Thoughts

Today I feel compelled to comment on a show I watched last night. You will have to forgive me this indulgance but writing is art too as far as I am concerned.

So about the show: it was a special about the structural steel ironworkers who are working on the rebuild on the World Trade Center site. Some of the men working on it are second or third generation ironworkers. Some of them had fathers or grandfathers who worked on the original towers. Many of these same men went down to ground zero in the days following and did what they could to help with the clean up. It was heartbreaking hearing them talk about the impact doing this had on their lives. Many of them are suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and with good reason. One man said he started drinking to dull the memories of what he saw there and it cost him his marriage.

As always, they showed footage of the towers falling on 9/11 and as always, it made my stomach churn and the tears came unbidden. Even after all this time, it still hurts me deeply to see it, to know even a fraction of the impact it has had on people's lives. I think of my friends who lost their son, because he got up and simply went to work that day.

I guess all I want to say is please don't forget them, the people who were killed, the people who were traumatized in the course of wanting to help and the families that suffer still. Please send them your thoughts for peace and healing.