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2003-02-24

Lets Preserve Hope on September 11th

Its been a year since the Towers have gone, the Pentagon was hit, the plane crashed in Pennsylvania, and yes, its terrible, and yes, life will never be the same, but I plan to meet this infamous anniversary with something other than gloom. Because there was hope in the wreckage ñ I saw it, if only for a moment.

I grew up on Long Island, the suburbs of New York City, but left that angry, crowded place years ago for the beautiful West. I was awaken on September 11th to an anguished call from my girlfriend, who was trapped in Queens. She felt the world was coming to an end around her, and she was far from alone in that thought.

But the world didnt come to an end. Thousands were killed, and our perceptions changed. Suddenly we became vulnerable, but alsoÖ we became giving. There was an outpouring of support of a magnitude that Ive never seen before. It came from every town in America in the form of goodwill and donations, and indeed, from all over the world. The arrogance New Yorkers are famous for disappeared in the wake of so much honest goodwill. For once, New Yorkers were humbled. Remember David Lettermans tearful on-air acknowledgement of donations collected by schoolchildren in Choteau, Montana? In the shadow of the horrible, there was beauty. New York was not above America, but part of America, and part of the world. And America and the world were part of New York. I realized that although Id lived out West for ten years, I was still a New YorkerÖ and seemingly, so was everybody.

But in the year thats followed, what happened? Everyone has stories of how theyre different, how theyve confronted their fears, how theyve grown. For me, its been an embracing of Gandhi, and non-violent methods of problem solving. Others have understood their anger as a call to hatred and to war. The president wants to send Americans soldiers to Iraq for a prolonged war, with or without asking Congress, and with a complete lack of support from our allies. The unity and brotherhood we felt not so many months ago seems like a vague recollection from a time long gone.

I think we can preserve it. Because despite our current administrations feelings to the contrary, America still does stand for truth, justice, and democracy. We still believe in "We the People." Theres been a lot of discussion as to what to do with the World Trade Center site, and many of the proposals have been criticized as too commercial. I think we should express our sorrow and hope outward, rather than upward. My suggestion is this: A bridge for pedestrians and bicycles spanning the Hudson River, linking lower Manhattan with New Jersey and the rest of America, with a tribute to the victims along the length of its span. A September 11th Memorial Bridge, symbolizing our unity, huge and wide ñ but not for cars, because this would be a bridge of peace.

I have lived proudly as a non-New Yorker for a long time now, but on that day New York was once again home. Because New York, Wyoming, any place in the world, really, is home to us all.

What better way to show this connectedness than a bridge, linking the island with the mainland?