sophie's fair

Twin Towers (c) Erik Dobbelsteijns

i'm re-printing here excerpts from an article i submitted to a london-based newspaper after 9/11.

September 2001:

Days after the terrorist attacks in New York, DC and Pennsylvania, I received an enormous volume of mail from friends and acquaintances from all over the world. Most were filled with concern; a few connected our horror with tasteless jokes.
It is no joke to see the World Trade Center literally collapse after a couple of commercial airplanes flew directly towards the upper floors of the two massive structures. The WTC was a compound of buildings with the Twin Towers (North and South) dwarfing all other structures in a city already known for its skyscrapers...
...I feel sorry for future generations who would never get to see the towers except in pictures. I feel sorry for the young man who couldn't find his father; everybody assumed he was looking for a top executive working on the 105th floor. The young man said his father is a window-washer, and that he would not leave the building without letting the others go first. I feel sorry for the Fordham University freshman whose mother was working in the North Tower. He is still looking for her. They were in the same city, 60 blocks away from each other when it happened...
New York City was the place where practically all immigrants passed through at the turn of the century. People go here in pursuit of life, dreams and happiness. It is a psychologically terrifying city for those with great ambitions. It makes them feel insignificant. New York City is like any other city -- big, impersonal, scary. It will call to you and welcome you; ignore you and push you to your limits. It will make you or break you. Then it becomes your city and your home.
I cannot comprehend the hatred that pushed the terrorists to plan the attacks and carry them out. In four strokes, we have lost so much. Invaluable, irreplaceable people and property. People here have promised themselves it will not happen again. Each one is on the other's watch. Including you.
-- Cecilia Sophia, New York City: In Retrospect