Weekend in NYC

This weekend my wife and I will travel to NYC. Although I love NYC, I have to admit that I have stayed away, this being only our second trip since 9-11. I doubt if we will venture any where near “ground zero”. We will be staying in a hotel near Central Park. We plan to window shop during the day and eat dinner Saturday night in Little Italy with relatives.

Shortly after 9-11, I met someone who had recently arrived in NYC from Israel, having left in part because of the spiraling violence, only to be on the subway traveling to the World Trade Center. He was late for his classes but when he arrived everyone in the room was looking at what was WTC in a state of shock. My sister, the Wise Librarian, was in Queens looking out the window, of the school library where she works, at WTC moments after impact. For a long time after 9-11, field trips from her school in Queens to Manhattan were prohibited.

The stories I heard from friends and relatives and on my last visit have made an everlasting impression. My son told me that on the day before 9-11, one of his high school teachers was explaining to his class why the Supreme Court said no religion in the public schools. On 9-11 this teacher was leading the class in prayer.

Copyrighted 2005