September 11 2001, The Day A City Almost Died

September 11, 2001. I think we all have a memory of September 11th. That day is our generation's JFK assassination or Pearl Harbor. Where were you? Here's my story - one of millions.

The morning of September 11th was actually beautiful. Sunny and warm - a perfect late summer day in New York City. I was living in Jersey City and I rented my apartment for the perfect view of NYC and the Twin Towers. Some people thought of the Twin Towers as an eyesore - too modern, too big. I always loved those building and the way they would change colors with the sun - silver, blue, bronze, pink, orange and gold. This morning, as I did every morning, I walked my dogs in the park and said good morning to the Twin Towers.

For some reason, I was very early getting to work. I'm NEVER early for work. I make it a point to never be early for work. I remember stopping at the Dunkin Donuts on the corner by the Port Authority to get some coffee and walking the block to my office. A beautiful day - New York City is never as beautiful as it is in early fall. Got to my office, ready to start the day with a coffee and then.....some weird news. A plane hit the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center is burning.

Then it started....The rumors....the searching for the radio (we had no tv and the internet was so new, no streaming video yet....)...The calls from and to friends. A plane hit The WTC. Then another plane. A call to a friend who lived downtown confirmed the fire, the smoke, the strike.

One worker was just crazed, one worker had an ex at the WTC. I had many many friends at the WTC. I almost accepted a job there the week before but I really didn't want to go back into finance. My ex-fiance worked on the 79th floor and I visited him just the week before with my dog. I had just left a sales job where my clients were all either in the Twin Towers or the Starett-Lehy Building because I could cold call an entire building and client search without going out in the winter. I tried to call some people who worked there, getting no answers, not getting through.

In my immediate wisdom and knowledge about disaster from being in Hurricane Andrew(most people call it pessimism) I thought two things - this did not get my new coworkers to like me much..One - NYC is probably under terrorist attack and we should go in pairs to an ATM and get CASH so that when the electricity goes out and there is anarchy in the streets we have money to buy any food or water we might need. and Two....Those towers WILL GO DOWN - there's too much heat and metal for them to not fully and totally collapse. Besides, action plans totally work when people are getting crazed - giving someone something to do - like go to the bank - actually makes people feel better - and we all felt hopeless. So we did that. I secretly wanted to get down to the site. To see if I could see, help, do....But in all the chaos I thought probably better to not go.

So we waited, watched. And saw people trapped. People leaping out of the buildings 90-100 stories up. People that had to choose between being burned alive and one last flight of freedom before they met the ground. We saw the towers fall - first one then the other. I was right...and so sorry for being right.

We left finally....closed the office....found a bar....watched TV....Saw the film footage again and again in an endless loop of horror. The Plane hitting the second tower. The towers falling. By then NYC was shut down. No cabs, no buses. The bridges and tunnels were shut down - to keep people from leaving the city and getting into the city. We were where we were. I still had to get back into New Jersey - offers were passed for me to sleep on a couch, share a bed but this did not appeal to me. I wanted to get back home to my view that a few hours before was a majestic skyline - now burning rubble.

I walked to the piers on the West Side. There were rumors that boats were taking stranded people to New Jersey. The lines were miles long...hours long....I started walking when I heard some guy calling me over - he had a charter party boat - leaving now - room for one more. Taking me across the river only a few miles from my apartment. I hopped on. Any other day you don't go with strangers. That day you did. What the hell else could happen? Rape? Robbery?

We untied from the dock - this boat that is used for weddings, corporate parties, dancing and drinking had a much different feel than what she was intended for. People shell shocked on deck. And I've heard it said people were crying but truth be told New Yorkers are much more stoic. There were few tears. Mostly either stories or silence. The Hudson was a sea of boats and we were on deck for what seems like hours. We were heading south...and I got my first good look at the site. And as we were looking Number 7 WTC went down in front of us - not as spectacular but a good shocking taste of what WTC 1 and 2 must have looked like.

