You Need
The United States of America after September
11th
Martin Littler reports from ManhattanOctober 2001 I was in Lower Manhattan shortly before the tragedy of September 11th and have been there twice since. It is difficult to deal with. Here, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have had friends and relatives taken from them. Mayor Giuliani called for people to get back to visiting New York on the Saturday following the air strike. At the same time President Bush said we must "go about the business of America"."Tourists can help the US
recovery...but... |
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Closer to the scene, life is sort of back to normal. New York is fully functioning down to Canal Street, which bisects Manhattan a few blocks above the ruins of the World Trade Center. Below this, in Chinatown, several hundred Buddhist monks in brown and orange robes were holding a memorial service in a park square. It was a reminder that in multi-ethnic New York, over 40% of the population are recent immigrants or the children of those immigrants. |
| The twin towers as they were, caught by our photographer, John Todd of Photosphere. |
As the service closed I joined a near silent throng of citizens of all ages walking down Broadway to the east of the WTC. To our right, smoke and devastation beyond our imagining. A huge shard of the now familiar lattice of the North Tower stuck out of a neighbouring building twenty floors up like a knife carelessly thrown into a tree. To our left, closed shops, silent and dusty. One store had had its door open at the wrong moment. The entire inventory of blue jeans, manikins and racks of clothes wore a thick blanket of uniform beige/grey dust. Like light snow, small medallions of charred office paper continually flutter to the ground from where ever they had found temporary lodging on the surrounding buildings.
I found a subway station open. Just three stops and we were back in a New York seemingly unchanged but for three things. First, the skyline. Even though you know that the Twin Towers were twice as high as the surrounding buildings you just can't put them back, even in your imagination. Second, the homemade posters for the missing: a holiday photo; eye and hair colour; the floor she worked on; the ages of the children. Third, the American flag defiantly in every window. Where there was a slogan it was almost never one of hatred or revenge: "God Bless America" or "United We Stand" accounted for almost all of them. And just once, beside the freeway, below a huge vivid stars and stripes: "Our Colors Don't Run".
British support is profoundly appreciated. Everyone knew the Queen had the United States National Anthem played at the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace. Hearing my "neat accent", a passenger at Penn Station told me how he "fills up" every time he heard Tony Blair's "Your loss is our loss" speech in Manhattan. Blair's Brighton Labour Party speech was carried live and in full here on CNN: forty minutes without a single break for advertisements.
If you did have a
holiday planned in the United States or a business trip, do go ahead. You will
get a great welcome and, for the moment, plenty of choice of flights, seats and
hotel rooms at keen prices.
And do visit Manhattan. Of course you won't now see the twin towers, New York's tallest landmarks. But everywhere in America you will experience the can-do competence, charm and common sense of the great nation that built them.
Martin Littler
11th October 2001