I'm deeply proud with my home city. New York City.
It survived a major terrorist attack and a blackout. Despite popular opinion, New Yorkers didn't riot, look, and pillage their own city. New Yorkers didn't lie down and give up.
We're at war.
Here's a viewpoint that isn't anti- or pro-war. It's just a neutral observation.
"Don't Rebuild. Reimagine," says the New York Times Magazine of the site of the World Trade Center. And so a group of leading architects met to discuss what could be done.
The BOOM of the impact must have been deafening. Yim, my cousin's wife, ran out of the World Trade Center lobby and into the courtyard. The shock waves shook the entire building and debris fell to the earth.
She looked up and glass fell into her face. Several shards cut her cornea. She covered her face and ran from the building.
Sometimes people tell me that I should forget it and move on with life. Well, I don't want to forget it.
I have pictures of the World Trade Center's Memorial up on my desk at work. It's two bright shining lights stand tall among the Heavens, like two majestic sentinels watching over the countless brave heroes that lost their lives there.
2001 was the year Life tore a gash and poured salt and lemon juice into the wound.
Is there anyone who isn't happy to see this sorry year end?
"I love you Daddy," says the message scribbled above the face of a gentle-looking man. A pot of flowers sits below the picture.
Next to it is a mural from a church. Dozens upon dozens of messages adorn it. "God Bless America." "United We Stand." "Our thoughts are with you, New York."
I was 3,000 miles away when it happened. So I can't truly understand how my fellow New Yorkers felt, can I?
My friends tell me how they're constantly nervous, anxious, and depressed to the point of crying. They tell me of the languishing dust and stagnant smell of the dead. They tell me about the relentless rumors of bomb scares and (unfortunately now somewhat justified) bioterrorist attacks.
They tell me all that, and how am I to really understand all the way here in California?
"What if you walked down the street and someone pricked you with an infected needle? You might get anthrax!"
About a dozen friends asked me something like that when I told them I wanted to take a trip back to Manhattan.
It's not so easy anymore. Coming up with a ramble that isn't about the terrorist attacks on American soil, I mean.
It's been one of the main topics of conversation. More so with my family and friends from New York, who still endure waves of other terrorist scares (like bomb threats, poison gas threats, second terrorist strike threats, etc).
Weekly random rambles, musings & writings of Mike Lee in San Francisco, CA