As a native New Yorker, I am deeply moved by the comments and sentiments expressed here on this list. Even though I live on Long Island now, I grew up in the streets on Brooklyn and Queens and worked many years in Manhattan and I am often in the city for my customers. On Monday, I arrived at my office in Mineola, New York (a suburb of New York City on Long Island, NY) expecting to have a normal day. When we first heard the news we turned on our radios and tried to keep up with unfolding events, events which had us reeling from moment to moment, event to event wondering when all this madness would stop. Then we heard the unspeakable, the collapse of these two majestic buildings mourning not their destruction but rather the disintegration of the lives of thousands of innocent people. On Monday I had been in the city on West 27th Street the entire day installing a network for a customer. From a number of cross streets you can look downtown and see the Twin Towers. Countless times I have been in the city and notice the WTC and never gave it a second thought taking the view for granted. I have a particular client on Greenwich Avenue near Broadway and 11th Street around the corner from St. Vincents Hospital (It's one of two hospitals where triage has been established). At lunch time when you cross the street and glance for oncoming northbound traffic on Broadway, you couldn't miss the towers looming large in the background. One of the most amazing and beautiful sites in the world is the view of lower Manhattan at night. You can see this view best by taking a boat ride down to the Statue of Liberty at night or from locations across the harbor in Brooklyn or New Jersey. The view of Manhattan and especially lower Manhattan centered by the World Trade Center twin towers is so very beautiful and impressive. That view is one of the many things that made you proud to be not only a New Yorker but an American. That view, that feeling of home, of New York is irretrievably gone. All day yesterday and again today, one of the very first things you say to someone you hadn't seen or talked to since before this catastrophe was 'Is everyone you know ok?' And you hold your breath until you receive an affirmative answer. I know that sometime real soon that answer will not be a positive one. This is a tragedy that we all must survive and we will survive. We can no longer help those who perished but we should pray that God gives strength to their families to persevere and go on, for we can replace a landmark view but not our loved ones. Lets hope our leaders can track down and punish the ones responsible so we all can get some degree of closure. Bill Eyring
