From the Summit
A Letter
I spent the afternoon of the 11th, with Marty, at a training session at the
Red Cross in a nearby town. Shelters have been set up, throughout NJ that
borders Manhattan, for children who have parents (or maybe no parents now) in
Manhattan who couldn't get out. Also, these are information centers to log
people into computers who are seeking other people. That first night, the
ferries came from Lower Manhattan. all night long, with bodies (500 per
ferry) that were put into NJ morgues.==I have no doubt that Osama bin Laden
is the mastermind. His is the only organization that has the brains and the
money to accomplish such dastardly acts. Besides, his is the ONLY militant
Islamic organization that never claims responsibility. He told Robert Fisk,
London Independent, (a colleague of mine when I worked for the paper) in an
interview in Afghanistan, that he brought the Soviet Union to its knees with
the war in Afghanistan -and destroyed it- and he would do the same to the
United States. My neighbor next door, a young man with Merrill Lynch (office
next door to the WTC) sat down at his desk, plunked his coffee mug before him
and witnessed the first plane going into the first tower. Hardly had he
recovered from that but the second plane hit the second tower. Knocking over
his coffee mug, he dashed Ędown the stairs, running to the dockside.As he
waited for a ferry, he watched the first tower implode. When he parked his
car and walked across his front lawn, I was outside and his wife was crying
at the front door with her three pre-school children. He was one smart cookie
that got out fast.--I just returned from a memorial at our Village Green that
was attended by thousands. When they started to read out the names of the
dead, I was shocked at the numbers--and that doesn't count the missing. This
is a Wall Street city and the toll will only continue to rise. We are a
strong country and we will not only survive but triumph. Keep the faith.
Love, Rosemarye