It’s been 9 years since my city was struck to its core and the world gasped with shock and horror. At ground zero, this year, we can finally see something else than a giant hole, helping cover up some of the wounds of the past.

9 years is both a long and a short time.

A lot has happened since both on a personal and wider level. In the past 9 years, I got married, became a dad, and came close to death. Meanwhile the US has gone through a presidential change, two wars, and a substantial financial crisis.

On the other hand, some things haven’t changed: I still believe in the good of people and in inclusive behavior; at a larger level, fear of gays and muslims still seems to capture a large part of the national dialogue.

A Year in Intolerance

This year has seen France dictate how muslim women should dress (there is a deep irony in the French government dictating how the veil should not be worn while they denounce the behavior of islamic countries dictating how it should).

This year, people outside of New York have been telling New Yorkers how inclusive they should not be, because muslims are considering putting a community center in downtown Manhattan (for reference, the concept of the “ground zero mosque” is flawed in two ways: it’s neither at ground zero nor is it a mosque).

This year, a pastor in Florida (why is it always Florida?) pushed himself to the center of a national debate by suggesting Americans should burn the Koran (because we all know that burning religious items (Bibles, Korans, Crosses) has done so well for inclusion in the South).

All this behavior seems to be pushing the country in a direction that is counter to what the founding fathers had intended: We are to be a United country, not a divided one.

A Suggestion for Inclusion

As a mean to commemorate today, Patriot day (not to be confused with Patriots’ day) was created. The creation of a special day to commemorate these events is admirable but much of the commemoration seems to be about loss and go directly against the optimism that generally defines what the United States stand for. I understand that the need to honor the fallen patriot is a very strong one but I think that without a meaning beyond loss, today’s commemoration misses an opportunity.

And so I’d like to suggest a few things: For starter, we could change the “Patriot Day” commemoration to a “United We Stand Day” commemoration (or “United Day” if people want something shorter). This would first remove the possible confusion with Patriots’ Day. And it would go towards sending a message of unification and inclusion.

The day would include a commemoration of the fallen on 9/11 but also inject a deeper meaning into the day by suggesting that people look to what “different” people bring to our country. It would show how Patrick Henry’s words still sit at the core of who we are. And it would bring back the memory of the most amazing part of what happened shortly after 9/11: people helping people, without care for creed or color.

I could see Christian Churches or Jewish Temples reading from the Koran, Islamic Mosques reading from the Bible or the Torah, and families of all religions getting more acquainted with the other religions. I could see churches, temples, and mosques opening doors to all on that day, highlighting inclusion above all.

I could see people volunteering to help others. People working together to help fix up schools, playgrounds, and parks and most of the country focused on fixing up the United States, working side by side on day where racial tensions might disappear.

Christians, muslims, jews; black, white, hispanic, asian; straight or gay; None of those distinctions would matter on United Day. What would matter is that we are all part of the same country and are all working towards a common goal to create “a more perfect union.”

Is it an impossible dream? Maybe but maybe not. In our house today, that will be the focus. The way I look at it is fairly simple: If two guys can get thousands of people to follow Talk like a Pirate Day, why can’t I try to do the same with United Day.

And so I unilaterally declare today to be United Day, a day not only of remembrance but of action towards more inclusive behavior.

Words of Inclusion

Many people have argued that 9/11 was an attack on the Christian foundation of this country and have used this as a basis for the exclusive behavior when it comes to Islam. Yet, the new testament itself preaches inclusion. One of the few things I remember from the time when I went through Jesuit school in France was the teaching of tolerance and inclusion. Jesus Christ often admonished his followers to “turn the other cheek” when struck by their enemy. But few parts of the Bible make the point as clearly to me as the allegory of the sheeps and the goats (Matthew 25:31–46):

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.‘
³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?‘
⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.‘
⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.‘
⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?‘
⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Previous Years

People say that rituals help us cope with loss. For me, the ritual that has helped me make days like today more bearable has been to write, on a yearly basis, about that day. So, for new readers, here are the previous entries specific to this date, dating to the day after 9/11:

• 2001: The Day After
• 2002: In Memoriam
• 2003: Two Years
• 2004: Year 3 — Rebirth
• 2005: 9/11 at 4
• 2006: 5 years
• 2007: 6 observations about 9/11
• 2008: 7
• 2009: Waiting

In Memoriam

In memoriam to the ones I knew: Carlos Dominguez, Mark Ellis, Melissa Vin cent, Michael DiPasquale, Cyn thia Giugliano, Jeremy Glick, David Halderman, Steve Weinberg, Gerard Jean Baptiste, Tom McCann, David Vera.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title Nine. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

But this year is also a little different. Kubler-Ross no longer applies as most of us have cycled through all the stages by now. But, with the passage of time, it is possible to start getting an historical perspective and draw parallels to other times. Doing so might remind of us of Georges Santayana’s edict:

Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it.

Cruel month

September does not seem kind on New York. While most of us will spend time remember the events that, for my generation, marked the end of innocence and forced us to grow up, there have been other disasters both past and recent that have befallen Gotham.

A few generations ago, on September 16, 1920, one of the deadliest acts of terrorism on American soil targeted Wall Street: 38 people died and 400 were injured on that day, thanks in part to the poor timing of the perpetrators, who detonated their explosives shortly before the lunch hour. In the next 24 hours, in an act of defiance to the terrorists of the time, the bodies were removed, the street was cleaned up, and the stock market reopened the next day, kicking off an era of continued speculation known as the roaring twenties, a run that would end a bit over 9 years later.

The crash of 1929, which is often seen as the start of the great depression, did not actually happen in September but it is interesting to note that the beginning of the decline started in September with the stock market reaching its peak on September 3rd, 1929, followed by a 17% decline for that month. In other words, the speculative bubble brought on by increasingly complex financial instruments (margin positions came of age in the 1920s) for the time and speculation in the real estate market (the 1920s also marked the age of the skyscrapers, with such towers as the 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler building rising above the city).

