Alfred, I couldn't agree with you more. I also felt (and still feel) a
double pang, first for the victims and then for the towers. We lost the
equivalent of two small towns.
The towers were more than just two gleaming steel boxes. They were largely
self-contained communities where tens of thousands of people from all
nations worked, shopped, socialized and were entertained. I'm sure many
friendships, loving relationships and marriages began and were continued in
the towers. Many people spent a large fraction of their lives in them.
I only saw the World Trade Center towers once, in 1971. I was unable to go
into them because construction was still ongoing. From the top of the
Empire State Building, I still had to look *up* to see them in their
entirety! To me, they represent the power of human minds and hands to
transform the formless minerals of the Earth into something of wonder and
beauty.
When the injured have been tended to, the dead buried, and the guilty
punished, it will be time to rebuild the World Trade Center towers. Their
Phoenix-like rebirth will be the most fitting memorial to those who died in
them.
Jason
Sad news from church choir practice tonight.
From another Episcopal church, in Connecticut: 20 kids there are orphans. Both mom and dad lost.
Carleton
