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THE SADDEST REFLECTIONS

Being home in New York when home is attacked

This reflections piece took a while to write because quite honestly, it isn’t easy to write or know what to write about living in the midst of a horrific and senseless act of terrorism. And as readers will shortly discover, my experiences of the recent blowing up of the World Trade Center were fortunately on the periphery of this violence, but there is no one in the civilized world that remains untouched by this tragedy.

As a native New Yorker, who now legally resides in South Florida, but still spends a great amount of time in Great Neck, a suburban Long Island community just over the New York City border, I was still in New York on Sept. 11. That was the day when reality hit Americans hard – their own shores were not immune to homeland terrorist attacks.

I had decided to stay in New York after the U.S. Open to spend a few days out at the Hampton’s – New York’s world-renowned beach on the tip of Eastern Long Island – to relax after the long two weeks at Flushing Meadows. I checked out of the hotel on Monday and after spending the day in the city, moved to my friend Amy’s apartment on the Upper East side for the night before heading out to the beach on Tuesday morning. All was going well with our agenda, even including a brief stop for Amy to vote in the now shelved mayoral primary on the way out of the city. As we hit the Triboro Bridge at about 8:55 AM, we turned on the radio to check the traffic report almost simultaneously as we looked out towards the city skyline and saw huge black smoke coming from the World Trade Center. I was the designated driver – driving is not a favorite skill of Amy’s – and as I was watching the road I was also trying to catch the sight from the WTC as the reporter said it was believed a commuter plane had struck the World Trade Center. At this point, the prevailing opinion was a tragic accident had occurred, but little did we know what would come next.

Only a few minutes later, we would here that a second plane would strike the other WTC Tower and the fact that this was not just an accident started settling in – the United States was under attack. Making the judgment that we would be wiser to continue out to the beach, we kept driving as the news kept pouring in – a plane crashed into the Pentagon and another plane went down into a field outside of Pittsburgh. By this point my cell phone kept making a beep indicating messages were being left for me, but the phone was not ringing. By the time we were off the Long Island Expressway, I kept stopping along the way to try and call my mother, who I was sure was at least one of the people trying to reach me on my cell phone. It took about four different stops until I finally got through to tell her we were okay and nearly at the beach. Every place you went, people had a shocked look, most especially a man of Arab decent on the phone trying to convince his son to go home and stay inside. He was clearly fearful that Arab Americans could be in danger of racial profiling and he wanted his family safe. Hanging up the phone, he just shook his head and said to me, “A crazy world we live in. I just want him to be safe. I’m going home myself.”

THE SHOCK SETS IN
Out at the beach, it would be the most glorious of days except for the fact that no one’s mind could be on working on a tan. People, shocked and in disbelief, were discussing the tragedy with fellow beachgoers, strangers they’ve never met before, bonding in grief. I would alternate by sitting out and going back to the hotel to get the latest news. I also spent time trying to get in touch with friends – New Yorkers or those still in-and-around the city because of being at the U.S. Open. Some friends rented cars at disgracefully inflated prices and drove back to their homes, and other friends stayed in a hotel that did not charge them for the extra nights they were in residence. Another friend was staying in the Grand Hyatt – the official media hotel of the U.S. Open – but checked out after repeatedly being evacuated because of bomb scares at Grand Central station, which is adjacent to the hotel. Apparently, being evacuated out of the shower with shampoo still in her hair was enough of an impetus to move to another hotel.

On Friday, I headed back to my sister Cathy’s in Great Neck and that evening we went to Grace Park in the middle of town to attend a candlelight vigil in memory of the terrorist victims. While Great Neck lost a couple of its own – a former high school sports standout who worked at a finance firm in the twin towers and a volunteer fireman who was part of the rescue operation – the toll seemed thankfully low. At nearby Manhasset, there were supposedly 60 cars that were left at the train station on Tuesday morning and never picked up in the evening.

On Thursday afternoon we went over to a small bridge located by the Saddle Rock Grist Mill here in Great Neck – the pond underneath leads out to the Long Island Sound and a view of the Throgs Neck Bridge – that the town had turned into a memorial. Along the whole bridge, people have written messages, left flowers and candles, and even a few stuffed animals. By one side of the bridge, there was a box filled with markers and candles for people to use to leave messages or light a candle to honor the victims. As we were walking, two midshipmen from the Merchant Marine Academy, that is located in the pristine Kings Point section of Great Neck, stopped jogging to print out a note.

Clearly the terrorists misread America and Americans and our ability to bond together. While our country had recently been divided by a very volatile Presidential election, those feelings could easily be put aside as we unite to stand up against those who bring needless violence on innocent people.

WHY DID OUR SPORT PLAY?
tennisreporters.net has already noted how disappointed we were to see that tennis was the sole sport in the world that seemed to continue during the week of the horrendous acts of terrorism – this certainly doesn’t send the world a very positive picture of our sport. In this reporters’ opinion, it certainly would have appeared a prudent decision for the Davis Cup to be put aside for this year as golf postponed the Ryder Cup since it simply feels inappropriate for a battle between countries, even a friendly battle on the level of sports, to be taking place.

tennisreporters.net was pleased to see that the USTA, who makes it home in New York, announced this week they are donating $1 million to the World Trade Center relief efforts. Let’s hope that some of our athletes will follow in the footsteps of the USTA and put their hands in their pockets and give, too. And just to make sure it is very clear, offering autographed items to auction on ebay as the ATP informed reporters a number of their stars have done, just does not cut it in terms of an acceptable donation to the cause.