posted on Sep, 12 2002 @ 08:45 AM
9 / 11/ 02
Today America lies broken, a nation in shock, As I walk through the streets, on the faces of every man, woman and child, black, white, Hispanic,
Asian their glazed look, and dead eyes tell the story of a country that simply cannot come to terms with the devastating fact that today, nothing
happened.
Those who finally speak of the traumatic events of sep 11 2002 tell a disturbingly similar story.
"It was terrible, I kept looking up into the sky for planes but there was nothing there, every single building that I saw yesterday is still here, I
simply don't know how we will cope with this. I just feel sorry for all the family's who returned from work utterly unharmed"
A hush has descended on this city, the hush of anticipation, and yet, remarkably, despite the massive blow nothing happening has had on our collective
psyche, in the midst of this total normality, I witnessed acts of great solidarity, Walking towards the financial district I witnessed a group of
business men, arms outstretched, endlessly circling an accountants office making airplane noises, occasionally one would peal off from the group and
slam half heartedly into its brick facade, an act both pathetic and yet somehow profound, their selfless act of public humiliation filling some void
in our collective consciousness.
Meanwhile in other areas of the city, we saw Police and fire men recreating famous photographs and paintings. On 13th street a group of public
sanitation workers who had found a piece of red cloth were frantically waving it in a desperate attempt to recreate Eugene Delacroix's famous French
revolutionary image "Liberty Leading the People" whilst further down the street a young student defiantly blocked the passage of a garbage truck
one suspects he thought was a tank.
Everywhere you go, the streets are full of people selflessly helping their fellow new Yorkers through the unending normality and boredom of a day
which promised so much and, tragically, offered so little by the way of massive industrial destruction or senseless acts of barbaric terrorism.
News stations, inundated with calls to at least show us some pictures of the floods in Europe have closed down out of respect for the utter lack of
news whilst world leaders in other nations have sent messages of condolence insisting that they're sure something will happen at a later date.
Meanwhile, as I stare out across a city shocked that on a day such as this, nothing horrible actually happened, I cannot help but close my eyes and
imagine my own office collapsing under 20,000 tonnes of rubble, and for a moment, all is well with the world and I am at peace, and then, I open them
again and stare out at this all encompassing banality, a suffocating blanket of normality under which nothing has happened today and I think to
myself, what a wonderful world.