| Author | Message | ||
     Alleygater Citizen Username: Alleygater  Post Number: 2666 Registered: 10-2004 |
Seriously, I knew it was 9/11 today, but I wasn't really thinking (AT ALL) that I was taking the PATH train right into Ground Zero (in more ways than one) today. I got out of the train, head in my newspaper, and as I was walking towards the stairs it just kept getting louder and louder. I knew something was coming my way, or it was starting to seep in but when I got to the foot of the stairs and it was LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to push through all the people. I started to literally choke. Does not a living soul have any respect? The only thing I could think of was (and I said it ALOUD to no one in particular), "OH MY GOD THIS IS A F-ing ZOO!!!". I pushed my way through all of the cameras, tv camera men, tourists, GAGGLES of conspiracy theorists with t-shirts to prove it, political factions, people chanting...IT REALLY MADE ME SICK...and ANGRY!!! You guys better get down to Ground Zero, you wouldn't want to miss your minute in the lime light. Don't walk...run as fast as you can. Go now!!! | ||
| Joan Supporter Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 8356 Registered: 5-2001 |
This is why I took the 5:49 AM train from Maplewood into Hoboken this morning. The PATH connection almost always gets to WTC by twenty minutes of seven AM. There was no mad crowd but people leaving the PATH train were moving a lot faster than usual. At street level, there were several camera crews getting ready to cover the event there this morning and a number of people had already assembled on the ramp leading to the pit but movement in the area was relatively easy. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1902 Registered: 7-2005  |
Alleygater...I'm missing the point here... | ||
| Joan Supporter Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 8357 Registered: 5-2001 |
This is why I took the 5:49 AM train from Maplewood into Hoboken this morning. The PATH connection almost always gets to WTC by twenty minutes of seven AM. There was no mad crowd but people leaving the PATH train were moving a lot faster than usual. At street level, there were several camera crews getting ready to cover the event there this morning and a number of people had already assembled on the ramp leading to the pit but movement in the area was relatively easy. | ||
| Alleygater Citizen Username: Alleygater Post Number: 2668 Registered: 10-2004 |
Why must there be a point? I've read very many of your posts that were beyond pointless. I don't see why you need to quibble over mine. | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3113 Registered: 5-2001 |
Personally Alley, I avoided taking the PATH today to avoid that atmosphere. However I didn't start a thread about why I avoided taking the PATH today. On the ferry this morning, our boat actually stopped in the middle of the Hudson at 9:03 on purpose I presume. The strangers I was sitting with and I all talked about that day and our thoughts for this day. Regardless of one's feelings about significant anniversaries (1, 5, 10, etc.) and the media's handling of it, I think calling Ground Zero a Zoo in your thread title, was somewhat insensitive to the victims' families and so many others affected by this national tragedy. So yes, your thread wasn't pointless imo, but it was insensitive. | ||
| Southerner Citizen Username: Southerner Post Number: 1521 Registered: 2-2004 |
Wendy, Is everything anyone says insensitive these days? Please. Get a hold of yourself. And as I watched some of the events, I couldn't help but wonder why ground zero looks the same as it did on the second anniversary. It looks to the world like the Mayor of New Orleans had a good point. But I guess I have to be sensitive so they can drag their feet for another 5 years and no one should say anything. | ||
| Hoops Citizen Username: Hoops Post Number: 2132 Registered: 10-2004  |
aww ••••. Not only does Southerner not say anything about electoral politics but he also makes a point I agree with. | ||
| jet Citizen Username: Jet Post Number: 1221 Registered: 7-2001 |
Moody's just took 25% of 7 WTC , proving that there is a viable mkt. Things should be happening pretty quick now , there is a buck to be made. | ||
| Alleygater Citizen Username: Alleygater Post Number: 2671 Registered: 10-2004 |
Wendy, I'm sorry you felt that my comments were insensitive. However, I was there and the way people were using there moment in the spotlight to forward their agenda MADE ME SICK. Where was the silent honoring of those who passed? You weren't there. You don't know. To me, I could only think that everyone's behavior reminded me of a zoo. It was shameful in my opinion. If you were dead, and you saw these people chanting out loud and hoping for a little face time on t.v. you would have been so offended. You'd be rolling over in your grave. I guess my point was that very many people who were at the site today were TOTALLY insensitive to everyone else and the deceased. It was a grotesque and tacky display. If I would have labeled this thread "Grounds Zero desecrated by insensitive bufoons" would you have been less offended? | ||
| Bob K Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 12640 Registered: 5-2001 |
Alley has a point, at least partially. Every politician who could manage a ticket was there and I think a lot of the crowd were tourists, or so I have been told, snapping pictures. Most of my co-workers were more nervous and upset today than on the previous anniversaries. I think it is because it is now politically fair game. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1905 Registered: 7-2005 |
Alley doesn't have a point. People were excercising their freedom as Americans to travel where they pleased and we should be saluting them for that. Alley, you seem shocked that this was occuring today...why? You honestly didn't expect it? | ||
| Peter G. Magic Citizen Username: Pmagic Post Number: 220 Registered: 10-2005 |
