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2001-09-24 - 6:35 p.m. High atop one of the last standing walls is a flag – laboring to blow in the wind, getting caught on the glass or something. The sun was setting on the scene, and glowed off the last of the standing windows. Yesterday my parents came into town to see a play, “The Irish, and How They Got That Way”. It’s a musical, written by Frank McCourt. It was such an amazing experience to go to a play during these times…especially this one. It’s about the Irish experience in America—and was chock full of old Irish songs that made us laugh, cry and feel proud. I think I want to go visit Ireland now – it was so cool to learn about where my ancestors came from. The best thing about it was hearing the songs written by Irish-Americans, such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “It’s a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There”. It took on a new meaning… And then we went down to Fulton Street…the closest you can get to the site. Coming out from the subway was eerie. That area is always desolate on the weekends, but it was a new kind of desolate. No cars on the street, and all store awnings were covered with a thin layer of soot. The streets were still muddy, and the air was still thick. There was a slow migration down the streets, with cops trying as hard as they could to get the crowd to move along at a quick pace. I took tons of pictures—but they’re not going to really capture the surreal atmosphere of the whole thing. I felt like I wasn’t really there—it was a war zone, and even though it was only a few paces from me, I still felt miles away from it. These are the actual shots that I’ve been watching on CNN and looking at in TIME and USNews…I was there, but I felt so far away. We moved along and got to see a few different angles of the whole thing. I kept thanking the policemen and women who were standing there, with masks on. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Witnessed one group of shopkeepers desperately cleaning their windows and awnings—two bottles of Windex and Fantastick sat on the sidewalk. The small clothing shop glistened among all the rest. Trying to find an open subway, we finally descended into one that was so close to the site that it still had remnants of dust and debris that had flown into the opening. A very long day.
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