I was lucky enough to attend Glenn Beck's Rally for America in Auburn, Indiana in March of 2003. He didn't know what a FReeper was. I enlightened him. :-)
I traveled to NYC in August 2002 and again in May 2003. My most recent visit was in March 2005. We visited Ground Zero all three times. See photo below poem.
My feelings were best described in a poem I wrote after my first visit:
To New York City
I never knew you, New York City, not before that day.
That day when terror set its sights on you.
City cursed and spited, city under attack. City whose heroes emerged from the haze, covered in soot, through clouds of gray, to show the world what America is.
They say the farther away one was, the less one felt the attack. This cannot be true - I felt gut-punched and sick.
I sat in front of the television. Unable to look -unable to turn away.
A man named Rudy Giuliani whom I'd scarcely heard of before spoke for his city - He spoke of pain, of sadness, of rebuilding.
I clung to Rudy's words. He made me think we really could get through this. He was a voice of hope in a city of despair...
Words from "America the Beautiful" sprang unbidden to my mind, and seared my heart: "Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears."
...That isn't true anymore.
Many months later, I travel to see you.
I stand wordlessly at ground zero. How can I snap a photo? It feels like sacred ground.
I don't even know what it once looked like. It speaks of emptiness now.
The memorials at St. Paul's, at Grand Central Terminal pull tears from my eyes once more.
NYPD, FDNY, we see them everywhere; The embattled survivors and the rookies and probies who will carry on.
At Rescue 1, we meet a firefighter. He is friendly; he is strong. He accepts our thanks humbly; He was just "doing his job".
He invites us in for a tour, but alarms clang, and he is off on another run.
Just like that day, almost a year ago now, when 11 firefighters from Rescue 1 left on their rig and never returned.
I never knew New York City before that day. I found the people as busy and hurried as I had always imagined.
But there is something else there; something not quite definable. Perhaps more love of life, now that life is more fragile, more precious.
I wasn't with you long, but I feel privileged to have walked among you. I love you, New York.
--spookycc, August, 2002
spook reflected in WFC windows overlooking Ground Zero, 2003.