World Trade Center, New York

BFOSTERLA@aol.com BFOSTERLA at aol.com
Thu Sep 13 02:55:08 CEST 2001


    Hi, all. Thanks for your concerns. 
    In this day and age of CNN and Fox News, where everything is played out 
before our eyes as it happens, it's hard to believe that you all haven't seen 
everything that I've seen on television. What you may not have heard are some 
of the little stories that represent the finest traits of civilized human 
beings. 
    One of my favorites is about some people on board the plane that crashed 
in rural Pennsylvania. Apparently they knew that the hijackers on board their 
airplane had targeted the White House and/or the Capitol Building. One of the 
last things they said to their loved ones via cell phone was something to the 
effect that they knew what the terrorists were going to do and that "three of 
us are going to do something about it." It looks like they then fought with 
the terrorists and then found a way to drive the plane into the ground 
outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before it reached its intended target. 
    A friend of mine lives in Manhattan, about 15 city blocks from the site 
of the twin towers. His son had just gotten married and he and his new wife 
were on their honeymoon. They were going to have breakfast at the top of the 
twin towers Tuesday morning. They'd already purchased their tickets to the 
top days earlier. Tuesday morning the newlyweds overslept and didn't go to 
the twin towers. 
    Another friend of mine has a sister who actually did have breakfast there 
on Monday. These are things that are surprisingly close to me, to actually 
know people who are immediately related to this incredible event. 
    Then there's the women who was evacuating one of the towers with her 
co-workers. On her way down, at about the 27th floor, she met a lot of 
firemen and rescue workers on their way up to help those trapped on the 
floors above. The elevators were not working, of course, so getting up those 
27 floors was tough. It took the woman another 15 minutes to get all the way 
down to street level and to escape the area. As she was doing so, the 
building collapsed, all 110 floors of the tower pancaking down, one floor on 
top of the other until it became a pile of rubble 50 feet high (about 5 
floors high.) Somewhere, sandwiched between the layers of that pancaked 
building are about 200 of New Yorks finest firemen and rescue workers who 
died in their efforts to help others. 
    One of the most horrific images (as if one was worse than another) was of 
the dozen of people on the floors just above the point of impact. They were 
hanging out the windows 1,300 feet (about 410 + meters) above the streets, 
waving shirts, screaming for help, desperately trying to avoid being burned 
to death by the flames behind them, finally choosing, CHOOSING, to fall to 
their deaths, arms and legs flailing and kicking, hoping to fly or to find 
footing and to escape and, enevitably crashing to the pavement. In one case, 
landing on a fireman and killing him on impact. 
    Unless you've been to New York, stood at the foot of the World Trade 
Center Towers and looked up, or have actually been to the top of the twin 
towers, it's understandably difficult to get any sense of the size and scale 
of these buildings. What I saw, live as it happened, looked like a promo for 
some action-adventure movie with great special effects. It's still impossible 
to believe it was real. Who could ever imagine the day would come when any of 
us would witness such a thing. 
    Video tape is now coming into the TV stations that was shot by visitors 
and tourists whose cameras just happened to be rolling when a jet plane flew 
into the scene, over their heads and into the first tower. As word spread of 
the event, more cameras were trained on the burning first tower, news crews 
had their cameras rolling, when the second plane came in. What at first 
seemed to be a horrible accident quickly became an obvious act of terrorism 
beyond comprehension. 
    I heard that a Canadian newswoman was interviewing some pro-Bin Laden 
supporters who were all dancing and jumping for joy at the success of the 
mission. When she asked if they were aware that as many as 50,000 people may 
have died in this catastrophe, they all became suddenly silent. They either 
never realized so many human beings would be affected by this, or they 
suddenly realized they were screwed. 
    Finally, I just received this email from my brother, and I find it to be 
very interesting. See what you think. Talk to you all later. 



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