this is a message from new york- please, please continue to donate blood and/or money to the red cross. you cannot imagine what it is like here. and everyone MUST keep in mind that a military retaliation that involves more killing is so disgustingly wrong. i walked home from work on tuesday, and i saw people rushing uptown with masks on, and men crying in the streets. traffic stopped dead, everyone trying to get out of manhattan. people stopping in their tracks and looking terrified, up at the sky, when we first heard the fighter jets that were flying around. as i got closer and closer to downtown, where i needed to go to try and get home to brooklyn, the traffic disappeared and the acrid smell of burning increased. i walked straight southward, with the huge plume of gray and black smoke that blocked out the sun in my sight, and the tears just falling out of my eyes. as i got closer to lower manhattan, there were emergency vehicles driving out of the site that streamed ash and shards of metal behind them as they raced away, and police everywhere. i joined the huge crowd that was walking over the manhattan bridge, and i looked over my right shoulder at the black smoke plumes that rising out amongst the buildings. the smoke rose up, over the east river, and into brooklyn, and as i continued to walk closer to home, there were burnt bits of paper and ash falling so lightly onto the street. no one should have to see their city on fire.
every day that goes by, i keep hoping for it to go faster and faster because i think i will feel better the next day. but i don't. i keep thinking what i would do, what i would sacrifice if i could turn back time a week and have this never happen, but it makes no difference. new york will never, ever be the same. the heavy feeling of grief does not dissipate. we cannot escape from thinking about the death and destruction here. it is constantly in front of us, so we don't have the luxury to sit back and discuss retaliation and war. if everyone could witness what has become of this city, they wouldn't even be considering bringing such horrors upon any other place on earth. it is encouraging to see support for peace from listmembers all over the world. please keep it up. -ana --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
