"Dermot, forgive my lack of reply to your note of two days ago. I've been working on dealing with this event in my own way and have needed time."
Below is a note I received late last night from an old friend who lives on 23rd Street in Manhattan. DO NOT READ IT if an eyewitness account will bring you down:
>Dearest ****: > >Tuesday as I walked to work at 8:45 AM I heard the sound >of a jet plane. It was right above me, a huge passenger jet >going down University Place. Can you imagine? A >commercial jet so close above your head that the sound >was all-encompassing. I thought at first it was a >commercial pilot in trouble and saw my life pass before my >eyes. I thought the pilot would crash into Dean and >DeLuca, so I prayed and prepared to die. What else can >one do? But I soon realized that the plane was not out of >control as it raised itself in altitude. I can't explain it except >that I just knew at that moment what was going to happen. >I started to sob uncontrollably, yelling Oh my God all those >people. But nothing had actually happened yet and so I >looked like a crazy person. But within seconds the insanity >was not me, but what we saw straight ahead of us. I and >others watched as it flew into the first World Trade Center >building. > >The camaraderie in New York has been amazing. Blood >donations, food, supplies, volunteers, etc. I almost fainted >carrying a case of Gatorade to Chelsea Piers today. That's >the place which has become a triage center and makeshift >morgue. > >This is a city in mourning. Send prayers. > >Love, >Maxinne
So send prayers and keep asking others to send prayers -- not only for N.Y., but for everyone involved, on whichever side. And pray for the Palestinians and Israelis, who have lived in a state of war for months and months now, and for people living with war, poverty, sickness and deprivation all over the world.