story777.xml
Title
story777.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-06-12
911DA Story: Story
Submitted by James L. Coll, NYPD Police Officer
A Nation of New Yorkers
On one corner of Church Street across from the pile the street sign dangled precariously, much like faith itself. Daily tallies have graced the pages of the city?s newspapers, reminding us of the dead and the missing. The number is too high for any of us to conceive. All of us, directly affected or emotionally attached, have shed more than one tear for the lost, more than one tear for the found and more than one tear for the unknown that has become the future.
Within minutes after United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, off-duty police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians were making their way through a labyrinth of roadblocks and traffic congestion into Manhattan to help out in any way possible. The attack of this second plane, preceded by the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower, dismissed any doubt that a terrorist attack was underway in the greatest city in the world.
A month since the attack, the city has become a different place than it was on September 10. It is no longer as important, for a time, what Jennifer Lopez is wearing, what Susan Sarandon is saying or whom George Clooney is dating. The heroes of Yankee and Shea Stadiums have taken a backseat to the heroes of police stations and firehouses, blue-collar workers who cut their own lawns and sit in traffic on the Long Island Expressway just like everyone else. Mike Piazza, king of the Mets, now wears a crown not of gold but of blue cloth, embroidered with four bold letters: NYPD. New York City police officers, long held at disregard by a small group of vocal citizens, have had to become accustomed to a grateful public that stops them on the street as many as ten times a tour not to complain about a problem in their daily life but to say ?Thank you.?
Even the hard-hearted among the ranks have been softened in spirit by the outpouring of support that the attacks have generated. The nation itself has given their hearts and their souls to help in the relief efforts underway in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, where two other planes struck the morning of September 11. Rescuers from distant cities have joined the effort to find life in the wreckage or to pass out food and water to ironworkers laboring beyond exhaustion to bring closure to a grieving family.
Memorial services have begun in New York and in counties that surround the city and into New Jersey and Connecticut for those who have come to grips with their losses. The sight of a fire truck with the letters FDNY navigating the streets of Long Island would have seemed out of place three weeks ago. Today, we simply bow our heads in prayer. Many doorways, storefronts and car windows have been adorned with the beautiful rectangular constellation of the fifty stars and the 13 red and white strips that collectively make up the American flag. The unity and support has undoubtedly helped many.
New York, a city more famous for fashion than compassion, has reinvented itself. The heart on the New York City t-shirt that screams in bold letters I LOVE NEW YORK seems to have gotten bigger. The t-shirt, long a tell-tale sign of a vacationer without fashion sense, has become a staple of city residents, commuters and visitors. And why not? Who among us in this nation today does not bear the right to say that they too, in some small way, are a New Yorker?
A Nation of New Yorkers
On one corner of Church Street across from the pile the street sign dangled precariously, much like faith itself. Daily tallies have graced the pages of the city?s newspapers, reminding us of the dead and the missing. The number is too high for any of us to conceive. All of us, directly affected or emotionally attached, have shed more than one tear for the lost, more than one tear for the found and more than one tear for the unknown that has become the future.
Within minutes after United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, off-duty police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians were making their way through a labyrinth of roadblocks and traffic congestion into Manhattan to help out in any way possible. The attack of this second plane, preceded by the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower, dismissed any doubt that a terrorist attack was underway in the greatest city in the world.
A month since the attack, the city has become a different place than it was on September 10. It is no longer as important, for a time, what Jennifer Lopez is wearing, what Susan Sarandon is saying or whom George Clooney is dating. The heroes of Yankee and Shea Stadiums have taken a backseat to the heroes of police stations and firehouses, blue-collar workers who cut their own lawns and sit in traffic on the Long Island Expressway just like everyone else. Mike Piazza, king of the Mets, now wears a crown not of gold but of blue cloth, embroidered with four bold letters: NYPD. New York City police officers, long held at disregard by a small group of vocal citizens, have had to become accustomed to a grateful public that stops them on the street as many as ten times a tour not to complain about a problem in their daily life but to say ?Thank you.?
Even the hard-hearted among the ranks have been softened in spirit by the outpouring of support that the attacks have generated. The nation itself has given their hearts and their souls to help in the relief efforts underway in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, where two other planes struck the morning of September 11. Rescuers from distant cities have joined the effort to find life in the wreckage or to pass out food and water to ironworkers laboring beyond exhaustion to bring closure to a grieving family.
Memorial services have begun in New York and in counties that surround the city and into New Jersey and Connecticut for those who have come to grips with their losses. The sight of a fire truck with the letters FDNY navigating the streets of Long Island would have seemed out of place three weeks ago. Today, we simply bow our heads in prayer. Many doorways, storefronts and car windows have been adorned with the beautiful rectangular constellation of the fifty stars and the 13 red and white strips that collectively make up the American flag. The unity and support has undoubtedly helped many.
New York, a city more famous for fashion than compassion, has reinvented itself. The heart on the New York City t-shirt that screams in bold letters I LOVE NEW YORK seems to have gotten bigger. The t-shirt, long a tell-tale sign of a vacationer without fashion sense, has become a staple of city residents, commuters and visitors. And why not? Who among us in this nation today does not bear the right to say that they too, in some small way, are a New Yorker?
Collection
Citation
“story777.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 14, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/13450.