On November 10, 2001, I visited my daughter, who lives in New York City. We walked about 3.5 miles to "Ground Zero."
It was a very powerful and emotional visit to the site where so many people were killed. We could still smell the burning of the World Trade Center and who knows what else. It was a very strong smell. There were lots of
people straining to see over the fence, through the fence, around the fence. I climbed up to look over one fence and took a few pictures. My daughter was nervous I might fall. There were all kinds of memorials, letters, banners, flowers, in many different languages. I saw one in Japanese and I felt like crying. I also felt very angry. I thought: "Lest anyone have any doubts about going after the terrorists who did this, and the
governments that give them sanctuary, they should come down here and walk around. Just look at this. It is horrible." Several students of mine lost family
members and I have talked to them about it. They are very angry. One of my colleagues has a close friend who works for American Airlines. His friend lost 11 friends on two of the planes that crashed. On Friday night before this,
when I took a cab back from the Awards Ceremony in the village, I asked the cab driver if he lost anyone. He said he lost a good friend. Some of my daughter's friends lost friends. My wife was on the train to New York City on September 11. She looked out the window before they went under the river and saw the second plane hit. I think it's a good thing to visit Ground Zero, even if you can see only a little bit. Walk around there. Think about what's missing, too. There's a huge gap where the Twin Towers once were. Have lunch nearby the site. Think about how many bodies are still buried under the rubble. Buy something from the small businesses there. Support the war effort,
to search out and destroy as many terrorists as we can. I think we should hold any country accountable for giving terrorists sanctuary. Just before we left to walk home, we ran into my friend Ron Leifer, MD, who just won the Szasz Civil Liberties Award the night before. He was with his friend, Rebecca. I took a picture of them. Ron took a picture of me with my daughter. Then she took a picture of me with Ron. When we were walking away, we passed by the dorms at New York University. I looked up at them. I thought about how a good friend of mine's grandson was in the dorms when the planes hit. He told me his grandson watched the buildings come down from his dorm room. I could see how.
Me pointing to some of the damage
Look under the crane and you can make out "Borders Books"
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