email174.xml
Title
email174.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-05-08
September 11 Email: Body
Hi all...I thought I would quickly touch base from down here near
"Ground Zero". The horror and profound collective sadness is unrelenting.
James and I left town for Wellfleet last Thursday amidst the acrid,
unbreathable air, wearing face masks, showing ID's, and wheeling our
luggage uptown where he had to park our car the night before. It took
us almost three
hours to get out of Manhattan. It all seems so insignificant in light
of the horrible horrible reality so many others are facing.
We came back Sunday night and now spend many many hours sharing
first-hand stories with friends and colleagues. It is overwhelming.
The Cooper students are back now. It is very hard to see this through
the eyes of an 18 year old frightened of war, the draft and Bush. We
are encouraging reflection and doing good work as much as possible...but
there is little smiling and we observe a truly shocked community bonded
in terror.
The most heart wrenching aspect is that lower Manhattan is literally
plastered with thousands and thousands of xeroxes of photos and "have
you seen my Daddy" messages. There are little memorials everywhere with
burning candles and flowers and people crying and hugging. We are doing
a fair share of this too. The stories of friends of friends go on and on
with each new tale more terrible than the last. Many are inconsolable.
And remember...we are just neighborhood observers...thank God we did not
lose a loved one. I can't even imagine what that would have been
like...and is like... for the hundreds of thousands who have. Godspeed to
us all.
Again...forgive us for not having time to respond to your beautiful
messages individually...that will come...we promise. It is so important
to know that so many of us care about each other. It is almost the only
thing left to count on now.
I have attached two photographs taken by a dear friend who teaches
photography here. He was standing next to me with a wide angle lens on
the roof of Cooper when this all happened. I hope that you can open
them. If you look near the left half of the photo you can see a
building with a
bill board of the Evian girl pouring water down on the world from the
clouds. James and my loft is the fourth floor of that building and you
can see our windows in the photo...amazing.
As children of the sixties, James and I have re-adopted our signature
greeting from another time that seems ever more appropriate now.
With two fingers in a V we say PEACE to us all. X
J and B
"Ground Zero". The horror and profound collective sadness is unrelenting.
James and I left town for Wellfleet last Thursday amidst the acrid,
unbreathable air, wearing face masks, showing ID's, and wheeling our
luggage uptown where he had to park our car the night before. It took
us almost three
hours to get out of Manhattan. It all seems so insignificant in light
of the horrible horrible reality so many others are facing.
We came back Sunday night and now spend many many hours sharing
first-hand stories with friends and colleagues. It is overwhelming.
The Cooper students are back now. It is very hard to see this through
the eyes of an 18 year old frightened of war, the draft and Bush. We
are encouraging reflection and doing good work as much as possible...but
there is little smiling and we observe a truly shocked community bonded
in terror.
The most heart wrenching aspect is that lower Manhattan is literally
plastered with thousands and thousands of xeroxes of photos and "have
you seen my Daddy" messages. There are little memorials everywhere with
burning candles and flowers and people crying and hugging. We are doing
a fair share of this too. The stories of friends of friends go on and on
with each new tale more terrible than the last. Many are inconsolable.
And remember...we are just neighborhood observers...thank God we did not
lose a loved one. I can't even imagine what that would have been
like...and is like... for the hundreds of thousands who have. Godspeed to
us all.
Again...forgive us for not having time to respond to your beautiful
messages individually...that will come...we promise. It is so important
to know that so many of us care about each other. It is almost the only
thing left to count on now.
I have attached two photographs taken by a dear friend who teaches
photography here. He was standing next to me with a wide angle lens on
the roof of Cooper when this all happened. I hope that you can open
them. If you look near the left half of the photo you can see a
building with a
bill board of the Evian girl pouring water down on the world from the
clouds. James and my loft is the fourth floor of that building and you
can see our windows in the photo...amazing.
As children of the sixties, James and I have re-adopted our signature
greeting from another time that seems ever more appropriate now.
With two fingers in a V we say PEACE to us all. X
J and B
September 11 Email: Date
September 19, 2001
September 11 Email: Subject
Peace above all else!
Collection
Citation
“email174.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed July 1, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/38056.