(OT) A comment on yesterday
Posted by
David M. Munro
on 2001-09-12 06:10:55 UTC
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey built the World Trade
Center with its landmark twin towers at a bad time for the city of New
York. People and businesses were fleeing the city, and the project was
an affirmation by the people of the region that New York City would
remain the center of the world's financial life, and not slide into the
decay and irrelevance that has overtaken so many U. S. cities. Things
got worse before they got better, but the project has turned out to be a
tremendous success. An unimagined wave of prosperity has penetrated
even the most scabrous and forgotten corners of Manhattan, and the
wealth has spread to countless parts of the region.
This success has not been by a building, of course, but by the people
who had the foresight to bring it about, and those many others like
myself, who were drawn to the city by the promise of freedom, of
culture, and the possibility of success. As we all now know, yesterday
a handful of armed thugs reduced this symbol of hope to a pile of rubble
in a matter of minutes. I mourn the countless victims of this act of
terror, and offer what little consolation I may to their families and
friends.
The criminals who did this had two hopes. One was to achieve a glorious
martyrdom in whatever twisted belief system they chose to follow. For
this reason it is my vain hope that their names and fates may languish
in whatever passes for a police blotter in this wired age, rather than
be glorified by constant glare of the media, whatever our deep desire
for justice, even vengeance may be.
Their other goal was to bring the economy of the industrial world to a
halt, as the result of their sowing seeds of chaos. This horror takes
place at a unfortunate time in the economic life of our country. Growth
has slowed to a crawl, and many of us are overextended due to bad
decisions or over exuberance of the recent past. It would be all to
easy to become mesmerized by the minutia of this drama, and fail to
attend to the important priorities of our business lives. In this way,
the loss of a few key businesses in lower Manhattan could trigger a
worldwide economic crisis.
It is my intention to not let this happen here, at my little company. I
intend to rededicate myself to the most important priorities of my work,
and see that my few resources are deployed to bring these goals to
pass. If we are each to devote ourselves to our separate successes, the
goal of these fanatics will be foiled. I will know that an important
milestone will be passed when lower Manhattan is once again returned to
life as the vibrant and raucous commercial district that it was when I
worked there two decades ago, that it has indeed been for the last two
centuries.
We are many and, together, powerful. Our enemies are few and
disorganized. We must not let this one chance success on their part
plunge us into fear. Enough of this! Lets get to work!
David M. Munro
Center with its landmark twin towers at a bad time for the city of New
York. People and businesses were fleeing the city, and the project was
an affirmation by the people of the region that New York City would
remain the center of the world's financial life, and not slide into the
decay and irrelevance that has overtaken so many U. S. cities. Things
got worse before they got better, but the project has turned out to be a
tremendous success. An unimagined wave of prosperity has penetrated
even the most scabrous and forgotten corners of Manhattan, and the
wealth has spread to countless parts of the region.
This success has not been by a building, of course, but by the people
who had the foresight to bring it about, and those many others like
myself, who were drawn to the city by the promise of freedom, of
culture, and the possibility of success. As we all now know, yesterday
a handful of armed thugs reduced this symbol of hope to a pile of rubble
in a matter of minutes. I mourn the countless victims of this act of
terror, and offer what little consolation I may to their families and
friends.
The criminals who did this had two hopes. One was to achieve a glorious
martyrdom in whatever twisted belief system they chose to follow. For
this reason it is my vain hope that their names and fates may languish
in whatever passes for a police blotter in this wired age, rather than
be glorified by constant glare of the media, whatever our deep desire
for justice, even vengeance may be.
Their other goal was to bring the economy of the industrial world to a
halt, as the result of their sowing seeds of chaos. This horror takes
place at a unfortunate time in the economic life of our country. Growth
has slowed to a crawl, and many of us are overextended due to bad
decisions or over exuberance of the recent past. It would be all to
easy to become mesmerized by the minutia of this drama, and fail to
attend to the important priorities of our business lives. In this way,
the loss of a few key businesses in lower Manhattan could trigger a
worldwide economic crisis.
It is my intention to not let this happen here, at my little company. I
intend to rededicate myself to the most important priorities of my work,
and see that my few resources are deployed to bring these goals to
pass. If we are each to devote ourselves to our separate successes, the
goal of these fanatics will be foiled. I will know that an important
milestone will be passed when lower Manhattan is once again returned to
life as the vibrant and raucous commercial district that it was when I
worked there two decades ago, that it has indeed been for the last two
centuries.
We are many and, together, powerful. Our enemies are few and
disorganized. We must not let this one chance success on their part
plunge us into fear. Enough of this! Lets get to work!
David M. Munro