Posted By:
Jeff LichtmanI saw the second tower collapse from my office window. I was so shocked at what I saw that I had to turn on the TV to see if it really happened. That long walk back home on streets filled with equally bewildered New Yorkers, occasionally joined by someone covered in ash, was funereal and mostly silent. The only thing nice about that disaster was how New York really came together for a few days. Everyone was friendly and caring towards each other, even on the subways. I could smell the burning of the rubble for days from my apt 70 blocks north of the towers. I have one memory that really stuck out that I've never shared before, which really explained a lot to me: a day or so later a kid about 18 or so who looked to be very poor and angry was riding his bicycle on the street and saying at the top of his lungs that some more planes were coming out of the sky and we should all watch out. He was basically rooting for the terrorists because he felt so disenfranchised and left out and apparently identified more with them than us.