Metropolis Madness

Some people are in love with cities! I’m one of these people. Such a love and passion I cannot explain. Does this love have any kind of logic?

Of course, I am speaking of New York. I lived there for about six years. And on Sept. 11, I lived its nightmare. Petrified at first, I then watched through tears as the first tower collapsed, live, on television. I bellowed, crying, “My city is gone; my tower is gone.” A moment later, when one of my friends called me in horror and panic, I was nearly exhausted.

As my friend on the phone asked, “What are you saying? I do not understand,” I was crying. Later, as I watched the collapse of the second tower, my tear drops were melded with my anger. Immediately, I tried to call my friends in New York. It was useless; I could not reach them by any means.

When I lived in New York, the towers, the city’s smell gave me a rush of energy when I left for work in the morning. Those towers are gone now. No, I don’t live in Manhattan any longer, but believe me, my sorrow is overwhelming.

Even on those days when I had no work to do, I sometimes made trips around the city just to feel its liveliness. Everybody who lives in New York is a New Yorker, and I feel honored to be a New Yorker, too. When I attended New York University in Greenwich Village, the first thing I saw after getting out of the subway was those towers. I even have a photograph of myself, like a tourist’s snapshot, taken boastingly when I started living in the city. I cannot explain to you what a great pleasure it was to look out at the city while enjoying a slice of John’s Pizza.

In the late hours of the disaster, I managed to reach my friends who now live in New York, by phone and e-mail. They were inconsolable. Though well, they have survived a great disaster. Thousands of people have died, and New York has been devastated. Since the day of the disaster, I haven’t been able to tear myself away from the TV screen. When Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York, announces information about the injured and dead on CNN, I listen carefully. First thing in the morning, I check The New York Times on the Internet. I certainly do not want to miss what the weather will be like in New York.

The towers are gone. My city has taken a beating, but I believe that it will rise again. And yet I am still crying for the thousands of New Yorkers who have perished.