Posted on 04/28/2006 9:12:48 AM PDT by areafiftyone
NEW YORK (AP) — The biggest gap in Connor Murphy's life since the Sept. 11 attacks is the absence of his dad. But on Thursday, the 11-year-old Long Island boy walked through Manhattan traffic with a special male arm wrapped around his shoulders — that of Rudy Giuliani.
The former New York mayor, who now heads a consulting firm specializing in security, preparedness and crisis management, was Connor's role model for the national Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
"He's almost like a father to me," said Connor, whose dad worked for an insurance company at the World Trade Center and was killed on Sept. 11. "We were walking around the city today, and he put his arm around me to make sure nothing happened to me."
On the day when parents took sons and daughters to work, several hundred children who lost their mothers or fathers on Sept. 11, 2001, were treated to an array of experiences with adults, from trips to businesses and sports teams to a day at the theater, cooking at a restaurant and going behind the scenes of a local news broadcast.
They also learned how a forensic detective gathers evidence and what it takes to run the Federal Reserve Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, a satellite radio company and a major publishing company.
The day was organized by Tuesday's Children, a nonprofit service organization that has made a long-term commitment to every child who lost a parent in the terrorist attacks. The organization, funded mostly with private donations, also has offices in Washington, D.C., and Long Island.
As rebuilding at ground zero begins, the families who suffered losses "are still overwhelmed — especially mothers with children," said Janet Cascio, who lost a son on Sept. 11 and serves as the family liaison for Tuesday's Children.
Cascio joined four young children who visited with animals at the Humane Society of New York on Manhattan's East Side, learning about caring for animals, finding homes for pets and making catnip-stuffed toys for kittens.
Shelter employee Anne Marie Kavasch cradled in her arms a shiatsu that had to have an eye removed and was doing well.
"Ehttp://www!" said 7-year-old Christian Santos, who was told that the dog had been in pain before the eye operation. p>"You have to really take care of the animals or they get hurt," said the boy from North Hills, who then pointed to the image of a cat on someone's desk, asking, "Did she die? How?"
But the subject of the human deaths that decimated the children's families never came up.
Christian and his 9-year-old brother, Jonathan, lost their father, as did 10-year-old Matthew Jordan and his 7-year-old sister, Kelsey, both of whom live near Westhampton.
The little girl arrived at the animal shelter looking withdrawn, but as she sprinkled catnip on cotton balls to make a toy, her face livened up along with her hands.
Kavasch said the children who have suffered are helped by the animals.
"They had to grow up too fast, and something was taken away from them," Kavasch said. "Animals bring them back to being like other kids."
Connor has kept in touch with Giuliani since meeting him two years ago on another Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. And the former mayor promised to take the boy to a New York Yankees game this summer.
Connor, who acts as a conflict manager mediating fights among students at his middle school in Suffolk County, said he and Giuliani spoke about crime in Mexico City, where the former mayor is suggesting methods that lowered crime in New York.
The 11-year-old said he took away an important lesson from his time with the man he called Mr. Giuliani: "Don't be a follower. Be what you think you should be. Have a good heart. And have compassion."
I think Rudy would make a good president.........
Neither guiliani or that idiot bloomberg would convince me to show up on voting day if they win the Republican nomination in 2008.
I'd sooner stay at home or throw my vote away on the Constitution/Libertarian party than give it to a gungrabber from new york.
I do too. Too bad many Freepers don't want him to be.
"I'd sooner stay at home or throw my vote away on the Constitution/Libertarian party than give it to a gungrabber from new york."
As opposed to the other gungrabber from New York - Hillary?
If they nominate the same brand of garbage from the same city as Hillary then the repubs deserve to lose in 2008.
Hillary is NOT from New York City. She is from Park Ridge Illinois! She is NOT a New Yorker!
Amen. Guiliani's heart is in the right place.
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