With good fellowship and friendly laughter, the Roosevelt Island chapter of Toastmasters came together last week to deliver speeches filled with sadness and anger about the World Trade Center disaster.  Twelve days after the attacks, the group's pain was as apparent as their camaraderie.

In a scene of healing and catharsis, speakers addressed questions like, "Why are there people who hate the United States enough to commit these acts?", "What impact will these events have on our daily lives?", and "What military action do you think the U.S. will and should take?"  Speakers told stories and urged the country to come together.

Toastmasters is an organization that helps people improve their ability to speak publicly, "to assist in the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking."  In last week's session, each speaker was evaluated, as is customary, and attention was paid to poise and style.  But when Marlene Flom, president of the chapter, choked up during a speech she titled "Coming Together," it was clear that content was primary to this meeting.

The group of approximately 30 people, who met at Rivercross, included men and women, young and old, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, all residents of Roosevelt Island.

Jim Tendean-Luce, Membership Vice President, opened the meeting with a story:  "My father said that the worst thing he'd ever seen was D-Day.  Three thousand people died that day, about half the amount of this tragedy."

One guest at the meeting pointed out that her decision to retire would depend on what turns the economy would take.  "My decisions may change dramatically," she said.

Flom, who won the meeting's award for best-prepared speech, delivered a touching call for solidarity.  "They were the rank and file of New York," she said.  "They went to work for a day's pay.  This great tragedy has brought us together, and we must come together."  Her speech, like many of the others, was thoughtfully composed and gracefully delivered, but rent with an emotion that only a tragedy like this can bring about.

Before Flom, in perhaps the most dramatic moment in the meeting, Bernie Silverman, a longtime member of the Toastmasters, delivered his assignment for that meeting, to receive a mock award.  He performed as Osama bin Laden being recognized for his success in his destruction of the Towers, behaving proudly and boastfully, swaggering with exaggerated pride.  While the speech was clearly a parody and his message clearly anti-bin Laden, the experience of being bin Laden's applauding audience was chilling and the gentle audience was left shaken and unsettled.

Jimmy Tarar, a 17-year-old Muslim who was visiting the group for the first time, pointed out some comments he found offensive, but told the group he would join, nonetheless.  He said he had also noted other language he found touching and supportive.

Jill Burk, the general evaluator for the meeting, summed up what seemed the feeling of unease that we've all been left with after this disaster:  "The last time we were here," she said, "the world was normal.  In a very real way, every one of us has fallen 100 stories."