Cross my heart
Before Sunday I had never been to the WTC. Neither standing nor fallen. At first glance, as people had told me, the location really does just look like a construction zone–perfect mounds of dirt, bulldozers, smoothed out areas ready for development. But as I stood, taking it all in, the reminders (both big and small) are all very apparent. Poster size photographs of the relief effort, an aerial shot of the flattened area, vendors selling WTC memorabilia (gag!), surrounding skyscrapers still being rebuilt, and this ominous left over–a cross beam from one of the towers that acts as a tombstone.
Before Sunday I thought the emotional impact of Ground Zero had been bulldozed away with the building’s remnants, but it’ll never be just another construction site.
I would like to bring to your attention a 9/11 event in Astoria that is a bit different from all the other 9/11 commemorations, and invite you to attend.
2 years ago, on the first year anniversary of the tragedy of September 11th, a mission of prayer for the victims of 9/11 left Astoria, bound for Jerusalem.
Pastor Lawrence Recla of Trinity Church L.I.C. served as the person in charge of the morgue at Ground Zero from the first day to the last day of the rescue efforts. Pastor Recla brought a small stone from the deepest part of the excavations at Ground Zero, and sent Natalia Paruz on a special mission: to place the stone in the Western Wall in the Holy City of Jerusalem, as a prayer for the victims of the attack on the Twin Towers.
The mission was accomplished (with the blessings of the chief Rabbi of the Western Wall), and was reported on by the NY Times and the NY Post. (To read these articles please visit http://www.sawlady.com/911.htm )
On Saturday, September 11th 2004 Trinity Church will hold a special service commemorating the victims of 9/11. A stone from the WTC site, as well as a stone brought back from Jerusalem, will be exhibited.
The event starts at 8:45 AM. For more information please contact Trinity Church: (718) 278-0036.
Trinity Church: 31-18 37th Street, Astoria, NY.
I wen down there for the first time last week. My roommate and I had decided to explore parts of the city we’d never really spent time in. I hate to say it, but I wish I never went there.
It wasn’t a memorial, it was a goddamn circus. The programs, the video cameras, some fanny-pack-sporting tourist eating a hot dog. If i hadn’t been ready to vomit, I would have punched out the guy wearing 9/11 glasses in the neck. I even heard a girl standing in front of the list of names talking on her cell phone about a blow job.
This is not Times Square, people. This is Ground Zero. It’s a mass grave. A reminder of international tragedy. If people feel the need to go there, they should respect it as a solemn and serious site.