NYC-WTC_000230733

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

TH£ N£W’York ™es. Thursday; October as, 2001

Unforgotten Soldiers mask, a bottle of water and 200 copies By Christy Ferer of my husband’s photo. I was. con­ vinced that I could find him — or at y husband, Neil Lev- least find someone who’d seen him. 1% yB in, the executive di- someone who knew he’d been taken to I W # I rector of the Port the hospital where he was in the E.R., I I Authority, was one maybe trying to reach me. I just knew I Br ■ of the thousands my phone would ring. I made it as far as the blue phalanx who died at the of New York City cops who formed a World Trade Center on Sept. 11.1 am human chain encircling the site. The like others who have lost someone chain broke only for iron workers in they love. What I have left of my sweat-stained bandanas, National husband are his love, my memories Guardsmen, Red Cross workers bear­ and the place where his life ended. ing food. Il didn’t even break for med­ Ground zero is sacred territory for ics — because they weren’t needed. There was no one to treat. Yet as 1 stood on the other side of the line, holding up my husband’s pic­ 1 Ground zero is for ture, I remained hopeful — especially when rescue workers asked me for \ mourning, not copies. Only in time did I begin to under­ gawking. stand what 5,000 other families were coming to understand. Our loved ones were not coming home. This is where they were buried. the families that wake up each day The scores of dedicated policemen still unbelieving, still trying to figure and firemen who have been at ground out what happened and why and how it zero since the first day know this. could be that they have no body to When a body is found, they salute and bury. they make way for another fallen sol­ Many people have come to ground dier in this new war. The fallen here zero to pay respects and to deal with don’t deserve gawkers, tourists and the psychic blow of what happened the curious. here. But lately there are others for I was moved when I heard that Gov. whom ground zero has become — and George Pataki had decided not to clean the shoes he wore to ground zero I don’t mean this unkindly — a kind of in-spot for celebrities, for the rich and — they were caked with the gray glue­ like substance that sticks to everyone famous, for those who want to be able who wades through the debris. This, to I to say that they’ve got the connections me, is like ashes of the dead. to get a tour to see it up close. I’m told I know that these 16 acres of prime you can buy the latest in flag memora­ real estate at the tip of Manhattan bilia at the site, and that you can even cannot be suspended in time or entire­ buy a container of debris. ly covered by a memorial. But I ask as When I made my own way down to. one who is grieving that this place not ground zero, 48 hours after terrorists be turned into a public spectacle, even had torn our city apart. I was still by those who mean well. hopeful. 1 actually believed that I was Ground zero is not a theme park. It on a rescue mission Armed with a is a burial ground. It is a cemetery, where the men and women we loved ' Christy Ferer is a contributing cor­ are buried. Where they rest is now respondent for CBS News. hallowed ground. □

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NYC-WTC_000230733