Alley also gets shocked by the behavior of certain mammals at the reservation. Alley gave me my laugh for the day, though I agree with Wendy that it was a bit insensitive. Alley's thread is no worse than any of the other venting threads in Soapbox. I had a rough day and I needed a little humor. What the newspeople do with events like 9/11 this far after the incident is hard to take seriously. Most of it seems inappropriate. There should be just a moment of silence for us all to mourn. | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3114 Registered: 5-2001 |
I never said I was offended. But yes, I think the way you phrased the above is more what I think you meant and therefore more sensitive. Perhaps I misread your OP wrongly (due to the zoo reference in the title), but it seemed to me you were equally as peeved at the bigger crowds you had to face during your commute as with the gawking, political circus of it all. It was a minor point and I probably never would have said anything but for a comeback you made. No offense I hope, Alley. | ||
| James Citizen Username: Gymtagart Post Number: 52 Registered: 11-2005 |
If one misreads something wrongly, have they read it correctly? | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3116 Registered: 5-2001 |
Oh, my psycho stalker found an incorrect statement of mine. Alley, I meant to say "Perhaps I read your OP wrongly" or "Perhaps I misread your OP." Thank goodness for psycho stalkers; they'll always be there when you need them. | ||
| James Citizen Username: Gymtagart Post Number: 53 Registered: 11-2005 |
Always happy to be of service. | ||
| Alleygater Citizen Username: Alleygater Post Number: 2672 Registered: 10-2004 |
Wendy, I was definitely shocked by the media circus. Not the inconvenience to my commute. Their were like 30 or more people in black t-shirts chanting some nonsense about the attacks being a front by the Bush administration. I'm about as left leaning as the next guy and on a different day, I might not have been so annoyed or insulted. It was tacky. Plain and simple. These people saw a media opportunity and took it. Am I surprised or shocked as Glock asks? No, not at all. But sort of sickened and disappointed at people's lack of tact. On my way home tonight at least the tv camera crews were gone, and there wasn't any loud shouting, and while I'm sure there were plenty of people with politcal placards, I sort of kept my head down and tried to ignore it. Which was hard considering that every tourist known to man had their cameras around their neck wearing short sleeve shirts and t-shirts snapping away at anything and everything. I was again sickened to see them running too and fro looking for someone else crying against a wall or hanging a wreath. Once again, someone elses pain is another tourists photo-op. Once again I say tacky. Glock has a mad on for me. I think it's kind of cute. But I would suggest not agreeing with me or else you might suffer the witty yet super-sharp attacks of Glock4000. Take it from me it's painful. So watch out. | ||
| Dave Supporter Username: Dave Post Number: 10750 Registered: 4-1997  |
Last call, James. | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3117 Registered: 5-2001 |
Thanks for the more than generous explanation Alley. I don't know why the term zoo threw me and I'm sorry I jumped to that conclusion. I agree with your description of things down there, btw. | ||
| Lydia Supporter Username: Lydial Post Number: 2184 Registered: 5-2001 |
Wenderful and James - Stop it!!! Back on subject - today was a solemn day. The attacks were 5 years ago already? 5 years and + one day ago we were a different world. Bad people with really bad ideas killed a lot of mothers and fathers and children and husbands and wives and people that were loved out of the clear blue sky. Very bad people. Remember the days after the attacks? Do you remember the flyers posted in New York and Hoboken looking for friends with pictures and descriptions of missing people? I was numb and so sad. Somewhere deep down I hoped that something good might come out of the massacre. Maybe we could keep being kind to strangers - I'm not always there, but today reminded me to take stock and be thankful that we're all still here, and our petty differences aren't worth a hill of beans in the long run. | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3118 Registered: 5-2001 |
Lydia, please don't tell me how to protect myself from a stalker. You have no idea of the history of this; if you did you wouldn't tell me to stop it, nor would you lump me and James together as somehow a tag team. I have done nothing to get this thread or others off track. I believe based on Dave's post above, James has been banned hopefully. | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3120 Registered: 5-2001 |
Lydia, please don't tell me how to protect myself from a stalker. You have no idea of the history of this; if you did you wouldn't tell me to stop it, nor would you lump me and James together as somehow a tag team. I have done nothing to get this thread or others off track. I believe based on Dave's post above, James has been banned hopefully. | ||
| eab Citizen Username: Eab Post Number: 137 Registered: 10-2001 |
Speaking of the PATH station, the photos that are up there now (I think I read a recent article in NYT about them so must be newly posted up on the chain link fence) are very moving. Not that I was anywhere near the place today. I saw them last week. I meant only to look at a few before entering the station and ended up needing to go stand in front of all of them. I recommend that in the weeks to come, if you are anywhere near there, spare 10 minutes to go view them. It was my (very quiet) way of not forgetting. | ||
| Wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 3121 Registered: 5-2001 |
eab, I too noticed those photos that are up there. I've started to look at them and will continue to try to view the rest over the next few days. Another thing I do as my way of not forgetting is to read at least one name on the firehouse's plaque I pass by every afternoon when I take the ferry home (Path in AM usually and ferry in the PM). This firehouse is on South Street and while it didn't lose as many as the Pitt St. one, there are named heroes listed from this station as well. I just can't walk by and pretend that the plaque is now just part of the city scape. | ||
| James Citizen Username: Gymtagart Post Number: 55 Registered: 11-2005 |
Dave, Please visit me in the Virtual Cafe: /discus/messages/10210/140822.html?1158035175 |