Last year, in the first weeks of September, a bubble brought together by increasingly complex financial instruments (Credit Default Swaps) and increasing speculation around the real estate market, similarly brought the world economy to the brink of financial disaster. In those short weeks, the US government had to bail out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG; Lehman Brothers went under, eventually bought out in bankruptcy court by Barclay’s. Wachovia, Merryl Lynch, and Washington Mutual all ended up being gobbled up by other banks; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley changed their legal status to allow them better government protection; Similar economic activity quickly spread to the rest of the world, almost pushing some countries to go bankrupt (eg. Iceland).

The still on-going economic destruction arising out of that catastrophic month will continue to have a toll not necessarily calculated in human lives lost on a single day, as we did on 9/11, but it is very possible that the toll it will take on all our lives (and potentially on some lives lost) will be a strong and as long.

Parallels?

After the towers fell, on 9/11, and after the world had managed to cripple his operation, Osama Bin Laden swore to bring the US to its knees economically. And yet, it was the recklessness of our own people that almost became the tool of our own demise.

To say that 9/11 scarred us is to ignore a deeper, and somewhat more uncomfortable truth: much like the terrorist attack of 1920, the attack of 2001 did not stop us from becoming agents of our own financial demise. And while many of us will still grieve today and remember the friends and family members we have lost, the rest of the nation will look to this as an aberration, asking people why they have not moved on yet.

The answer, sadly, is that we, New Yorkers, we, the survivors of 9/11, we, the ones who lived through those horrible events and can still tell their tales, have yet to receive what we were promised. Sure, one will point to the fact that there is, finally, after 8 long years, a foundation for new buildings at ground zero, the truth is that there is still a hole in our skyline and a hole in our hearts.

We may or may not have liked the towers before 9/11 but we are still missing them. And so, as a sign of healing, the nation had promised us that it would never forget and that it would build new towers, maybe even higher and more magnificent, as a defiant sign that America does not give, America does not give-up and that terrorists may tear down our buildings but they could not tear down our optimism nor could they destroy our ability at turning adversity into triumph. The new towers rising above ground zero were supposed to be our phoenix, rising ever more beautifully out of the horrors of that day.

8 long years later, we are still waiting.

Scraping the sky

In the olden days, things were different: 90 percent the New York subway system was built, using private funds, in 4 years; the Woolworth Tower: 3 years; the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street: 2 years; and let’s not the city icon, which was built after the wall street crash.

Between its excavation starting on January 22, 1930 and ribbon cutting ceremony on May 1, 1931, the iconic Empire State Building was built in a mere 13 months, helping lift the spirits of New Yorkers as it showed that financial crashes may devastate us but that we, New Yorkers, we, symbols of American power, can still build amazing thing amazingly quickly. In a way, the Empire State helped lift the spirit of an earlier generation when it needed it most and that is what I would have liked to see happen at ground zero.

Sure, many people will say that the rules are different now, that workers’ protection and union powers slows things down. The argument might hold water if it weren’t for what happened over the rest of New York: The Time-Warner center was built in under 3 years. Same for the New York Times building; The Bank of America tower: 5 years, injuring more people in the process than were injured during the Empire State Building’s construction.

3 major skyscrapers since 9/11/2001, none of which is at ground zero. So why can’t we get a single tower over ground zero?

In 1931, a shinning beacon of hope rose above the city when the city needed it most. After eight years, WE are still waiting for ours.

In Memoriam

Carlos Dominguez, Mark Ellis, Melissa Vincent, Michael DiPasquale, Cynthia Giugliano, Jeremy Glick, David Halderman, Steve Weinberg, Gerard Jean Baptiste, Tom McCann, David Vera.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title Waiting. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

But today, I can say that I got past most of the funk. Sure, I still look up in the sky when a plane flies lower than expected; Sure, I still get some chills down my back when I get close to ground zero; but, for the most part, I can go about my life without being reminded of what happened.

Today, my concerns have evolved: it’s more about building a better future for the generation born after 2001, that of my son, than it is about dwelling on that horrible and unfortunate date.

But today is also a time for reflection: there is still only a construction site on ground zero, the result of wrangling by different factions about what the place should be: it may be weariness on my part but maybe the best way to honor the dead would be to put your own agenda aside and try to figure out where the common ground is. Whether you were affected directly, through the loss of friends and loved ones, or indirectly (and, let’s face it, most of us in the USA were affected at least indirectly), a way to celebrate might be to reach out to someone you generally wouldn’t and try to understand what ground you share.

7 years ago, New Yorkers pulled together. 7 years ago, we were all as one but somewhere along the way, the country went back to being apart. Why not make today a day to bring all of us together again as New Yorkers, as Americans, as members of the human race.

In Memoriam: Carlos Dominguez, Mark Ellis, Melissa Vincent, Michael DiPasquale, Cynthia Giugliano, Jeremy Glick, David Halderman, Steve Weinberg, Gerard Jean Baptiste, Tom McCann, David Vera.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title 7. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

• 6 years ago: “We Will Never Forget.” Today: “Time to Move on”. It seems there’s an expiration date on national grief.
• 6 terms most Americans didn’t know 6 years ago:
  • Osama Bin Laden
  • Al Qaeda
  • Patriot Act
  • Department of Homeland Security
  • Guantanamo Bay detention center
  • NSA Wiretap
• For the last 5 years, the Empire State Building’s lights were turned off in memory of those who died on 9/11. The lighting schedule for tonight says that it will be different this year: the colors will be “red, white, and blue”.
• 9/11 Memorials are not dominating this morning’s headline in the New York Times but the events of that day and their repercussions still are:
  • Of the 17 headline on the front page, one is about today’s ceremony’s, one is about Pakistan (a country few cared about before 9/11), 5 are about Iraq (a war that was launched based on the erroneous claim of a link to 9/11), one is about surveillance laws (part of the extended powers given to law enforcement after 9/11 but still contentious), and one is about Giuliani (who built his national reputation (and presidential bid) on the fact that he was mayor on 9/11). That’s 9 headlines out of 17 and more than two thirds of the front page.
• 6 years later, only one tower (World Trade Center 7) has been built at ground zero. It took 3 years (1929–1931) to build the Empire State Building and 3 years (1928–1930) to build the Chrysler Building.
• There was a building on 28th street between Park and Madison avenue where someone had created a mini-memorial by having the following words engraved on the window in neat 28 point sans-serif type: “9/11/01 — We will never forget”. The building was recently converted to luxury condos; the window is gone.

