It was an obscenity.  And, it failed.  I'm sitting at my computer two days after the World Trade Center collapsed to the ground and three weeks after visiting the Observation Tower with an out-of-town relative.  My eyes are stinging and my throat burns from smoke arriving on the breeze from the south.  I don't know whether to rage or to cry.

When a tragedy occurs, we often have familiar surroundings to anchor us.  We New Yorkers have been denied that solace.  In that regard, we can empathize to some small extent with the citizens of Warsaw and Dresden, London and Tokyo, who saw the familiar landmarks of their lives disappear in an instant.  Like them, the givens of our lives have been rocked, and in our case, without benefit of air raid sirens or even a declaration of war.

The attack was a failure because our military structure, our economic integrity and our resolve as a nation were not damaged; if anything, they are stronger.  Even if their goal was simply to kill Americans, they failed.  New York City and our nation's airlines are international entities, and so they killed indiscriminately, and earned the disgust of the world.  The result of this atrocity will be to bring the day of their annihilation that much closer.

Your Common Council met the day after the attack in emergency session.  We will put together a relief fund to help the families of Roosevelt Island victims.  As the inevitable reports of Islander casualties start to trickle in, please get word to me so that we can properly register our losses.  We are coordinating emergency services available to us, including Island grief counselors.  At this writing, I have been unable to arrange for a blood drive at Goldwater Hospital because of the overwhelming demand on existing blood centers.  When the apparatus and technicians are freed for our use, we'll let you know.  At the end of our meeting, we moved, en masse, to the Fire Department's Rescue squad at the north end of the AVAC building, to thank and applaud the fire fighters, to commiserate with their losses and to offer food, anything, that would make their task easier.

Perhaps you've heard reports of bigotry against Arabs and Muslims around the country.  I understand that reports of similar intolerance on Roosevelt Island were false, and I'm not a bit surprised.  But this is unacceptable anywhere, and we must say so unequivocally, here in the most diverse community in the most diverse city in the world.  The Common Council asked me to draft a resolution reflecting our concern and beliefs:

Resolution of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association Common Council:

We abhor and officially repudiate any retaliation for the atrocities of September 11, by word or by deed, against our innocent Arab-American or Muslim-American neighbors or against Arab or Islamic diplomats and visitors to our shores.

Roosevelt Islanders and New Yorkers have shown their stuff in times of adversity on many sad occasions, and this time will be no different.  Over the last two days I've recited the mourners' kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, and found it comforting.  I've always been uncomfortable with overt expressions of patriotism, but I've sung God Bless America, and felt that it was appropriate, with a stirring lyric.  We'll need to find consolation where we can and then get about the business of rebuilding our City.