email640.xml

email640.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-30

I heard today on the radio Bush talking to Pataki and Guiliani, his
capacity to get out a sentence was so limited, it was scary, Pataki and
Guiliani had to bail him out and supply words for him. Then there was a
press conference where he immediately segued into a written script and
went back to it to obviously after a stuttering effort to get out an
answer.

I hope somebody, in or out of the US is prepared to bail us out with
some leadership

I'm off tomorrow,8 hours without the news on the radio. karen said she
cancelled the big birthday party for Nathan, she didn't feel right
celebrating.

I have not wanted to be alone and I have indulged that, phoning,
emailing, going to meetings, services, socializing after meetings.

I am sure you are seeing the same in your neighborhood, but here we have
a tremendous number of financial district workers because it was a quick
commute. At the synagogue last night during the misheberach, the number
of
names called out was a lot.

tonight there was a candlelight vigil on the promenade where we look out
on the Manhattan
financial district skyline. The promenade was 8 blocks long of
people with candles, flower bouquets, quiet groups talking to each
other. Kids sitting on the ground around a circle of candles. One
group was surrounding the woman who does the performance art of the
Statue of Liberty and they were singing as many patriotic songs as they
could remember.

There was an Orthodox man singing psalms Shlomo
Carlebach style and I stopped and sang, and after a while when he had
gathered enough men for a minyon he made a little speech (maybe gave a
little torah, mamush as shlomo would say )and said kaddish, The next
group was
singing "Amazing Grace"

Then as I was leaving, people were leaving the candles and bouquets in a
circle at the foot of a flagpole, and again singing patriotic songs,
the anthems, waving flags, and I broke down. When jaded
New Yorkers can't sing the anthem loud enough or wave a flag hard
enough, the world is a different place.

There are posters made at Kinko's with color photos of missing people on
our lampposts. when I came home earlier there was one, now there are
four. Our fire houses all lost people, two 8 each, one only 1, one
wiped out totally except for one guy. There are bouquets and thank you
notes outside the fire house.

Some friends of mine went down to the fire house in Red Hook which had
lost eight men to ask what they could do to help. And those firemen had
not had any visiters, and they had no food so my friends went and got a
big deli spread and cakes and came back and she said the firemen broke
down and started crying and they all cried.

In a way I am glad I am fully experiencing this.

Love,
Suzi

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2001

Thursday night before I go up to Buffalo