In Memoriam: Carlos Dominguez, Mark Ellis, Melissa Vincent, Michael DiPasquale, Cynthia Giugliano, Jeremy Glick, David Halderman, Steve Weinberg, Gerard Jean Baptiste, Tom McCann, David Vera.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title 6 observations about 9/11. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

I have trouble sleeping. While I thought I was coping well with the loss of friends on 9/11, it stills seems not to be the case. I found myself dreaming of planes crashing into buildings and people falling out of them. From the recesses of my mind, the ugliness of that day comes up again.

What is it about 5 that is so hard? 4 years wasn’t: it seems the pragmatism had taken the forefront and that the pain had subsided. Nothing major changed in my view of those events in the last year and yet, it seems I’m relapsing into sorrow. Why is that?

What is it about 5 that is so hard? 3 years was sad but it was also hopeful. The pain seemed to have lessened, only coming back to the forefront of my soul when I was closer to ground zero. And hope started to shine through.

It’s just a number but 5 still is painful. 2 years seemed to allow me to become more introspective. But somehow, I’m having a harder time this year. I’ve been working on this entry for weeks now but things would not come out the way I wanted them to. After countless false starts, I decided that I needed to plough through. It’s the least I can do to aknowledge the loss of many friends.

Things are different now, people tell me. My life is different today: I am now married and have a son… and yet the pain lingers. Munro, our son, doesn’t understand our sadness. Lucky for him, he was born after. His happiness is helping soften the blow of that date. It’s also hopeful: a new generation coming up, maybe one that will build a better world.

Things are different now, and yet they are the same: New York is now united in sorrow with Washington DC, Madrid, Istanbul, London, Mumbai, others cities which have suffered at the hands of terrorist. 5 years, 5 terrorist acts: who will be next?

Things are different now. One new building, WTC 7, has finally come up at ground zero but there is still a big hole there. Whether they fill the hole or not seems of little importance now as it is only a physical representation of our pain, of the hole that is still in our hearts, in our skyline, in our town.

Carlos Dominguez, Mark Ellis, Melissa Vincent, Michael DiPasquale, Cynthia Giugliano, Jeremy Glick, David Halderman, Steve Weinberg, Gerard Jean Baptiste, Tom McCann, David Vera. I still remember you and I still miss you all.

5 years: it seems like an eternity and it seems like yesterday.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title 5 years. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Before we dive in, I’d like to provide a word of caution to my more conservative readers. The following piece will be a lot more critical of the Bush administration than I usually am on this site. As the piece unfold, you will realize why I consider what is probably the defining event of my generation to be a list of missteps, miscues, and missed opportunities.

We will never forget

It’s hard to believe, now four years later that the nation swore that it would never forget what happened on that day. Beyond New York and Washington DC, however, it seems that people have moved on. I was even told to do so, during a conversation with people outside of the strike zones. It’s easy for people who only witnessed the matter on television to do so; It’s a little harder for people who witnessed it first hand; It’s even more difficult for those who lost friends in it; And I cannot even start to imagine how difficult it would be for those who lost family members in it. Some of us have not forgotten and it is our burden to bring it back, at least once a year, dredge up the dust and see how well we are doing in our recovery.

Since then, we’ve seen the largest reorganization of government, with an intent to prepare it for a major crisis, and its first test with the disaster in New Orleans; we’ve seen two wars, one with the intent to bring culprits to justice, the other with unclear objectives; we’ve seen the first steps of a reconstruction that may or may not be going slower than expected; and we’ve seen government work on financial appropriations that seemed to go anywhere but on the areas that need it.

… and so, we pick up the pieces and do the evaluation, and the assessment is, when faced with core facts, sadly inappropriate for an event in which over 2,000 people lost their lives. Let’s dig in on the details…

Disaster preparedness

As a result of the 9/11 disaster, the U.S. government reorganized itself to be more prepared for when future disasters struck. A new department, named the Department of Homeland Security was tasked with the responsibility of coordinating any effort relating to disasters, man-made or other, happening on U.S. soil.

The first major test came not from a man-made event but from hurricane Katrina and its aftermath and, if the event of the last couple of weeks are showcasing how successful or unsuccessful the department of homeland security was at protecting the homeland, I feel a little less secure now than I did on the morning of September 11th, 2001.

I will leave it to others to dig into whether the levies were under disrepair due to poor money allocation but it is without a doubt that the scenario of one of those levies breaking and flooding all of New Orleans was one that DHS should have prepared for. As opposed to the morning on September 11th, 2001, this last disaster was one where the general public was aware that it was coming. In fact, in the days leading up to the hurricane, breathless reports on most of the 24-hour TV news network talked about how the levies in New Orleans were a potential risk if the hurricane were to hit the city. Worries about a potential flood were so high, the government asked for a massive evacuation of New Orleans prior to the hurricane, and yet it did not provide buses or other modes of transportations to help those who did not have transportation get out of the area.

Katrina did not hit New Orleans head on (that distinction went to Gulfport, Mississippi, which is now what one could only call a former city, the destruction of the area being so complete that it is difficult to imagine a city once existed there) and yet, it was seriously damaged. Katrina was known of several days in advance, and yet government trucks with supplies did not roll into the city until a few days after the disaster. Images of people stranded in the Superdome made their way to the airwaves, and yet the head of FEMA and DHS did not seem to know there were people there until four days later.

If this is the kind of response the U.S. government now has to disasters, please give us back the pre-9/11 response scenario. At least, on that day, police and fire officers were there within minutes, FEMA was there within hours, and people were helped within a day or so.

Some will say that the response was different because this was an “act of God” but one could warrant that the only distinction that exists between an act of God and an act of man is that God gave us warning. Had a terrorist group decided to blow up one or more of those levies in New Orleans, I believe the response would not have been any better.

