NYC-WTC_000230561

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Editorial Observer/GAILCOLLINS

New ydrk Notes: 8 Million Survivors, in Need ofAffection I Manhattan is awash in donated and children, tirefighters, middle clothes, donated food, donated blood, College in Huntsville. Ala., threw managers, security guards, sous- donated manpower. “Here’s a way chefs and secretaries in order to See a show, some shovels and garbage bags and their instruments into a bus and you can help us,’’ said Rudolph Giuli­ express his wrath at the American take a picture, ani to the nation yesterday, trying to headed north, looking to help. "We Civil Liberties Union. divert further shipments. “Come to give a concert. traveled about 24 hours to get here,” It is not possible tor you to tell us explained Dr. Gregory Mims, one of New York, go to a play. ... Spend enough times that what happened to the chaperones. He said the students some money.’’ us happened to the whole country. were members of the National Asso­ But in a way, we can’t get enough The tourists keep heading to Wall see liny points of light, where rescue ciation to Prevent Starvation .and of it. If we can’t use the help, or the Street, trying to get a look at the workers are skittering through the stuff, we need the connection. We crash scene. If it weren’t for security shaky tunnels, looking for someone ■that they had been sleeping in t O ate, to tell the truth, a little worried reasons, we'd want to accommodate who’s still alive. The people who put church basement in the Bronx. iX that after the initial shock is over, the them. The TV pictures are both grue­ up the posters are very specific, per­ The band members, mainly Afri­ !»! rest of America is going to begin to some and amazing, but we have seen haps envisioning their friend or fam­ can-American teenagers, assembled . H ■look upon the aftermath of the ter­ rorist attack as New York’s problem. lAlready, some Midwestern legisla­ too many movies over the years, and after a while, the apocalyptic rubble begins to look like special effects. ily member wandering around un­ next to a fountain behind a tall thin ' identified for want ol an extra detail. young man holding up a Hag. They ' One of the photos, of a new bride, struck up "Amazing Grace." Ezra i s tors have been heard grumbling that Oklahoma City never got J20 billion “You can't imagine what it’s like unless you walk there,’’ said Hillary notes that she will be “wearing a Aviles's niece threw her arms ' wedding ring.” Another has been around the boy with the flag and ; 53 for its recovery, and World Trade Clinton. began sobbing. By the time the spirit- i

I edited, to make it clear that a man’s Center jokes appear to be making Senator Clinton was visiting the height is 5-8, not 5-10. ual ended, the flag bearer looked the rounds in some conservative cir- armory where relatives of the miss- The tourists are taking pictures of sweaty and faint with emotion. He I . cles. When the Rev. Jerry Falwell ing come to file reports and post the posters, and of the memorials at stepped back while another student I said that the abortion rights lobby, pictures. None of the hospitals have firehouses and parks and apartment grabbed the weeping woman. The i ' feminists, homosexuals and “all of any unidentified patients, and there buildings. We think that’s a good Manhattanites in the crowd began ! I them who have tried to secularize have been no new survivors found at thing too. The photos go back to crying and embracing the other rela- , I Airiericu” had to accept some of the the site for days. But everyone is Omaha and Salt Lake City and Se­ tives. People with cellphones called ; ( lespcinsibility for the World Trade committed to the heartbreaking as­ attle and pull the people who look at their families. “1 love you, kid," a , tn Center attack, the underlying mes- sumption that these loved ones might them into our pain. bald man yelled into the receiver. , sage was that New York had it com- be located. Within the six-story pile There’s a very big memorial Meanwhile, a minister from the Na-

H H ing. God had killed 5,000 men, women of rubble at the crash site, you can around the arch at Washington Square Park, and over the weekend peqile stopped to read the senti­ tidnai Association to Prevent Starva- ; tion was getting it all on film. The band took off, leaving the reg- i ular parkgoers to continue comfort­ s DO ri NJ ments that had been scribbled on big ing the Aviles family. The bald man pieces of canvas, to look at the photos ■ volunteered to show the students how of the missing, to leave piles of flow- to get to the West Side. When last !-J ers. Then they move on to walk their 35^^ they were marching through <1 dogs or play Frisbee or checkers. We Greenwich Village, still playing. are living in two layers now, attach- We did not, as it turned out, need o ing our normal New York lives to pur their shovels. But the music helped. Q new existence as survivors of a ter- ' O 1^' rorist attack. o On Saturday, two women who said o they were nieces of Ezra Aviles, a 41- 03 year-old senior manager who worked O at the Trade Center, were in the park , with their children, holding up his ! picture. It had "Please come home” <_n written on it. All of a sudden, a band Kb appeared, marching down Fifth Ave­ o nue into the park playing “God Bless America." After the World Trade Center fell, students from Oakwood

NYC-WTC_000230561