We finally got to NY and I got to my home. Remember - I had THE primo view of the WTC. Now, as the sun set on this grotesque day, I got to see the plumes of smoke, some flames. In fact the smoke and burning was there for days, as were the news trucks who set up camp for a week. Everything in the neighborhood was filled with soot. And...papers....lots of papers. I picked one up - they were trade confirmations from the exchange floors of the World Trade center - the blasts and the wind carried them over to my apartment. They were dated September 10 and 11. Part of me said keep them and any other time, any other remnant I would have, but I put them down where they lay - these papers had blood on them and I wanted no part of them.

The next day all was silent except for the sound of Airforce fighter jets. A sound I never want to hear in my city again. It was the sound of a war. My City was at war. I found my way into the City....Walked as far as I could down the West Side Highway - out of curiosity, a feeling of wanting to be a part and to see if I could help. I saw things I thought I would never see....Impromptu corps of people trying to volunteer....Dump Trucks hauling away entire Fire Engines and police cars covered in white powder......Freezer Trucks hauling away god knows what.....I found a way to volunteer putting together cardboard dog and cat carriers for people trying to get into their apartments to rescue their pets who lived downtown (Downtown was evacuated). Everyone wanted to volunteer, everyone wanted to help. Remember - action is the opposite of fear and frustration.

Right afterward the posters and the candles started appearing. Everywhere. The signs. The faces. Have you seen my wife, my son, my father? Pictures of smiling firefighters, pretty young secretaries, handsome stock traders. And they were all handsome in those pictures. The makeshift posters were made with love - showing these lost souls at their very best - brides, grooms, graduates in their cap and gowns, wearing uniforms, holding babies. I think that these people knew that their loved ones would never return home to them...I think they just wanted the City to know that they existed. I don't want to liken the Twin Tower attack with the Holocaust - but there was similarities - both killed innocent people and both left loved ones with nothing to bury.

I am proud of New Yorkers - the city and it's people were wounded but not paranoid. We got back to work that Monday. We worked through Anthrax scares and building evacuations. We went to funerals with empty coffins. Us single gals dated single firemen and police officers. Just doing our duty. We went to plays to save Broadway and ate out to save restaurants. We volunteered and held benefits and shows and reviews and gave blood and time and money.

I worked on a project to rebuild the World Trade Center. Every design was fought against by families of the dead. Motives were questioned - who would lease there? Who would ever work there? Wasn't this hallowed ground? I agreed in secret. Don't rebuild. Too many ghosts. Eight years later the site is just an empty piece of land - like a socket where a tooth was. A friend had never been to NYC and wanted to see the site. All my friends and I said there was nothing to see - she didn't believe us. so we went and...nothing. There is nothing....and maybe....just maybe....that's how it should stay....Every anniversary in memory, the city of New York lights two giant beacons of light, representing each tower. These lights form giant ghost towers in the sky. I love this memorial. Ghost towers shimmering over an empty site where people used to work, laugh, eat, drink.....live and breathe. Ghost people working in their ghost towers in the sky. Yes.....that's exactly how it should be.

Hilll-Arrrr-Reeee-Usss - Hitler Finds Out About Obama Speaking to Schoolkids

I'm sorry - this is funny. And I'm Jewish!

Would You Let Your Children Behave Like Joe Wilson (I hope not....)

"F**K you, Congress"



So here's the question - you have a child. You take said child out to some crappy place in a strip mall for dinner because you got home late and the last thing on your mind is to make dinner. So you and your husband (or wife or whatever) take little Timmy out with you to TGI Thursday's or Green Lobster or whatever. While there, the waitress comes over and says "Hi! We have drink specials today 2 for 1 margaritas" You say that sounds great and while the waitress gets your drink order, Little Timmy, seed of your loins, throws a tantrum at the table because he wants chicken fingers and you want him to have the steamed chicken and broccoli so he doesn't turn into an obese child (because you cant afford the medical bills if your angel gets diabetes at the age of 10). He screams at you and makes a scene - what do you do? Punish him or give him his favorite dessert as a reward?

If that child were mine - that better not happen, I'll tell you that. Because even a crappy restaurant is a restaurant and there is a sense of decorum in how you act when out in public. My parents threatened me once - if you act out we just wont take you anywhere - and that's all I needed.