I now worry more than I did in the days prior to 9/11 and it is not because I fear terrorist more (having lived in France in the 80s, the age of terrorism is one I grew up in) but it is because I fear that our preparedness to a major disaster, whether it is a terrorist one or an act of God, is worse today than it was on the morning of 9/11. If a terror group where to attack the subway tunnels in New York city (let’s assume they’d blow up a bomb in one of the underwater tunnels, combining the horrors of 9/11 with those of Katrina), or if a major earthquake were to struck California (Los Angeles or San Francisco in particular), I fear that the U.S. government in un-ready in accomplishing the first duty of any government: protecting its people.

The Hunt for Bin Laden

If the government is not ready in dealing with a crisis after the fact, let’s look at what it is doing to deal with the people that are responsible, when a crisis is man-made. After 9/11, we were promised that those who were responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center would be brought to justice. The main culprit, we were told, was a man by the name of Osama Bin Laden, who heads a group called Al Caeda. Based in Afghanistan, the group is a coalition of several terrorist groups around the world and has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt to be responsible for the horrific act in New York.

Four years later, Osama Bin Laden is still free, supposedly somewhere in either Afghanistan or Pakistan, based on what I’ve read of expert accounts in several newspapers. And four years later, Al Caeda’s capabilities do not seem to have diminished much. In fact, they seem to be on a new roll: recently, they claimed responsibilities for bombing in Madrid, Spain, and London, UK.

The U.S. did accomplish the toppling of the Taliban, which was the Afghan government hosting terrorists. However, it seems that the new government is having problem trying to regain control of the country. Some areas in Afghanistan are ruled by warlords, some of whom have aligned themselves with the Taliban, and democratically elected leaders are murdered on a regular bases by forces friendly to or associated with the Taliban. In other words, Afghanistan is a country that is teetering on the edge of a civil war, with a few American troops left behind (a substantial portion of the US troops on the ground were relocated to Iraq after that conflict started) attempting to keep the whole country from imploding.

Meanwhile, Bin Laden is taking advantage of the confusion and the rough terrain (the south of the country is very mountainous, making it difficult to do a successful man-hunt) to hide and continue directing global terror efforts via frequently leaked audio or videotapes bringing encouragement to his supporters. His demonization may have been forgotten in the United States but it has not been forgotten by US-opponents who are now seeing him as a rallying point, thus strengthening his power globally, and increasing the ranks of Al Caeda. As a hunt, it has been a major failure and as a fight against terrorism, it has been a disaster.

War in Iraq

So instead of trying to locate Bin Laden, the U.S. leadership has been trying to shift the fighting ground, first by talking up a presumed link between Iraq and the terrorists that struck the world trade center (several government investigations later, the existence of such link has been refuted time and time again by commissions appointed by the same president who has led the administration’s effort at creating the link in the first place.) That supposed link and the subsequent inference by members of the Bush administration that we had to invade Iraq before we ended up seeing “a mushroom cloud over an American city” led to a conflict that lowered the reputation of the United States around the world (a day after the WTC was destroyed, French president Jacques Chirac declared “Today, we are all Americans” a couple of years later, France has become one of the biggest opponents to the Iraqi conflict.)

While the U.S. administration was building up its case to invade Iraq, millions of people in the US and abroad made the counter-case: that, while Saddam Hussein was a horrible individual, he was a despot under control, weighted down by years of U.N. sanctions and that what would follow his removal would be potential anarchy in a country that controls almost 20 percent of the world’s oil reserve. The case was also made that an invasion of Iraq would be costly in terms of invaders’ blood and that it would probably help strengthen, not weaken, terrorists as it gave them something to point to the evilness of the west.

Sadly, the invasion of Iraq went through, with the United States and United Kingdom leading the charge, and few others following. The first days looked very good as the forces met with very little resistance, making it into Baghdad within days, capturing Hussein within months and looking as if all the nay-sayers had been wrong…

… but time has told another story. While the initial success of the invasion of Iraq could have been cause for praise, the following years have been a long descent into hell with many of the worst predictions made by opponents of the invasion turning from conjecture to truth. At the current time, American troops have suffered over 2,000 casualties with more coming every day; tension between Sunnis, Kurds, and Shiites are increasing to the point where the country may soon be facing civil war… and Al Caeda has been using the invasion as not only a recruiting tool (claiming that the imperialism of the west is the reason for their fight, a big of circular logic on its own as it was not the reason they gave for 9/11) but also as a training ground in urban warfare for their future recruits.

Much as the cold-war Afghani proxy fight between Russians and Americans had been a training ground for the Bin Laden generation of terrorists, Iraq is turning out a new generation not only of insurgents but also of future carriers of atrocities.

The new argument coming from the administration is that it is better to take the fight to the terrorist than it is to have them to it to us. This argument, which is how Saudi Arabia has managed to be an exporter of terror by removing its more extreme elements to foreign places like Afghanistan, is starting to show wear and tear. In the case of Saudi Arabia, they have recently seen attacks against foreigners in their own country. In the case of the West, London and Madrid stand as painful reminder that the fight is not just located in Iraq but is metastizing into a cancer that infiltrates every society. It may not have happened in the United States since 9/11 (and thank god for that) but I fear that it is only a question of time before they strike again.

As a tool in the war on terror (a term recently replaced by “struggle against violent extremists” or SAVE, an acronym which makes me feel a bit uncomfortable), the Iraqi conflict has been a disaster and one can only hope that the situation will not get any worse than it is now.

Financial Appropriation

Considering the different failures at the federal level, one hopes that more is happening at the local level and that the federal government has been doing a good job at providing cities and states with what they need to defend themselves against terrorist attacks.

From a New York standpoint, things haven’t been particularly rosy. New York City may have been the primary target on September 11th, 2001; the New York area may have a population of 20 millions people (8 millions in the city ), representing roughly 10 percent of the US population but Congress decided to use a different formula to calculate financial appropriations of counter-terrorist funds. As a result, places like Montana or Wyoming find themselves with per capita appropriations that are several multiple larger than the per capita appropriations the New York area (or for that matter, any other major Metropolitan area) does.

But the real irony is that the city ends up giving the federal government more of that money than any other area. In other words, if there were no federal allocation of money for terrorism, New York City would find itself with more money to fight terrorism than it is under the present case.

