9-11-2005

I'm sitting here at work on September 11th, it's 8.29AM. 4 years ago, 17 minutes from now the first plane hit the Towers. My job is 4 blocks north of Ground Zero and I just thought that I have to express some sadness about the things that happened that day and a lot of things that happened since.

I was lucky, I did not work here four years ago, I was at home in Brooklyn when the attacks happened. As I walked from the subway to my building this morning I could see many people whose family and friends were not so lucky. Many of them were carrying pictures of their loved ones walked down Church Street to once again go listen to the names of everyone lost - seeking an impossible closure to their grief.

There are 2,749 names on the list to be read out this morning but no-one really remembers that there were probably a few more victims that day. Firstly, like every other large building the USA there were a number of undocumented workers. The invisible people who clean the toilets and man the newspaper stand. Imagine knowing that you lost someone on 9-11 but you could not come forward for fear of being deported.

I also remember at the time that the Village Voice ran an article on a number of homeless people who were never seen again after the Towers fell. They deserve to be remembered every bit as much as the bankers from Fiduciary or the FDNY personnel.

I'd also like to remember the victims of the wars that George Bush has pursued since 9-11 gave him carte blanche to go on a killing spree. You can keep up to date with the war in Iraq at Iraq Body Count where we have almost reached 28,000 civillians. Add to that the number of people killed in Afghanistan and the number of coalition troops killed and you are easily passing 30,000.