Posted 8:31 AM by Blah blah

September 11th

Despite death and destruction, New York survives - remarkably, heroically resilient. (Newsday):

"[F]or years worriers have suggested that a population as diverse as ours could ultimately erode America's classic ideals. They have warned that America's class and ethnic splits could splinter the nation into myriad mutually hostile, clamoring factions.

Sept. 11 proved the worriers wrong.

From the noisy streets of African-American Harlem to the crowded walk-ups of Hispanic Washington Heights to bohemian Greenwich Village to the tree-lined lanes of Long Island and New Jersey, the stars and stripes waved everywhere during the grim autumn of 2001.

A famously fractious region suddenly spoke with one magnificent and powerful voice.

Consider what happened downtown. By the end of that terrible day one year ago, lower Manhattan had lost a third of its commercial real estate. Where the Twin Towers had stood, the city was left with 1.6 million tons of twisted steel and shredded aluminum.

And yet, a region known for its inability to do public-works projects well cleared Ground Zero ahead of schedule and under budget. A federal government that in recent years has never shown much interest in the fate of its largest city came up with $21 billion in aid.

And perhaps most incredibly, a hopeless amalgam of governmental entities charged with the task of rebuilding lower Manhattan - led by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. - in fact is listening closely to the public as it forges ahead with plans to honor the dead and rebuild downtown's commercial vitality.

We have learned something profound about ourselves in the last year. We have learned that we are one people after all - more than we ever knew. And we have learned that, when we work together, we can do anything."

Widow tells of poignant last calls (Sacramento Bee):

"Honoring Tom Burnett's memory on the one-year anniversary of the attacks, his widow has provided the fullest account yet of the traumatic events that day -- of hopes that rose and fell by the minute, of lives left in sorrow by a paroxysm of terror.

Deena Burnett, who frantically took notes as she talked with her husband, has shared her reconstruction of their last, desperate conversations."
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Here's my entry from Sept. 11, 2001. I included pix from my dinner at Wild Blue, on top of the World Trade Center.

Pix of Ground Zero today by Laura who writes her funny dating stories.

Me at the Windows on the World bar at the WTC:


This is me on Sept. 12th:

The saddest thing I saw today was a reporter trudging down a lifeless, dusty, eerily quiet street. He was trying to control his emotions as he said that officials thought that most people buried under the 110 story rubble had fallen into the WTC's deep basement. That was why there was virtually no sign of life out there in the post-apocalyptic hill of stones. He said the worst thing was he had gone to a makeshift triage center people had set up to care for survivors, and it was completely EMPTY. He and other reporters today spoke in glassy-eyed shock, saying the devastation was much worse than they had ever expected. The collapse damaged over a hundred nearby businesses and spread out in an impact over a ten mile radius, like an atomic bomb.

What really hits home for me is the list of names. The airlines and press have begun to release a list of the almost 400 people who died aboard those four hijacked flights. In our company intranet, our CEO tried to give us words of reassurance. IBM has listed our first death: one of our brand managers, a woman working on an account in NY.

Here's a sample of people from the partial list of victims:

- John Ogonowski, 52, Dracut, Mass., captain
- Thomas McGuinness, 42, Portsmouth, N.H., first officer
- Jeffrey Collman, flight attendant
- Sara Low, 28, Batesville, Ark., flight attendant
- Betty Ong, flight attendant
- David Angell, 54, Pasadena, Calif., executive producer, NBC's Frasier
- Berry Berenson, 53, Los Angeles, actress and photographer
- Edmund Glazer, 41, Chatsworth, Calif., chief financial officer, MRV Communications Inc.
- Daniel C. Lewin, 31, co-founder of Akamai Technologies
- Sonia Morales Puopolo, 58, of Massachusetts, former ballet dancer
- Jessica Sachs, 22, Billerica, accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Garnet "Ace'' Bailey, 53, Lynnfield, Mass., director of pro scouting, Los Angeles Kings
- Klaus Bothe, 31, chief of development, BCT Technology AG, Germany
- Christoffer Carstanjen, 33, Turner Falls, Mass., computer research specialist at University of Massachusetts
- Heinrich Kimmig, 43, chairman of BCT Technology AG, Germany
- Robert LeBlanc, 70, Lee, N.H., professor emeritus of geography, University of New Hampshire
- Sarah Clark, sixth-grade teacher from Backus Elementary School in Washington, D.C.
- Asia Cottom, 11, student at Backus Elementary School in Wasington, D.C.
- James Debeuneure, 58, Upper Marlboro, Md., fifth-grade teacher at Ketcham Elementary School in Washington, D.C.
- Rodney Dickens, 11, student at Leckie Elementary School in Washington, D.C.
- Bud Flagg, Corona, Calif., retired Navy admiral and pilot for American Airlines
- Steven D. "Jake'' Jacoby, 43, Alexandria, Va., chief operating officer, Metrocall Inc.
- Ann Judge, Virginia, National Geographic Society
- Barbara Olson, 45, TV commentator and lawyer
- William Feehan, First Deputy Commissioner of Fire Department
- Peter Ganci, Fire Department chief
- The Rev. Mychal Judge, New York Fire Department chaplain
- Yamel Merino, 24, Yonkers, N.Y., emergency medical technician for Metro Care Ambulance Co.

The NY Fire Department chaplain! Times like this are what make me lose any remaining faith I might have in God. [A Year of Questioning God (Wall St. Journal)] So much promise, so much happiness, so many dreams...dashed in one meaningless event. We like to hope everything, including every death, has a purpose ultimately. I know my family and I agonized this summer about it with my uncle's death. We like to hope that when we die, we are ready to go---we've worked the jobs we've wanted, visited the cities we've dreamed of, loved those we've longed for, been as naughty as we wished, and been as angelic as grandpa wished. But death sometimes is so ordinary, so clumsy, when we are still incomplete, half-asleep, in the middle of a dream.

I am speechless. Wishing you all a stronger, happier day tomorrow.
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Rest in peace. How about you? Please leave a link to your Sept. 11th entry in the comments (or post an entry if you are a cowriter). Many people on RBJ posted their entries.

Rest in peace, dear Uncle. I still have to write a final remembrance of you.