So what is it like outside NY???

[cbspock]

Here in the NYC area, we seem to be stuck on Sept 11th. Everyday, it's on the news, more bodies being found, constant updates from ground zero. In the papers, they have pages and pages of all the memorial services. When you meet up with people, the first question is "So did you know anyone in the towers?", the answer is usually 'yes'.

It gets really depressing. Last week, we were working in the city, and its not the same city it was before the 11th. In the streets are NY State Trooper, NYPD, Nassau and Suffolk County police. Every once and a while, you see military vehicles. Every fire house you pass, has flowers in front of it. There are blocks, that a barricaded since there is a police precinct on it. As more and more of the downtown area is opening up, I know our 2 branches will be opening, and I will probably wind up down near ground zero, which I am not looking forward to.

So what is it like outside NY?
-Chris

[FV]

DC is completely back to normal...the only difference is that some buildings have now extended security perimeters like the White House..they will finally reopen National Airport tomorrow..On the news there is still much talking about NYC..but now it does not take up all the news at night...

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Cheers,
FV

[NiaBrat]

where i live in Wisconsin, things about it are still everywere you look. the patriotism is of course heart warming. with so many arrests at O'Hare and in Chicago. it is far from normal. people are all depressed still and no one seems to be able to shake it. of course it must be much worse in NY. i can't even imagine having to deal with that. i personally am scared to death about what will happen to our country in the weeks, months &God help us, the possible years to come. i have family and friends already over there, i have a very close friend who is a stewardess and was on one of the planes that the Fedral Marshalls had to come on and arrest someone b/cuz they had box cutters and other terrorist related items. my cousin who lives in Seattle keeps saying to me, i don't know why you are so worried, you live in the Midwest, nothing ever has or will ever happen there. well, look at the midwest, it has had the most suspects arrsted. i live an hour and a half from Chicago, which has the second busiest trade industry in the US and the tallest skyscraper in the US, being the Sears Tower. we also have the Mall of America close by, which was a possible target already b/cuz the Taliban do not believe in recreation. we have an observitory in the next town over with the biggest telescope in the world that does work for NASA. i don't know what the Taliban's views are on Space but who knows. my point is that no one where ever they live is safe or really feels safe. it does bother me that people say, oh, you're from Wisconsin, you are at the safest place in the world right now.. but i know these facts and i say to them, not really. there are a lot of things here. which is why i know that living in NY, or DC or LA must be 20 times worse and i know how scary it is here. yeah, things are far from normal and they aren't really slowing down much.

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GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

~I WAAAAANNNNNTT ME SUM TIM MCGRAW~

"I'm not always strong...and sometimes i'm even wrong.
But i win when i choose and i can't stand to lose, but i can't always be the rock that you see.."~Shania Twain

"You stand by me and you belive in me, like nobody ever has..
When my world goes crazy, you're right there to save me, you make me see how much i have.."~Tim McGraw

"Halleluja,halleluja..let us all love one another.
Halleluja, halleluja..let every man help his brother"~Shania Twain

[Steve F]

Chris, I can't possibly know what you and all your fellow residents in the NYC area have been through in the past month. After all, we are quite some distance from there, but then we do watch and listen to the media. It has truly been an extradinary, yet horrible chain of events and then the repercussions resulting from what happened. It is just mind-boggling. My opinion is, and I think you might agree with me, that things may get back to some kind of normalcy eventually, but life is never going to be the same in our Country, and especially in NY. I take my hat off to your Mayor. He has been a super inspiration in all of this. I don't know what his political goals are overall, but his actions at this time of darkness and despair in NYC has been nothing short of incredible.

We are still closely tuned in to it all here in my home turf, but I think we have moved on somewhat mainly because we aren't so close. Our hearts go out to NYC folks. I don't envy your situation Chris. My opinion when we met in Timmins is that you are a caring guy and this must be very hard for you. Keep the faith though, because things have to get better. They must!

Steve

[cbspock]

Yeah, it is a very sureal feeling going into NYC now. Even when me and some fellow co-workers were in the city when it happened, it felt like a very bad twilight zone episode. When they opened Penn Station that afternoon, and we were walking down the middle of 7th Ave, it was weird. There was not a car in sight, just people walking around. It was not until I got home that night that I saw the video of the plane crashes.

-Chris

[Roger]

Chris, immediately after Terror Tuesday, as some are now calling it, there was an outpouring of emotion (grief, anger) in Ottawa such as I haven't seen in a long time. Our commemorative service may have been the largest in the world; certainly it was on a per capita basis.

Now everyday life has pretty much returned to normal but the ongoing crisis is on everyone's minds. But unlike in your country, Chris, our politicians, and to an extent the people, have reverted to sniping at each other and finding the negative, especially where the ongoing crisis is concerned.
- We worried stupidly and irrelevantly because Bush failed to list us among the USA's friends in his address to Congress. People concluded he said this because either we are too insignificant to notice, or we have offended the US by not apppearing to be supportive enough.
- Your country and some of our politicians have publicly recommended harmonizing the immigration and refugee policies of our two countries, thus forming a sort of fortress North America. Indeed, if we do not, a tighter border between our two countries will strangle our trade. Since 85% of our exports go to the USA, this would effectively shut our economy down. While all of our political leaders know this and the government secretly plans to harmonize our policies with yours, most nevertheless continue to talk publicly about how we will not surrender our sovereignty, how we will not tighten our overly lax laws, how we will continue to be generous to refugees. They talk like this because most Canadians are fearful of being controlled by the USA, many Canadians are proud that we take in more refugees per capita than any other country and proud of our generosity toward them. But we have 27,000 illegal immigrants, most of whom came in claiming to be refugees. In those cases where their claim to be refugees was not supportable, we had no mechanism in place to deport them and now no one knows where in Canada they are! How many of them are terrorists? I just wish our politicians would be honest with us and say Canadian lives and our economy are at stake so we have no choice but to tighten up
- I don't believe most Canadians really and truly believe we could be a target for the terrorists. I do, especially if the US tightens its security more than we do ours. Then, the terrorists will strike where they can, at the easiest target, and that's us. Canadian society would be crippled if our electrical generating facilities were lost in a winter attack yet we do nothing to protect them. In spite of the great ice storm of 98, most Canadians have forgotten. By the way, if we lost our power, so would much of the US northeast since you buy power from us. Kay and I are going to look into getting a wood-burning stove as backup.

Roger



[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 10-03-2001).]

[cbspock]

I was thinking of our canadian neighbors when Bush did not mention them. I think it was just a natural thing that Canada would support us. I think it was more important for him to name the country's in Europe, and the mid-east. I did read some articles about how canada felt slighted, thought it was kinda petty. Now, I heard that politicians in Canada are still taking swipes at us.

-Chris

[Darrell]

Originally posted by LoonEchoes:
...the most constant reminder of the situation is the flags that are everywhere.


That's the scene here in East TN ! Flags everywhere! I have never seen such a huge showing of patriotism.
People in the Knoxville and surrounding area's have raised enough money to buy a new fire truck for NY! And a local bottling co has sent several trucks full of bottled water to NY. I think this is pretty much the scene all over the nation. People Helping People, God Bless America.
Hang in there Chris, better times are coming! http://www.shania-twain.org/messages/smile.gif



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