And, considering the recent disaster in New Orleans, there is another sad fact to take into account: when the Department of Homeland Security was created, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was folded into it. As more allocations were made to fighting terrorists, some of the money was taken from dealing with other issues. Some of the money that was taken away was money to deal with ensuring that some of the infrastructure was kept in good shape. As hurricanes and earthquakes took a back sit to fighting terrorists, repairing levees in order for them to be able to survive during a natural disaster became less important. The images of the last couple of weeks are a painful reminder of the cost of such calculation.

Reconstruction Confusion

Four years later, there is, however, one bit of good news: at ground zero, a new building is rising… but not the one you’d expect. World Trade Center 7, which burned down a few hours after the hours collapsed, is rising anew above ground zero. It represents a beacon of hope for all New Yorkers who went through that horrible day.

Sadly, the rest of reconstruction at ground zero has been pretty horrible, with petty fights breaking out between the different individuals and agencies involved in said reconstruction. The result is that, four years after the towers went down, there is still a large hole not only in our hearts but also in the New York grounds. Inspired architecture was promised, then dismissed as concerns about security took hold. Instead, we may soon see what may either be the most beautiful bunker or one of the most awful towers to grace the New York City skyline. As a symbol of rebirth, it will be one brought force by fear and anxiety, not by the optimism and hopefulness that once were the hallmark of this country.

… and four years after our world changed, that is a damn shame.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title 9–11 at 4. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Around town, a sense of rebirth is taking shape. WTC 7 is slowly starting to appear over the skyline, renewing our sense of shared hope and attempting to fill some of the hole in our hearts. Everywhere around ground zero and around the city, we hope for a new rebirth.

Last week, I was at ground zero and, as seems to be the case for the last three years, chills ran down my spine. Then they subsided, replaced by a deep sadness as I saw a group of tourists pointing at the grounds and laughing. I don’t know what they were talking about but I felt very sad, left with the emptiness that only comes from the fact that most people outside New York do not understand how this hole is no laughing matter. When tourists come, they fail to realize that these grounds are a mass grave, where three thousands people died. I still don’t know why they were laughing but I still feel sad. I hope their laughter was based on the promise of a better day but still I feel sad.

Today is a day of pause. Today is a day of hope.
Today is the day we mourn. Today is a day of rebirth.
Today is the day it ended for many. Today is the day it starts for the rest of us.

“I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.” — Elie Wiesel

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title Year 3 — Rebirth. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Exactly two years ago, human insanity and cruelty appeared at our doors, taking along with it thousands of innocent lives, taking with it some of our innocence. Looking back now, with the benefit of some hindsight (though two years in the grand scheme of things is not a very long time), I realize that it was an event that changed many of us.

For me, the biggest change was a realignment of priorities. Prior to this day, I was intensely career-driven, focusing on getting the job done, no matter what company I worked for and no matter what it took. Now, that impulse is tempered by the need for a balance between personal and work life. I still do care a tremendous amount about work but it is no longer the only thing that drives me.

Along with this came some other significant changes in my world. Getting married, earlier this year, was one of those, a decision that will change the rest of my life as I agreed to invest the rest of my days in caring for another person: Amy. As a fiercely independent person, this was an important realization. You can go on running forever but for what purpose? Running on your own has no purpose than the running itself. Running with a partner, caring and loving someone else (and being cared for and loved in return) is a feeling that I can hardly describe in words. And it feels good!

Recognizing that I need to spend more time with friends was another change. Prior to September 11, 2001, it was almost a given that I would end my emails or phone calls with something along the lines of “let’s do lunch/drinks/dinner soon”. Now, a new sense of urgency has set in. I am no longer content to just say soon but often want to set a date. That change in my nature is largely due to the fact that I had outstanding open-ended invitations with a few friends who perished when the towers fell.

Like most New Yorkers, my world is also a little darker. When the blackout happened a few weeks ago, everyone’s thought immediately turned to the possibility of another attack. When word passed by that it wasn’t, a great sense of relief set in. We live with terrorism as a constant. Not front of mind but definitely there, idling on the edge of our minds. This is the post 9/11 world, this is the world we live in.

Many of us are uneasy about this. I, for one, do not tend to share much on this site about my day to day feelings. For starters, I don’t believe it appropriate of me to bear my thoughts as openly in public. I tend to be a very introverted (and, hard to believe, shy) individual. When sitting down with some friends who were THERE, who escaped from the towers, we do not talk about it much. We might toast some lost friends, we know the feelings are there but it is still the elephant in the room, always around, but never spoken of. It’s uneasy but it is how we adapt.

Two years have passed and everywhere, the events of that day are used to justify just about anything. Curtail freedoms expressively given by the bill of rights; justify wars, like the conflict in Iraq; justify a deficit created out of new tax cuts. All those have been done in the name of the victims, often put in hushed words: “Well, you know, because of 9/11…” It seems that more and more, politicians are happy to stand on the pile of corpses from that day and use it as a bully pulpit to clamp down on free speech and justify unpopular positions. No tie was ever found between Iraq and what happened on that day but 70% of Americans think that they exist. Why is that? Could it be the constant barrage of pseudo-reporting on the likes of CNN and Fox News, showing the president create that linkage, albeit never directly so that no one could call him on it?

As many people know, I am a French citizen living in the United States. The past few months have been interesting in the sense that I am now more aware of the kind of discrimination that can occur when nations are mobilized against a new evil. Technically, what I’ve written in the paragraph above could probably be considered seditious enough to get me investigated. Then who knows… Maybe a one way ticket to an army prison barrack, where I could be held for an indefinite amount of time, without the right to a lawyer or any of the due process expressed in the American constitution. It is something that pains me, to see a country as great as the United States be torn apart in such a fashion.

And yet, I remain optimistic. I believe, now more than ever, that this is just a phase, similar to what must have happened during the McCarthy era in this country. I believe that the American founding fathers were geniuses, not for coming up with the constitution and the bill of rights, but for realizing that they did not hold all the answers and for creating a structure that allowed for some leeway back and forth. I believe that being an American is about being allowed to express one’s views, no matter how unpopular they may be. No other country actually spells out the right to free speech in its establishing documents.

