September 11, 2006

It was five years ago this morning that the United States of America was brutally attacked on it's on soil. We will never be the same. We all know the ways that it changed us, what we loss and we will think about that today. But even with constant television coverage after the attacks and thereafter, I don't think any of us realize the depth of the immediate or subsequent affect on the people who live in New York City.
We saw, the mountains of pulverized Tower ash seeming to chase fleeing New Yorkers like in some sci-fi movie. We know of course, about the loss of business and tourism and that Broadway went dark. We know of the grief.

But, I don't think it was conveyed to us who are outside of NYC, the profound daily affect on the average New Yorker City resident or the significant consequences the attack had on neighborhoods throughout the city. I doubt that we could ever understand without being there.

The Towers suddenly being gone, must have felt to New Yorkers like the loss of a limb. The smell. The air quality. The ash. Pulverized cement, and glass and asbestos and metal, on and in everything for blocks around. Residents in buildings 10 blocks away, had to have professional restoration services try to clean every single item in their home and the furnace and drains and air ducts. Sometimes it was irreparable. Non-residential vehicular traffic was prohibited in some neighborhoods for more than a week and loss of telephone service for as long as two months. Some businesses could not recover.

It has been five years and we all feel the pain of that day. But New Yorkers, I don't think your journey was ever really articulated to us. We do know you prevailed. So today I'm not only thinking of terrorist or blame or where I was when it happened. I think of and feel love for New Yorkers.
...
where there is cold silence-
no hallelujahs, no hurrahs at all, no handshakes,
no neon red or blue, no smiling faces-
prevail.
...
It has been a
hard trudge, with fainting, bandaging and death.
There have been startling confrontations.
..
But there remains large countries in your eyes..
And you create and train your own flowers still.

Gwendolyn Brooks