9/11 ESSAY (EMAIL)

I represented a company in NYC in 2001, I sent this Email to my associates across the country, in October 2001. I found this Email amongst some business correspondence in 2009. I have not edited its contents, it is as written. The subject is labeled, WTC II, I must have sent a WTC I, but it is lost, the Roman numeral II, was not meant to be symbolic, but just used as a numbering sequence.

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SUBJECT: WTC II (10/02/01)

I feel compelled to write this brief note.

I attended, on Monday (10/01), a breakfast meeting of the NYC Chamber of Commerce. The guest speaker was Senator Hillary Clinton, and the topic was, ‘Rebuilding NYC’. She spoke eloquently on the plight of NYC and the challenges facing the USA. She also had some unflinchingly tough words for the,’murderers’ who were involved with this ‘crime’.

After the meeting I was able to go down to ‘Ground Zero’, in lower Manhattan. I must tell you that tape/TV does not do the site justice (if justice is the right word). It was a total assault on the senses. To view the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center, and know that it is a tomb for 6000+ people, shakes you emotionally.

Your sense of sight, to see, but not believe; this must be an optical illusion.

Your sense of smell, when the wind blows in your direction, burning, sulphuric stench.

Your sense of hearing, not the normal traffic sounds, but those of trucks rumbling up and down Broadway, and horns replaced by sirens, and the work of cranes removing the remains from the site.

Maybe I know now, what the passengers on the Titanic felt, when told the ship was sinking: incredulity, this can’t happen.


To my friend Glenn:
Posted on a building on Broadway, approx. 2 short blocks from GZ, is a banner, about 3’Hx12’L, on top of the banner in bold letters, it reads, ’Prayers From San Antonio’. It is signed by the congregation of, ‘Oak Hills Church’, in SA. If in your travels you happen to pass-by this church, drop-in and tell them that your com-patriot in NYC, along with thousands of others, saw/read that heart-felt banner.

To my friend Mike:
A company out of Pittsburgh, ‘Matthews Int’l’, donated a larger-than-life bronze statue of a kneeling (in prayer) fireman. If you happen by that co., also let them know that your friend in NYC, along with thousands of others have seen that statue, be-decked with flowers, candles, and notes of condolences from all over.
Also, the HSBC building (formerly Marine Midland), covered in soot and seemingly abandoned. What a sight.

To my friend Hardy:
Who, after a hard day prospecting with me in NYC, decided to have ,’a couple of beers’, atop the WTC, in the restaurant, ‘Windows on the World’. Those memories are indelibly etched; viewing the NYC skyline and surrounding country-side at twi-light, from that vantage point.

They say that this is a ‘War’; well this section of NYC certainly looks like a ‘war-zone’. As I write this on Tues AM, I still can’t believe what I experienced yesterday. I will, however, always remember. Yet, when you are down there, you have the queasy feeling that you want to be somewhere else; that you do not want to experience this; yet there it is.

One quick story, to hi-light the resiliency of people, and how life goes-on. Outside the Barclays Bank building on Broadway, approx. 3 blocks north of GZ a group of people were gathered outside, obviously on ‘break’. They were wearing face masks covering their mouth and nose. Irony of ironies, they were all on a ‘smoke-break’, removing their masks to take a puff, every so often.
Go figure!

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Regards, Tony


Tony Puma/MMX