I also believe in good for goodness sake, as we recently witnessed with the blackout. When the blackout happened, my neighbors were checking on each others and on us. Everyone was willing to share what they had, whether it was good stories, candles, flashlights, insights, or news. We were brought together and I believe that the horror of 9/11 is what did it for us. The realization that somewhere out there someone wants to kill us for no other reason that we are us brings us nearer to each others, something akin to the kind of foxhole relationships developed in times of wars. As a result of 9/11, I’ve gained membership in a new club: I am now a New Yorker. I may not be an American citizen but being a New Yorker is something that defies boundaries. I recently saw an advertisement saying that over 250 languages are spoken in this great city of ours. We are really the capital of the world and yet, we do not boast about it, we go on day after day, caring for each other. I’ve noticed a softer edge to the city since these events. It seems people are more compassionate. It seems people are more willing to care for their fellow men.

So two years have gone by. It’s not a lot of time but it’s been a big time of change. I know that 9/11 changed me forever. I’m only scratching the surface as to how. At this time, six of my friends have been confirmed dead. A few more acquaintances have just disappeared without a trace. Year one and two were big grieving years. Today, we still mourn our dead but today is also a day of rebirth. Year one made it impossible to move on, the wound was two fresh. Year two set up a better world to prepare for what’s next. I will never forget the events of that day but I know that now may be a good time to let go of some of the grief and try to resume a normal life. Normal, that is, based on the new definition of normal in our world.

Today I cry for those who have passed on and yet, I have to acknowledge their sacrifice and see that they made me a better person. It is really a shame that I could not see this without something as horrible as what happened and I now wish it hadn’t been that way. But you can never take back the past, you can only work on improving the future. Listening to the children at ground zero today, I hope for a better world, one that we can leave to them improved, renewed, and one that we can hopefully make a little more tolerant.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title Two Years. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title In Memoriam. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Beyond giving money, blood and supplies, I’ve been talking to people about what to do to avoid a repeat of those events. While I usually cover technology in this newsletter, I believe that the following is important because it does require technology but also goes beyond that. Here are my thoughts on how we might be able to eradicate terrorism in the long run.

Why did it happen?

Like many, I’ve been left to wonder why terrorism happens. Is it because of our lifestyle? Is it because they consider us “corrupt”? Is it because we are different? Or is international terrorism inherent to globalization?

As it stands, I’ve concluded that the best way to fight terrorism is to force people to question the motives of madmen like Osama Bin Laden. How do you do this? By giving people support. By helping raise them out of poverty. By showing them that we are not barbarians. By showing them that our system can work for them. By showing them that we are tolerant and that our cherished freedoms are something we are willing to share.

A war on poverty

As a result, I am presenting a plan to eradicate terrorism by waging war on global poverty. It is not an easy fight. It is not one that is possible to win overnight. It is not a fight that will result in a better way of life for us. But it is a fight that will lower the chance of another terrorist attack. After all, it is easier to reason with a person who has something to lose than it is to do with a madman.

Compulsory Social Duty

The first step in fighting the war against poverty would be through the establishment of a social duty corp. Similar in nature to the American Peace Corps, this group would be built out of engineers, educators, doctors, lawyers, financiers, construction workers, etc, all jobs that are essential to the building of a capitalist society and of democracies.

This duty would be for a period of two years, preferably right after college. People dropping out of high school would have to join this service immediately. The only dispensation that would exist for this program would be to join the military.

The goal of this army would be to build an economy within underdeveloped countries and transfer that knowledge to local people. The idea here is to start working as a force for change, helping develop an internal economic system and work on the establishment of democracies around the world.

This army of good will would be a global force, and would get in a country at the invitation of the existing people or after agreement of the majority of U.N. members. The work period of those people would be divided into two parts: the first one would be one of education, before getting straight to work. Through that education work, one would be taught some rudiments related to customs, language, and general culture within the country.

During the initial month of a new member’s initiation, that training would represent a 7 days work-week. During the next two months, everyone would work on the front lines to help with feeding the hungry, and polish off some of the lessons learned in class with some real street training.

After that initial quarter, the trainee would be pointed to a work area, based on their skills. Lawyers would work with the local authorities on establishing legal frameworks for the country. Financiers would work on establishing and regulating financial transactions for new local businesses. Teachers would teach schools and recruit from the other groups to establish curriculae in business, political science, law, medicine, etc… Doctors would run hospitals. Electricians, building workers, etc… would work on establishing an infrastructure to allow all this to happen.

Each member would be shadowed by a local person and work on transferring their skills to that person. It would work, in a way, as a sponsor model. During that period, workers would also be hosted in the equivalent of dorms, where half the people would be natives and half would be coming from the outside.

One could decide to continue beyond their tour of duty and in exchange, would receive benefits similar to those in the military.

This force would be supported by the military to ensure their security.

The technology

Of course, this effort should take advantage of advances in technology. Since September 11th, some groups have organized great web sites to manage volunteers in the New York area. A similar effort could be put in place for the effort I’m describing. Using best of breed Internet and intranet technology, we could develop some tools to help manage this effort and reduce redundancies. However, technological efforts in underdeveloped countries are not something that is as easy to do as it is in developed ones.

For starters, there is no infrastructure to speak of: a lot of places have no electricity, no running water, no roads, and no phones. In order to use technology in those efforts, new infrastructure would have to be built. In the initial phase of the effort, these infrastructure would not exist.

As a result, the development of irrigation systems, electrical supplies, and telecommunication supplies would have to be high on the list (but still below some even more basic needs like food and vaccination.)

In a way, the underdeveloped countries that would be the focus of this effort could become the launching pad for a number of new infrastructure, primarily wireless ones to overcome some of the heavier costs of installing a lot of copper or fiber optic cables in areas where such solutions could not survive harsh weather (tropical and desert countries) or where other forces of nature are at hand (mountains, heavy forests).

In terms of electrical supplies, we could look at clean technologies like solar power or wind power, which could help generate electricity in remote areas without having to develop national grids. In terms of telephony, wireless solutions could also help overcome obstacles. Water supplies, however, would probably have to be taken care of using the old fashioned way (big pipes) and we might want to look at the convenience of digging up multiuse canals that would allow to not only distribute water but also pass on information through fiber-optics channels.

