautiful,
especially on a sunny day gleaming bright against
the blue sky, so high up you have to crane your
neck back to see them. I too enjoyed the
concourse underneath the WTC--there was amazing
soup and terrific Japanese food under there. All
those places where I took refuge from the BT
grind. Did you see the BT bldg on TV? All
crumpled-looking with the windows blown out--and
that terrace, where I used to eat shivering
lunches in early spring just so I could be
outside again after winter--the terrace and
bridge are blown away. From the BT cafeteria, you
could watch the long lines in the WTC slowly
moving toward the observation deck elevator. Did
you know, the first plane ran right smack into
the observation deck. Can you imagine...

My photos of the skyline from trips to Ellis
Island on happy summer days are now
archival...photos of "before." I didn't see the
first collapse, but when I saw just one building
standing...it was like a wounded creature. Now
they're both gone, the emptiness in the skyline
seems like an aching hole in the world.

Meanwhile I am terrified of what happens next. I
share our nation's anger but fear it will be
misdirected. In this country, mosques, Arabic
businesses, Muslim community associations are
being targeted by bomb threats, and individuals
are being targeted by harrassment, rocks, and
death threats. As you know most Arabs and Muslims
are ordinary, non-extremist human beings with no
more sympathy or connection to the criminals than
you or I have to Tim McVeigh. Please, if you see
or hear harrassment taking place, or if you hear
others talking about doing it, please
intervene...it could be my friends you are protecting.

On an international scale, the psychotic
perpetrators should pay, but more innocent lives
must not be destroyed. Many of the people of
Afghanistan (and many other nations that have
been taken over by dictatorial religious
extremists) hate their government but are
powerless against it...they have no part in these
crimes and I hope that Colin Powell will
reconsider his talk of a nuclear attack. We have
just seen and felt the horror of the loss of
innocent life...let us not be the next ones to
cause it. The guilty must be punished--but ONLY
the guilty. We as a nation must uphold our belief
in the importance and value of even one innocent
human life--if we want to build a better world,
we must be better and wiser than the people who
committed this terrible crime against us. I
welcome discussion at ****.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts. I hope
all of you reading this at least know by now what
has happened to people you love. Like me you're
probably filled with renewed gratitude for the
people you love who are still alive, whether or
not they were ever in New York.

As usual I've gone on too long. Thanks again,
Donna, for this forum.

Take care all,
Virginia

Jim and Donna,
Thank you for your message, everyone over here is feeling great sadness for all the people who have suffered so much in these past few days and who will continue to be affected for a long time to come.
Since Roger has made New York his adopted home we have also become more acquainted with it and have been very saddened by the pictures we are seeing on our T.V. But the whole nation is feeling it too so we want you to know that our thoughts and prayers our with you all in America

John and Esme [from the United Kingdom]

My father, like so many other Nassau County Police Officers return from relieving the NYPD from Ground Zero. He spoke of utter destruction. These words from a man who faught in Vietnam.. and he spoke of the haunting silence. He commented about driving over the bridge into Manhattan and not seeing the familiar New York City skyline. Something was now missing.

[-djc]

Workaholic Syndrome Kills

My girlfriend and I discuss what, we thought, we would have done in the terror...
Both NY'ers and having worked in lower Manhattan - we talked about the "workaholic syndrome" that sucks you up. This, we describe as the driving force that may have possibly led to so many deaths. This force would have prevented the typical person from getting up and fleeing the building immediately.

Both confessed "workaholics" we undoubtedly would have felt a duty to continuing to work. "Hey, I'll just send out one more email... probably no big deal anyway... besides I have to get this F'ing job done..." I can't tell you how many times I ignored fire alarms in my building. Alarms and sirens were a common occurrence, almost background noise, and never materialized into anything serious. Besides - most NY'ers don't panic. We are used to trains breaking down in dark tunnels, we are used to fires on the subway tracks, we are used to situations that other people in the country would get really ticked off and freaked out about. Not us. We hurry though the streets and beep horns because we're trying to meet DEADLINES AT WORK!

We hear these reports that people in the towers were told over loud speaker that "... everything is ok - return to work"! Return to WORK! Most of the workaholics probably never even got up from their office chairs. I am sick at the thought because I most likely would have been working away too.