"If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere."
- Frank Sinatra

September 15 2001

New Yorkers are the biggest jerks in the world. They have no decency. They are generally miserable human beings who would spit at you as easily as look at you. The suck and they are scum.

At least, that's what I used to think before the World Trade Center attack.

In my life, I've never seen anything like it. If you had told me that the city of New York could show as much compassion as I have seen over the last day and a half, I would not have believed it. I was in the city during the World Trade Center disaster. As the survivors came walking up from downtown, there was a general feeling of camaraderie and a shared loss among the populace. People who were supposed to not only be running for their own lives were helping some of the older men and women who could not do so for themselves. In the midst of worrying about their own lives, they found some compassion and made someone else breathe a little easier. Through the day, I heard the following, "Can I do something for you?" "Are you all right?" "Can I help you?" "Do you need help?" "No charge." "Safe Journey." "Good Luck and God Bless." "Need to use my cell phone?" "You can stay with me." There was comforting of the hysterical, not just by EMS but by people on the street. New Yorkers rally in a way that I have only seen in the 1998 Yankee baseball season.

I was fortunate enough to find a guy who was going in my direction. He needed to get home and his home was about five miles from mine. He worked on the 45th floor of the second tower hit. When he saw the flames from the first attack, he left the building. He was on the 3rd floor when the "Run for your lives!" call came. He made it out of the building unscathed. He came out with his life. He lost pictures of his family, irreplaceable possessions that his father had left him ("I spend more time in my office than in my own study, why shouldn't it have been there?"). For more than twenty years he had known that office in the World Trade Center building. He was able to put everything in perspective and see that he brought out the most important thing of all - himself. I was with him. I helped him navigate his way from Weehawkin, to Hoboken, to Newark, to the bus, to home. It would have been easier for me to stay at my in-laws at the time but he needed help. I gave it to him and got him home to his family. Besides, I needed some company as well. And when people hear you talk to yourself, they offer you counseling.

After the planes hit the World Trade Center, the Fire Department of New York, rushed into the burning building because it was their job. Then both towers collapsed trapping and killing the majority of them (the last I heard was that the rescue teams were actually able to save some of the firemen trapped under some of the rubble via cell phones). This goes beyond bravery beyond the call of duty. They knew the risks and they went in anyway. I cannot even fathom that kind of bravery. When you know what's most likely going to come, but you take it because there is a chance that you will make a difference.

What I saw come out of New York was something that was characteristic of New Yorkers. They know the situation and make the best of it. There's humor to mask the horror. "Some day, huh?" "It'll be a bitch getting home." "Think we'll have to work tomorrow?" "Where's a bar?" "Well, the skyline is certainly f%$ked!" "Another day in New York." Why do they act like that? Governor Pataki had told a NYFD man he was thankful that he was here. The fireman smiled and said in a thick accent, "Hey, I'm a New Yawker!"

Something intangible was taken from us when the towers came down. No one had to say anything, we all knew that coming to the city was not going to be the same ever again. We will be reminded of this day for the years to come in not seeing the destruction but in know the absence of something that was New York for over 30 years. We will mourn the passing of our contemporay monoliths and do what we do best and get on with our lives.

New Yorkers are the biggest jerks in the world. They have no decency. They are generally miserable human beings who would spit at you as easily as look at you. They suck and they are scum.

F@#& you where you breathe. You don't know nuthin. You got a problem with that?