NYC-WTC_000230621

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NEW York MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1, 2001 THE CITY MOURNS

THE WORLD TRADE CENTER TRAGEDY UNITED THE CITY, BUT IT HAS DIVIDED US, TOO—INTO THOSE WHO’VE LOST FAMILY AND FRIENDS, AND THOSE WHO ONLY WATCHED.

THE CIRCLES OF LOSS BY JENNIFER SENIOR

AST MONDAY, ALAN JAFFE, THE MANAGING PARTNER of Proskauer Rose, gave a speech to the part­ ners of his Jaw firm, which he later circulated to the entire office. He quoted extensively from the Times and spoke rousingly of how the firm had a moral obligation to carry on in the wake of the September 11 devastation. Then he got down to brass tacks. “For four days, we have been virtually para­ lyzed in shock and grief over Tuesday’s events,” he said in the message, sent by e-mail. Tt was appropriate then—not now, not in the work­ place. We must get back to the practice of law and to our busi­ ness. We must do this with sensitivity and compassion to each other, to our employees, and to our clients, but we must, never­ theless, get back to work.” The counselor makes a good case. But there is another: Ar- . guably, the week of September 11 wasn’t about grief nearly as much as it was about disbelief, fear, outrage, and denial. Ar­ guably, this city's grieving has only just begun. And it’s already like notliing we’ve ever seen; idiosyncratic, improvisational, sen- timental in ways that would have embarrassed us just a few weeks ago.

it's right there in the fliers PLASTERED ALL OVER TOWN, FROM subway stations to signposts. By the second week, many of them no longer had telephone numbers or contact names on them— as hope evaporated, they became overtly memorial, simply there to praise and distinguish the dead. The word missing has morphed from a de.scrip! ion of ihu victim loa description of the mourners, an awhil dnohlc i-iilcnili c. And the scattering iil'.si iv in s I he liisl few days has yielded to a rush—even absenl any I'liii.iiii':.' Thi- families want to know if

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NYC-WTC_000230621