The one percent solution

The war on poverty is one that will take money and manpower. In order to raise money, I suggest the possibility of raising a tax of up to one percent on the top median of net worth in developed countries. As a result, a large amount of money would be raised in the developed world to create a global fund to eradicate poverty.

That money would not be sent directly to the country as hard currency but would be dealt out as supplies and as a way to pay for the effort. Only a small part of the money should go to paying for general administration of this program.

Other forms of payment

Currently, in parts of the western world, entires crops are destroyed to sustain global prices on food goods. Instead of destroying those goods, they should be shipped away as part of this global effort to end poverty.

Companies would also be able to distribute inventory of technology needed for this effort in exchange for some tax advantage. Using web technology, a list of needed supplies would be available over the web at all time and be updated in real-time. A new donation would be routed using such system and once the donation has reached its destination, it would disappear from the database.

Using a system similar to the ones used by FedEx and UPS, companies would be able to track their shipment all the way to its destination (all shipping costs would have to be incurred by the company and it would be fully tax deductible). They would also have access to a company account, which would list the goods they had sent, their value, the price of shipping, and other goods they could provide along the same line (for example, if a company sends out a million miles of fiber optic cables and there’s a need for a million more, a request would pop up on their personalized screen.)

Using such a system, companies could decide what they need to donate, when they need to donate it, and see how much benefit they will get out of their donation.

What makes a developed country?

When I talk about developed country, I am talking about countries which have an economy that is sufficient to supply its residents with jobs, food, and shelter. It is an economy that either is rich enough for everyone to get an opportunity, or one that is rich enough to maintain a strong social net.

Eventually, the success of these operations will be measured by how many new developed countries are created.

Why do this?

It seems ridiculous to ask for an effort like this. After all, why should we care? Well, for starters, let’s look at the Manhattan skyline. See anything missing? My point is simple, if we work to help people around the world develop systems that allow them to rebuild their country, restore their dignity, and allow them to become self-sufficient, they will not look to destroy us. For historical precedents, take a look at the Marshall Plan after World War II and see how Germany and Japan are now strong democratic and capitalistic society with no intent to bomb the U.S. They are now players because we all worked together to rebuild them. Let’s do the same for the rest of the world.

The other advantage is that it will foster more understanding among nations. Once you’ve traveled to a foreign country and have been exposed to its culture, you become a more open person. It’s that simple: reaching out to other people is opening your eyes to a new world of possibilities.

What next?

I am forwarding this concept to a number of politicians in the hope that one of them will consider it a possibility and may look into fleshing it out more.

I do realize there are a number of holes to be filled up and I hope you will join the conversation and help me fill them up. Together, we can all make a difference, and maybe, just maybe, the events of September 11th will be seen as the starting point of a new world, one where the world went through hell and came out stronger. It is my hope that together, we will do that.

As a side note, I started thinking about this and discussing it with a number of people after the attack and before we started to bomb Afghanistan. I don’t know if the war will change the dynamics (the original name for this newsletter was a Marshall plan without the war) but I dare hope that we will all come out of this OK.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title Rebuilding. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Many people have asked me why I cared so much about the fall of the WTC. More than anything, the image above, taken only a couple of blocks away from my house, shows the toll here. Each of the little square is a piece of paper looking for someone lost in the towers’ collapse.

Every day, I walk by there, and every day, there is a little less hope. Yes, September 11th has taken its toll on me but I am thankful for the fact that I am still here and will always be thankful for that fact. The picture stretch on this wall and then around the next two blocks, wrapping the building in a continuous stream of people who were lost in the event. They stretch all the way up to my street corner and beyond. Not a pretty sight and probably the best way to illustrate what happened. There will be talk of a memorial, I am sure but to me, this is what a memorial should look like.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title The Armory. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

September 11th, 2001 is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. Yesterday, I realized that it was an important day but the shock had not fully registered. Today, it’s hitting… hard. I actually witnessed most of the drama unfold not through a TV screen but right in front of me.

A couple of weeks ago, I joined HSBC.com, which is located in Pavonia/Newport, on the waterfront, clear across from Manhattan. The World Trade Center was by far the most noticeable building in our view of the financial district.

When I got to work, it was a day like any other days. The weather was nice, I was running early so I decided to go grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks before getting up to my desk. The cool thing about the Starbucks near our office is that it has full view of downtown from ground level. The WTC stood majestically above the rest of the towers. I had no way to realize it at this time but this would be the last time I saw it in its full intact nature.

I got up to my desk, started answering some emails. A loud bang was heard but I mistook it for construction trucks passing by (although, now that I think of it, noise from construction trucks would not have traveled 11 floors up). Then a few minutes later (or was it seconds, time started to distort at that point), someone screamed “Oh My God!”

We all looked at it and it looked like something had collided with the northernmost building. Big black clouds of smoke were going up and we could see flames engulfing several floors. It is a sight that should have prepared us for what was going on next.

With our eyes fixed on the WTC, we saw the rest of the drama unfold. We saw the plane coming from the south and hitting WTC2. We saw WTC1 go down. We saw WTC2 go down.

Once that happened, I went into automatic mode. I guess that was my way of coping. I had seen it all and yet it didn’t register. I wanted to cry and yet I couldn’t. I wanted… to do something to keep my mind off the horrible thing I had just witnessed. By 11am, I had witnessed a major fire, a plane crash, what was obviously a terrorist attack, and the two biggest buildings in Manhattan collapse. It was more than my brain could register.

I started making a list of what I had to do:

• Get phone numbers of people living in Jersey, just in case.
• Call friends and family to reassure them that I was OK.
• Get back to Manhattan.
• See how I could help.
• See how work would go on.

After redialing several times, I got a hold of Amy (my girlfriend) and told her about my plan. I had gotten phone numbers already, secured two potential shelters, and was on my way to Hoboken (on foot) to see if the Ferrys were running (tunnels, bridges, and trains would not be an option as I assumed that the police would close them so they could evacuate people faster.

The ferry was not an option. Tons of people were milling about, trying to find a way to get home. I walked to a policeman and asked how I could volunteer. He pointed me in a direction, where I filled out my name and phone number on a form. I was acting like a robot, reworking if… then loops through my mind. Not wanting to deal with it, not wanting to think about anything but the next step in my program.

