A message from "ground zero"

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wolfwill23

War Child
Joined
Nov 2, 2000
Messages
649
Location
New York, NY
I moved to New York about a month ago to go to NYU. My apartment building is about three blocks from the WTC. I was in my building when it happened. I heard an explosion, my windows shook and then I heard sirens. I got ready for school, went into the hallway, locked my door and then heard another explosion. The building shook, the lights flickered. I'm on the 23rd floor, so I began to get a little nervous. The elevator opened and there people in there crying. I didn't say anything, knowing that I would find out what's going on soon enough. I get to the lobby of my building and see people screaming, "get out!!" I walk outside and see that everybody is looking up. I look up to see the most horrific event I've ever seen, the WTC buildings, with massive holes in the sides of them, on fire. Somebody said, "look, there goes another one." I looked to over and saw a person, a HUMAN BEING-MOTHER-FATHER-SON-DAUGHTER-FRIEND-HUSBAND-WIFE-GIRLFRIEND-BOYFRIEND, falling to their death. A couple other people jumped out after that person. I was crushed.

It's now almost two weeks since we were attacked. I was notified that I could return to my apartment yesterday. My neighborhood is different. You can walk down the middle of the street without worrying about getting hit by a cab, because there are no cabs. The only things on the streets are Army Humvees, police vehicles and utilities trucks. I had to go shopping because all of the food in my fridge was rotten (no power.) I went shopping at the little market connected to my building. Their dairy and meat departments were almost completely empty. They had to throw everything out too. You don't see grocery stores with empty shelves in America.

The site is lit up at night. There is a constant cloud hovering above the area where the buildings once stood. It may be smoke from smoldering fires or it may be something else. The smell around here is no longer just the smell of burning debree, it is mixed with something else.

The city hurts. People still cry in the streets. "Missing" posters hang from walls all over the city.

It's a shame. Families were destroyed that day. Dreams were lost. A piece of America was badly wounded.
 
Wolfwill...glad to hear that you are safe and sound.

On a group consciousness level, many of us all around the world are still grieving. Like Mayor Rudy Guiliani said yesterday, when he asked people to resume their "normal" lives in New York, "it's okay to still feel sad, even while you go about your daily business." We're all going to feel sad for a long time, regardless of whether we live in New York or Canada or Ireland or China. America has not been wounded, humanity has been wounded by this event. While acts of terror occur all over the world on an all-too-frequent basis, the scope and evil brilliance of this attack has shocked everyone around the planet.

Someone in U2 chat last night thought that perhaps we are all dwelling on this too much, and that it is time to move on. We must continue to live our lives and enjoy just being with our friends and families, but if we can use this horrific event as a catalyst to think and care more for others - regardless of where they come from or how similar they are to us - then those people will not have died in vain.

My thoughts are with you wolf as you attempt to resume some sense of normalcy...thanks for sharing your story.
 
Wolf-- glad you got out ok and are now back in your apartment. I have a few friends who haven't been able to return to their places yet. My office is down there too and we're hoping to get back in there as well but who knows when that will be. Hang in there!

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"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980
 
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