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Reactions from a saddened New York New York-I am an AIDS researcher and a poet. I work for a research NGO that was housed in WTC Building 2. Luckily, I was not in the building when the planes hit, and all of my co-workers escaped without serious injury, but I watched the building burn not knowing which of my friends and co-workers were caught inside. This has been deeply traumatizing to us all in many ways. And many of us lost relatives or friends in the disaster. But in my conversations and emails with my co-workers since then, none of us seem to be vengeful. We are more concerned about what the U.S. may do in response. We do not see any justice in bombing the Afghan women who have suffered enough, or any of the other millions of innocent people who are likely to suffer the same kind of trauma that we have. Some of us are also trying to come to terms with why there are people out there who would do such a terrible act. The simple answers that the media and politicians give do not explain it. They avoid discussing the pain we must have caused others. They avoid why the U.S. may have acted in ways that caused pain. We need to think about that and to discuss it. May we all have a peaceful world. -Social Scientist *** The courts in lower Manhattan reopened a week after Sept. 11, even though they have no telephone service and the subway stops near them are closed. In landlord-tenant court, some landlord lawyers refuse to consent to put off cases and some judges are evicting people like usual. Landlord lawyers refuse to lend their cell phones. The "normal" scene inside the court contrasts with the sad but helpful atmosphere of ordinary people in the streets. The streets are lined with barricades manned by ubiquitous police, FBI, and military personnel. You have to show identification to move. Now you know what a police state looks like. The gray cloud of dust still hangs over lower Manhattan. The stench is a constant reminder of the tragedy, and everyone in the street appears solemn. Each time you cross an avenue, you can't resist the pull to look down at the cloud and envision the amazing deaths, now said to be 6,500. Still no telephone, fax or mail. The streets are relatively empty. Many stores and lunch places have closed; some are so small that they probably will not be able to reopen. Strangers are kind and polite in small ways that are untypical of New York's usual intensely capitalistic culture of speed and selfishness. We are all so sad. -New Yorker |
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