Description:

This was sent to friends in Croatia the day after the World Trade Center event.

Date of e-mail: September 12, 2001

Subject line of e-mail: Hello

Body of e-mail:

Hi Sam and Nina,

Well, it seems we're finally getting a taste of what it's like to live in a
war zone, right here in New York. Thank God we are all safe, and so far, we
don't know of any close relatives or friends who were touched by the World
Trade Center/Pentagon disaster.

How has the news coverage been where you are? It's pretty shocking over
here. I can stand at a bridge near my job and look over the water, and see
the smoking skyline where the World Trade Center used to stand. Billows of
smoke fill the sky as if a sniper simply blew out those two buildings. I
guess that's really what happened.

In some ways, I think it's good for us Americans to be reminded of what many
parts of the rest of the world deal with almost every day. This is an
important wake-up call for us, to remind us to be aware of the rest of the
world, because we are all connected. Perhaps this will make Americans more
conscious of global politics. I wonder if this event will breed a whole new
generation of political science students.

We still don't know who's responsible for this, but I hope that we Americans
don't become hateful toward whatever ethnic group the terrorists belonged
to; after all, they were terrorists, not necessarily representative of the
views of their fellow countrymen. I suppose only time will tell.

It's a little slow and quiet here at the office; it was hard to get to work,
and a lot of roads are closed. Whenever we hear planes, we tend to get
scared because there are no commercial jets flying right now, so we know
that the jets we hear must be military. We only hope that they are friendly
planes, not foreign.

I was supposed to fly to Chicago on Friday, but now, my mom wants me to
cancel. I don't think it'll be unsafe, but if nothing else, there will be a
very long wait at the airport. I suppose she's right: don't fly immediately
after a national air disaster.

On my way to work, there was a lot of debris on the highway. I think it was
ash and detritus carried back by police and rescue vehicles that had been at
the scene of the disaster; it must have fallen off the cars.

How are you?

Jamie