So my question, dear readers is simply this.....why the hell would anyone Republicans, Conservatives, Space Aliens....let Rep. Joe Wilson get away with his behavior last night at the President's address to Congress? What kind of message does this send? To me it doesn't send a message of protest or disagreement for The President's bill and ideals - the way to show that is clearly in the sitting on the hands and looking a little perturbed that the Republicans (and Democrats) know how to do so well. That in itself speaks volumes to The President when he addresses Congress. I personally LOVE this bit of theatre - it reminds me of old movies of Parliament.

But this...this shouting of "You Lie" by Rep Wilson is just bad behavior. And it makes a mockery of Congress, his office, and the Republican Party. It shows that he has no taste and clearly no respect for his job or his party or his country. Forget about his not agreeing with The President - you do not shit where you eat! That's the first rule of having a job. For this alone to show respect for the hall of Congress and the Country that the Republicans say they love so much more than the Democrats do - they need to condemn this act by a crude man - not order him a hot fudge sundae!

Barack Obama's Big Night

Last night President Barack Obama addressed Congress and the American people on the issue of his health care reform bill. I eagerly awaited this address because I have been feeling for months now that President Obama, by taking the high road and not addressing full out the craziness that has been brewing by the conservative right, was letting an opportunity slip away - the opportunity to make fools of these crazies by bringing to light the truth about the health care plan.

Lat night, President Obama did, I feel, make his position known in a more forceful manner. I loved his speech about he not being the first President to fight for Universal Health care but he would be the last. I love the fact that he addressed Sarah Palin's idiocy about "death panels" and called her out without naming names.

I even love the age old theatrics of the address to Congress - the party that sides with you stands and cheers everything you say. The opposition literally sits on their hands (except, of course, for Joe Wilson - the rude prick). Whenever I see this, It really takes me back to a time over 200 years ago when I'm sure the founding fathers that the conservatives talk so much about disagreed with and were outspoken with each other.

But let's get back to President Obama's outline and why the hell wouldn't we want this to pass? President Obama said that if you have health care from work or Medicare or Medicaid your coverage would stay the same except for the fact that there would be no pre-existing ailments and your coverage can't be "changed" during or after a sickness. If you don't have health care you have to be required to buy some form of basic health care or be penalized by the IRS. And if you still can't afford it, a basic basic form would be offered to you covering, say, heart disease of a broken leg so that you don't run off to the hospital emergency room, rack up a $25,000 bill and skip out on it. That everyone would have to be covered for basic health care like drivers are covered by car insurance. - What the hell is wrong with that?

There are only two scenarios that I can think of why the Republicans are so against this plan and this man - and neither of them make them look good in any way, shape of form:

1. The Republicans are in the back pocket of the medicine and insurance industries (duh). Of course they are - I literally snort coke zero out of my nose every time the Conservative Right says that they're for the people and that the Democrats are for big business and big government.....What? what? Republicans are notoriously for big business and tax breaks. They are the poster boys for bribery and being bought and sold for a buck. Do you want to know what got the only positive reaction by the President on the Republican side of the aisle yesterday? When The President acknowledged John McCain? NOPE! Guess again......How about when he said he would look into Doctors malpractice insurance practices and try to deregulate some practices and procedures for doctors? DING DING DING DING! The Republicans are being strong armed by the Insurance and AMA to not budge an inch lest there be less money to be shared. See? The Republicans still believe in trickle down economics - profit is trickled down from BIG INSURANCE right into the pockets of Republican Congressmen.

2. Like the sore losers they are, the Republicans want to see President Obama fail and will take down the country with it if they have to just to get a big "See? I told ya so" in the end. I don't know if it's racism, jealousy, aversion to change and hope or a weird allergic reaction to peanuts or shellfish, but these Republicans literally will stop at nothing to get Barack Obama to lose.

But here's the thing...In the end, the conservatives will self implode in a sea of craziness and the light will come down on the truth - that this system is broken and we have to change it. That President Obama's plan is no different or more insidious than having mandatory car insurance or home insurance on a mortgaged home. And that the really sad, sad truth in those that disagree is that it's OK to insure your THINGS - your car, your boat, your home because they have a tangible value but human health (especially the working class) much less important to the Conservatives after all.