email51.xml
Title
email51.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-03-10
September 11 Email: Body
Hey Chris,
darran and I both went thru our phone books, neither one of us has Tom's new # that we are sure of. I was thinking about him alot. no one is left of his family to even know to tell us if anything is wrong. He works in Harlem last I knew at a school and had moved uptown to be near Columbia U when he was a student, so he supposedly was out of the danger zone. We are going to try to get ahold of him this weekend. All circuits have been busy to NYC and a bunch of relay centers were on top of those buildings,etc.. I tried to not think about it, I promise I will let you know as soon as I know anything. He may not even be in the city anymore, he was talking about moving and I haven't talked to him in a long time, like maybe a year now? I don't know, I am all freaked out and can't think about it. Mike and Darran tell me he just has to be fine, he would have no reason to be anywhere near the trade center, b/c he is a teacher now. I guess his last known neighborhood is not really near there.
I am doing fine, Just a little stunned as is the rest of the world, I guess. I teach 2 general bio recitations at SU on Tuesday, so on my third day in the classroom, this happened. I got a crash course in the role of the teacher as counselor. I was so not ready for something like this. What the hell do you say to a bunch of 18 year olds, half of whom are from NYC or DC? ESF at least had the respect to close campus by noon. SU has been criticized for not closing classes out of respect for their students and for respect of what had just happened. Business as usual for SU, the chancellor sent a message out around 11am to all staff saying just that, 'business as usual' Okay, I had students in my 11:30 class who looked like they were about to vomit on their own shoes. 1/2 my class was missing because they were trying in sheer desperation to contact their families. I have heard story after story about so and so's mom worked there and they haven't found her, etc.. One of my students is an RA in Lawrinson and I saw him on Wednesday and asked him how his floor was doing. The stories of the loss and sense of not knowing were tragic. One girl lost both of her brothers and both of her parents. Bam, 3 weeks into freshman year, alone in the world. I cried for her, whoever she is. I have been sending emails to all of my students, and I haven't heard from all of them yet, I fear the worst for them. they are my 'little geniuses' as I call them and I love them all...only three weeks into the semester. I don't know, I was thrust into a role I hoped to have to never be in, especially about something this large scale. I mean, I am aware of the role of teachers in these situations, but do you ever really want to have to fill those shoes? I have the capacity to deal with it in regards to my students and they have been sending me e-mails thanking me for being the only one of their teachers who seems to care, and things along those lines. So I suppose I am doing the right thing by ignoring SU's fucked up bullshit and letting students know that we need to be strong for each other and that we need to be the generation who makes the world a safe place for our own children to grow up in. When I said that to my class I literally watched all of them bridge the gap between being children themselves to being adults. literally watched them all change in an instant. It wasn't a bad or scarey thing I told them, I didn't create the events that changed them forever, just gave a sobering reminder that they do have futures and this kind of crap can't be in it. there has got to be a solution and we will be the ones to find it.
Well, it's late and I have to go to bed, so I can get up and do it all over again, i have bio lab tomarrow!
all other things aside, I like teaching...my young Einsteins...they will be okay. Maybe 15 or 20 years from now they will be winning noble peace prizes!!!
take care, and I will let you know about TP as soon as I know anything.
love
Cheryl
p.s. Mike was sampling a reservoir 30 mile N of manhattan and was clueless...sitting in a boat on the water supply to the place that was just attacked...la la la, what a nice day. they got yanked off the water by NYCDEP and on his way home, he was like Holy shit, one trigger happy yahoo who had no idea that we have sampling permits and it could have been curtains. good thing I had no idea how close he was or even had the chance to think about the water supply thing in light of terrorism. whoa baby, i would have thrown up with stress. And of course, noone could call his cell phone to tell him to get the fuck out of there...no signals b/c no tower relays So on the up side, he hasn't seen all of the footage from that day and says he doesn't want to , so I am sure that won't last long with our media coverage. We watched TV last night and he was watching tonight, but they aren't really showing that much of the planes hitting, etc. anymore.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rick and Christine
To: Cheryl
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 9:18 PM
Hi Cheryl. How are you? Hanging in here. Have you talked to Tom Perlman? I'm sure he is OK, but I have still been thinking about him living in NYC. It is such a tragedy, one can't put words to it. Please write and let me know about him.
