It's a blustery and rainy day in Borough Park. I love the feel of a cool and rainy September morning. One of the joys (and sometimes pains) of living in a mass-transit city is that you get to walk in the midst of the weather, instead of being more insulated and apart from it. As I was walking to the laundromat just before the rain this morning, I saw the flag at half-mast in the local elementary schoolyard, and the memory of September 11, 2001 came back strikingly clear. The weather today is much different from what I saw in New York on the television eight years ago, but somehow it seems fitting that the weather is so dreary on this day of remembrance. I don't remember feeling this sad about that day for a long time.
It is important and right that we move along and progress and improve after those terrorist attacks, but it is also appropriate and right to take time to remember and reflect and mourn the losses of that day as well. And I hope that in remembering, we will be motivated to make choices and take actions that improve ourselves and the world around us. It is fitting that the President declared September 11th a National Day of Service and Remembrance and that volunteerism was such a central theme of the memorial service in Lower Manhattan this morning.
These are pictures of the Tribute in Lights from 2008. The first picture is from City Hall Park and the second is from my fire-escape in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
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