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The Words of Gordon Sinclair
Scott's Account
A Poem by Linda J. Davis
Article by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald
The Words of Gordon Sinclair
This remarkable editorial was broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his remarks as printed in the Congressional Record.
Note: this was not in response to the 9/11/01 attack, but it still applies.
America: The Good Neighbor.
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes.
Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?
Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
Stand proud, America!
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Scott's Account
Scott is just an regular person. Scott was there and I think his memories of that horrible day should be on the record.
I thought you guys might want to read this even though we all talked on the phone. It's an email I wrote to a few friends to tell them I'm okay. Here it is:
I just got home. Everyone I know is okay. I saw just about everything. Here is how my day went down:
I usually get to work at 10am, but today I was on schedule to get in at 9. I work at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street, about 5-6 blocks from the World Trade Center. Some days I get off at the subway stop before so I can have a cigarette and walk for a few minutes. Today was one of those days. So I got off at the Fulton Street station, which is about a block and a half south of the World Trade Center. I was at the end of the platform and it was business as usual. As I got to the turnstyles, I noticed that the lobby was packed. I heard someone say, word for word, "I don't want to go up there, all I hear is screaming." Then I heard someone say, "The World Trade Center just blew up," which sounded ridiculous.
I walked up the stairs and before I had even reached the top, the Towers were visible. About ten floors were burning. It sounds cliche, but it didn't seem real. It seemed like time had stopped. Then I heard a simultaneous "Oh my god," from the crowd and I watched a flailing body fall from the building almost in slow motion. I thought they would never hit the ground because the whole thing seemed so unreal. But I also knew that, for whoever that it was, it was the end. I saw the body hit the ground and dust flew up. That image will stay with me for the rest of my life. It was quiet and noisy at the same time. I then watched 5 more people fall from the tower, about one every 30 seconds. Every other person was crying.
And then the second tower lit up. I hadn't moved. I felt the heat. I saw large unidentifiable objects fly into the air. The whole street pushed back on me and ran the other way. I really could not convince myself that it was actually happening. I didn't even move very fast because it still didn't seem dangerous.
I was trying to call my client because I was coming into work to do something for them, but all cell lines were tied. So I went into work. About 1/3 of the people were there. Half of them were crying. Everyone was gathered around a radio. I quickly did the work I had to do for my client and then I didn't feel like being inside anymore. I felt the horror but I also felt awe and I wanted to watch it. So I went outside for a cigarette.
I walked down Broadway, toward the towers. The streets were packed, everyone looking upward. This time I wasn't as close as before. I was about 3 blocks away, which still isn't very far. I stood there with everyone else and watched it burn. I saw another person fall, this time from the second building. That made seven. Someone next to me began talking about the possibility of the World Trade Center collapsing, but it didn't seem likely to me. Each building had about 10-15 floors on fire, but they were high up and the structure is supposed to be strong. I watched for 10 more minutes and at this point it seemed like the worst was over so I went back to work.
In my office, they were taking attendance so I marked my name down. I went to my desk to make a phone call. A lot of people were still crying. They were gathered at the window, where you could get a pretty clear view of the Towers. I heard a boom. Everyone screamed. Someone yelled, "Get away from the windows," and "Get down on the floor!" I thought that bombs were planted everywhere around Wall Street. I initially thought that our building had blown up. Or the American Stock Exchange, which is across the street. Curiosity kept getting the best of me, so I made for the window. When I looked out, all I saw was brown smoke and then it turned black. Every window was black. The building was evacuating and sirens were going off.
We all rushed to the stairs. People were seriously panicing and yelling that we have to get out and pushing. We're on the 10th floor. By the time I got to the third, there was dust everywhere. I had to pull a shirt from my backpack and put it over my mouth.
I walked outside and it looked like winter. The sky was black. There was 6 inches of soot on the ground and we were in an alley. It looked like it was snowing. Exactly like that. The streets were packed and it was snowing. Everyone was going south and east. I was just as worried about getting hit by a car because they were driving on the wrong side of the street, ignoring traffic lights, and speeding whenever they found a strip of open road.
It was a mass migration. My hair was gray with soot. I saw businessmen in suits, covered head-to-toe in dust. It took me about 45 minutes to walk home. I saw people gathered around TVs. People crying. Ambulances and cops everywhere. People collapsed on the street and paramedics leaning over them. Everytime I turned around to look back toward Wall Street, I saw a few buildings in the foreground and nothing but smoke behind it. And now I'm home.
I wanted to get that down and I thought you guys might want to hear it. If the descriptions seem indulgent, it's because that was hands-down the most vivid thing I've seen in my life.
Peace
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A Poem by Linda J, Davis
"God Opened Up His Gates Today"
God opened up his gates today,
He accepted thousands of souls who were blown away,
By men who have forgotten love,
Who claim their victory comes from above.
But we who know our Redeemer lives,
Know the Lord in his mercy continues to give
All the comfort and strength we need to find peace,
And our trust in him must never cease.
Yes God opened up his gates today,
To thousands of victims made easy prey,
Of madmen, demons, who sought to divide,
Then chose to seek shelter, to run and hide.
But they will never escape God's awesome powers,
After destroying our precious Twin Towers.
Remember --
God opened up his gates today,
He's gathered our loved ones to come and stay,
In his many mansions, He told us so.
Our loving Father needs you to know,
That the gates will be opened for all of us too,
If you do unto others as you will have them do unto you.
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Article by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald
It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.
You monster. You beast. You unspeakable coward.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn?
Whatever it was, please know that you failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless.
We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.
Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.
Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel.
Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of Terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.
But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall.
This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage,terrible in our force.
When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.
I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.
In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.
You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold.
As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.
So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange:
You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
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