darran and I both went thru our phone books, neither one of us has Tom's new # that we are sure of. I was thinking about him alot. no one is left of his family to even know to tell us if anything is wrong. He works in Harlem last I knew at a school and had moved uptown to be near Columbia U when he was a student, so he supposedly was out of the danger zone. We are going to try to get ahold of him this weekend. All circuits have been busy to NYC and a bunch of relay centers were on top of those buildings,etc.. I tried to not think about it, I promise I will let you know as soon as I know anything. He may not even be in the city anymore, he was talking about moving and I haven't talked to him in a long time, like maybe a year now? I don't know, I am all freaked out and can't think about it. Mike and Darran tell me he just has to be fine, he would have no reason to be anywhere near the trade center, b/c he is a teacher now. I guess his last known neighborhood is not really near there.
I am doing fine, Just a little stunned as is the rest of the world, I guess. I teach 2 general bio recitations at SU on Tuesday, so on my third day in the classroom, this happened. I got a crash course in the role of the teacher as counselor. I was so not ready for something like this. What the hell do you say to a bunch of 18 year olds, half of whom are from NYC or DC? ESF at least had the respect to close campus by noon. SU has been criticized for not closing classes out of respect for their students and for respect of what had just happened. Business as usual for SU, the chancellor sent a message out around 11am to all staff saying just that, 'business as usual' Okay, I had students in my 11:30 class who looked like they were about to vomit on their own shoes. 1/2 my class was missing because they were trying in sheer desperation to contact their families. I have heard story after story about so and so's mom worked there and they haven't found her, etc.. One of my students is an RA in Lawrinson and I saw him on Wednesday and asked him how his floor was doing. The stories of the loss and sense of not knowing were tragic. One girl lost both of her brothers and both of her parents. Bam, 3 weeks into freshman year, alone in the world. I cried for her, whoever she is. I have been sending emails to all of my students, and I haven't heard from all of them yet, I fear the worst for them. they are my 'little geniuses' as I call them and I love them all...only three weeks into the semester. I don't know, I was thrust into a role I hoped to have to never be in, especially about something this large scale. I mean, I am aware of the role of teachers in these situations, but do you ever really want to have to fill those shoes? I have the capacity to deal with it in regards to my students and they have been sending me e-mails thanking me for being the only one of their teachers who seems to care, and things along those lines. So I suppose I am doing the right thing by ignoring SU's fucked up bullshit and letting students know that we need to be strong for each other and that we need to be the generation who makes the world a safe place for our own children to grow up in. When I said that to my class I literally watched all of them bridge the gap between being children themselves to being adults. literally watched them all change in an instant. It wasn't a bad or scarey thing I told them, I didn't create the events that changed them forever, just gave a sobering reminder that they do have futures and this kind of crap can't be in it. there has got to be a solution and we will be the ones to find it.
Well, it's late and I have to go to bed, so I can get up and do it all over again, i have bio lab tomarrow!
all other things aside, I like teaching...my young Einsteins...they will be okay. Maybe 15 or 20 years from now they will be winning noble peace prizes!!!
take care, and I will let you know about TP as soon as I know anything.
love
Cheryl
p.s. Mike was sampling a reservoir 30 mile N of manhattan and was clueless...sitting in a boat on the water supply to the place that was just attacked...la la la, what a nice day. they got yanked off the water by NYCDEP and on his way home, he was like Holy shit, one trigger happy yahoo who had no idea that we have sampling permits and it could have been curtains. good thing I had no idea how close he was or even had the chance to think about the water supply thing in light of terrorism. whoa baby, i would have thrown up with stress. And of course, noone could call his cell phone to tell him to get the fuck out of there...no signals b/c no tower relays So on the up side, he hasn't seen all of the footage from that day and says he doesn't want to , so I am sure that won't last long with our media coverage. We watched TV last night and he was watching tonight, but they aren't really showing that much of the planes hitting, etc. anymore.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rick and Christine
To: Cheryl
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 9:18 PM
Hi Cheryl. How are you? Hanging in here. Have you talked to Tom Perlman? I'm sure he is OK, but I have still been thinking about him living in NYC. It is such a tragedy, one can't put words to it. Please write and let me know about him.
September 11 Email: Date
Thursday, September 13, 2001 11:26 PM
September 11 Email: Subject
Re:
Collection
Citation
“email51.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed November 15, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/36897.