New York - New York
It's a wonderful town. The spirits are up and the spirits are down.
By Sally Allen
I went to New York to help with an effort to provide organizing services for those displaced by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The most frustrating part of this effort was/is finding the people who need help the most. I found that victims were in, what I would call, a "paralyzed zone." They don't know where or how to begin, and they don't have the energy to begin. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a central command area set up for assistance….no central place for a victim to call for available services. There are many agencies and funding for the victims, but the agencies are scattered. It is a daunting task.
I was able to help Jil, who was now in a temporary corp. apartment. She was frazzled. She was paralyzed by her environment, and she was not ready to begin. We talked, I listened, and we looked at photos of her damaged home. She had lived directly across from the World Trade Center. The windows had imploded into her home. All belongings were covered with a fine, gray dust. There was debris everywhere. It looked as though someone had turned on a tornado machine inside her home. Looking at the photos brought tears to my eyes, and I began to realize the full impact of Sept. 11. I began to feel the depth of the tragedy as opposed to the one-dimensional flat perspective from the news here in Colorado.
Jil insisted that she was not ready to begin the process of organizing her life. She was not ready to move out of the "zone." I received a call the next day. Jil was ready. We started sorting and purging and grouping the volumes of paperwork from the insurance company, disaster information, bills to pay, invoices to keep, information to read, correspondence from friends and family, and bits and pieces of personal belongings that Jil was able to pull from the disaster. We started a list of things to buy….tools that would help create a home for the paper piles and would start to clear out her environment. She became energized by the one- on- one relationship and the instant results that she could feel. We talked about the fact that she needed to make this temporary home her permanent home for the time being. There was no time line or assurance that she would ever be able to move back into her old building. I had to leave, but my biggest thrill came when Jil followed up with a phone call and let me know that she was on her way and calling for help from NY organizers and other service providers. She was motivated and ready to move on. One in a thousand who had begun to find their way.
My last day in the city was spent at Ground Zero. What can I say? It was a numbing experience. Again, the depth of the disaster was appalling. The acrid smell from blocks away still in the air, five weeks later. The plumes of smoke still rising from the rubble. The noise of the cranes removing the rubble. The convoy of trucks moving back and forth to the port for delivery of the rubble to Staten Island. The posters, the pictures of those missing. The memorials everywhere. The stunned observers. The horror of it all.
I grew up in NY. The people of NY are still the same inside, but what's new is they are showing the care, the concern, and taking the time to respond and inquire. It's a "softer" NY. A kinder, gentler NY, but a NY that will continue to go about its business with confidence and success.