Update 9-25-01


Hi,

Starting with the worst:  Bernie O'Brien, former gym teacher and coach at South, lost his son Tim O'Brien and son-in-law Steve Tighe in the bombing of the World Trade Center.  To send condolences, the address is 21 Milford Avenue, Rockville Centre, New York, 11570

From Ellen Epstein Silver:  It has been heart wrenching to watch TV and read the newspapers, yet I can't seem to stay away from the media coverage.  I keep hoping for survivors, hoping to find answers to why this happened, and still so sad that there is so much hatred on this planet.  We did lose someone close to our family in the disaster.  He was 32 years old and worked in the offices above Cantor and Fitzgerald.  He leaves a wife and two-year-old baby.  Their lives are changed forever, and so are ours.

From Robert Fiveson:  I was on my way to work in D.C. when my wife called in shock to say that she had heard the Pentagon had just been hit.  As it happened I was just approaching the Key Bridge and in minutes had an unobstructed view of what had happened.  I have been in war zones all over the world, but I never have seen a conflagration like this.  While I pray that no one else loses a son or daughter anywhere on this Earth for any reason, it seems clear that we have several mad dogs indiscriminately biting in our global community. I think scorched earth where they once stood might be a good start.  Moreover, let's pray that somehow at the end of the day, the community of Man finds a way to finally melt our swords into plowshares.

From Peggy Cooper Schwartz:  Hard to believe that our beloved city and beautiful skyline has been desecrated and mutilated.  My prayers are strong that we all will recover and go on with our lives---although countless others won't.  I still remember those days back at Forest Road when we were all subject to those air raid drills, where we would be required to sit out in the hall with our legs crossed and our heads buried in our laps.  Heaven help us that our world has come to such insanity.  I wish everyone peace and healing.
 000200000BE10000080C BDB,
From Denise Frango Baxter:  I was deeply affected by last week and the events in NYC as I have a son who works within two blocks of the Trade Center.  It was very frightening then, and still is.  Best regards to all. 

From Steve Zuckerman:  I've been in limbo since the week before last.  I keep getting flashbacks to November 1963.  When we went to school in the morning, it was just a normal day.  And after 1:00 PM everything had changed for all of us.

From Don Faber:  "A central teaching in most spiritual traditions is:  What you wish to experience, provide for another.  If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.  If you wish to know that you are safe, cause [others] to know that they are safe.  If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand.  If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.  Those others are waiting for you now."

From Jean Cohen Oklan:  I've been obsessed with what happened September 11th
and I have family working in the school systems down in N.Y.---my brother being a principal of a high school and my sister a crisis counselor.  My son came up from New York to visit us here in Vermont the night before the tragedy.  I have felt a need to contact and speak with people in my family.  This has been a time for me to reflect on the value of every human being, noting how fragile life is.  Even e-mailing old friends, distant in years and miles, helps me to get through these sad times because of the past bonds we have.

Finally, the following was forwarded from a D.C. newspaper article:  Last Saturday, on United's Flight 564, the plane was about to pull out of the gate when the captain came on the public address system.  "I want to thank you for coming out today.  We don't have any new instructions from the federal government, so from now on we're on our own."  He explained that airport security measures had pretty much solved the problem of firearms being carried aboard, but not weapons of the type the terrorists apparently used---plastic knives or those fashioned from wood or ceramics. "Sometimes a potential hijacker will announce that he has a bomb.  There are no bombs on this aircraft and if someone were to get up and make that claim, don't believe him.  If someone were to stand up, brandish something such as a plastic knife and say 'This is a hijacking' or words to that effect, here is what you should do: Every one of you should stand up and immediately throw things at that person---pillows, books, magazines, eyeglasses, shoes---anything that will throw him off balance and distract his attention.  If he has a confederate or two, do the same with them.  Most important: get a blanket over him, then wrestle him to floor and keep him there.  We'll land the plane at the nearest airport and the authorities will take it from there.  Remember, there will be one of him and maybe a few confederates, but there are 200 of you.  You can overwhelm them."


Rich