I then went to a bar for a few minutes to see if I would be called into action or get a way home. I had a phone signal on my cell whereas others didn’t. I passed my phone around. Some people made calls (how many and to where I don’t know but I’m glad I could help).

After a few minutes (or a couple of hours, I don’t know) of sitting there, I figured that there was no way I would get home that night. I was getting pretty stressed out by the continuous recounts of tallies and reports of how much worse the nightmare was getting. I took refuge in the idea that I now had to seek shelter. I called Tony Emond, a Canadian developer at HSBC, and told him I was coming over to his place (he had volunteered earlier). I figured that from there, I would have access to an Internet connection to blast mail a note to my list and change the web site so that everyone who knew me could be reassured quickly.

Tony gave me a login ID on his linux box and I made the changes. When I walked back into the living room (where the TV was) I noticed the clock on the VCR. It was 4pm, the first time stamp I can remember for that day.

Things got worse, we ate, we went to sleep. Now, I am not the most religious person but last night, I felt I had to say a prayer for the people who disappeared in that disaster, and thank god for sparing my life.

To say that I didn’t sleep well is an understatement. Somehow, my psyche is replaying the images again and again. I ended sleeping only a few hours, and all of them in spurts of a few minutes.

But so far, things were easy.

This morning, I went to a deserted office (I figured that it made sense since the PATH train is right next door to the office). The area where the World Trade Center stood was clouded in smoke. If we hadn’t know better, we could have imagined that there was a big cloud covering the towers. I signed out of the office, left my contact info, and packed up to go home.

The PATH train station was very quiet. Families were gathered there, ready to go home. The train was eerily quiet. Not a word was spoken but the faces spoke loudly enough. Shock, dismay, more shock. We stopped at Christopher street and couple of people walked out of the train. In my mind, I could see a map of the city and saw that those people were going to an area that was most probably affected. The train made another stop at 9th street, 14th street (mind map flashing that this was were the city blockade ended), and 23rd street, where I got of.

Once again, people moved quietly towards the exits. The subway station was deserted except for the attendant behind the toll booth. It was 9am, usually a very busy time for this area. Yet, when I stepped out on the corner of 6th avenue and 23rd, the area was empty. Maybe a dozen people in sight. On the street, emergency vehicles rushing by and the odd cab. At morning rush our, the city was quieter than I have ever seen it.

I made my way up 23rd street towards 5th Avenue. On the corner of 5th and 23rd stands the flatiron building, another landmark building. I looked up. One of the weird things about yesterday is how important it has made what remains. I must have walked by the Flatiron building 100 times this year and seldom really looked at it. Today, I marvelled at it, glad to see not only something familiar but something beautiful.

One of the thing that few people know is that there used to be a couple of angels overlooking town on top of the Flatiron building. Recently, they were reinstalled there (I read about it in the Times a couple of weeks ago). I looked up and there they were, looking over the northern end of the city. I thought about how sad it was that there wasn’t a set also looking over the south side. Maybe that would have helped.…

At the street corner, a group of people waited patiently for the “Walk” light to change. There was no traffic but people were following the rules. Today, as we grieve, we are all a little more careful and any sembleance of order, even if it is embodied in a “Walk/Don’t Walk” signal is something that we cling to.

In Madison Square park, life seemed to be going back to normal. Parks department workers were cleaning the place up, blowing leaves out, emptying trashcans. It’s funny how you notice those things in a situation like today. I was happy to see that life was getting back to normal. Inside me, tears that had been trapped started piling up.

As I moved up Madison avenue, I noticed that there was a graffiti piece on a bus stop. It said “Bomb Muslim Businesses.” I thought that was ridiculous. Yes, I’m angry, but I don’t think that I should go out and take it out and more innocent people.

I finally got home and hugged Amy harder and for longer than I ever had. My quest home had ended and I was exhausted and elated to see her… and then I fell apart. I cried for a long time, hours maybe (I’m still crying as I write this).

I got around to checking email and would like to thank everyone who emailed to tell that they were fine or check if I was OK. At the same time, I would like to give my condoleances to the families of friends and acquaintances who are already reported as confirmed dead (three so far and I’m afraid there will be more).

The next few days will be tough. I’m going to go back to work tomorrow and hopefully, that will help somewhat. I’m trying to get back into a routine so I can deal.

Like many people, I’ve lost a lot yesterday. I’ve lost some friends, and I think all of us lost something else. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s innocence; Maybe it’s a certain naiveté; Maybe it’s something else. What I do know is that what I saw yesterday is something that I hope to never have to witness again in my life; What I know is that those pictures will be forever etched in my mind; What I know is that my life will never be the same. How will it change, I don’t know but I do know that I was changed yesterday.

I know it may sound crazy but one of the good things to come out of this is that it has made me reconsider a number of things. A big shock like this makes you realize how valuable life is and how inconsequential some of the little problems you have are.

What has also amazed me is the feeling of kinship this has created in every NYC resident. We’re under a state of siege but people are working hard to help each others.

Amy and I went to one of the red cross shelters to ask what they needed (if you’re in New York, find your nearest red cross shelter and bring socks and cell phone battery chargers. That’s their top priority right now). People were bringing in brand new products they had just bought. For example, I saw a bunch of people bringing sheets and blankets they had just bought at Macy’s. Other people were bringing in platters of prepared food they had bought at local stores.

Online (a vital link for a lot of people as mobile phone traffic seems to have overloaded the network), people were organizing quickly for blood drives, donations, and space (some Internet businesses away from the disaster area are offering their space up to help out other businesses). Messages are breaking down between “how are you,” “I’m OK,” “so and so is OK,” and other information about the crisis at hand.

We’re all chipping in, we’re all doing our part and hopefully, we will all get back to more normal lives soon. If you are looking to help and are in the US, the top thing to do is to give blood. There will be a lot of wounded and blood will help. Otherwise, look through your closets and see what you can spare in terms of clothing for people.

Tristan Louis is the founder and CEO of Keepskor and writes the influential tnl.net weblog, where this was initially posted under the title The Day After. You can follow him on twitter here or receive his weekly newsletter by subscribing here.