| HOME | HELP | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
REFLECTIONS: ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: |
Kaplan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Momentous events remain engrained in our mind, and we retrace our steps and thoughts during the day as it unfolded. The evening before, some light rain cleared the air. Early that morning, my driver was waiting at 6:30 a.m. to take me to LaGuardia for a 7:30 Delta Shuttle flight to Reagan National Airport. The traffic was already heavy as we chatted about the increased workload at the airports, and the inordinate delays at LaGuardia. The day was exceptionally beautiful, with a very pleasant brisk morning temperature presaging the northeastern fall. The Delta Marine Terminal was already congested with passengers waiting to board the shuttles to Boston and Washington. Upon entering the plane, I chose to sit by the window on the left side looking towards the west. As we took off, I was absorbed with the beautiful view over the Triborough Bridge as I looked carefully at the parallel bridge of the railroad which I had traveled the week before on a Baltimore to New Rochelle train. As the plane veered slightly south and to the left, I could get a glimpse of all of Manhattan: what a magnificent island! With the large spread of Central Park, the high skyscrapers of midtown, and finally the Twin Towers: that is the picture engrained on my mind.
Upon arriving to Washington, I headed with a quick pace to the Metro, and in less than one hour arrived at the Rockville stations. Again the comfortable briskness of the air–so much better than prior occasions that were either too warm and humid, or too cold—was noteworthy. After a short bus ride, I headed to the Office of Cancer Communications building where we hold the Adult Treatment Editorial Board of PDQ every few weeks. Upon entering the elevator slightly before 9:30, an agitated woman answered my statement of "what a nice morning" with "haven't you heard? The World Trade Center has been hit." At the offices the scene was one of intense anxiety, and yet also showing orderly preoccupation. In rapid succession we cancelled our meeting, we learned about the Pentagon, we were apprised of the grounding of all planes and the cancellation of trains, and finally a call to promptly evacuate the building. There were three of us that had made it to the meeting, one of us from Baltimore, another one from Boston (fortunately, the night before). Our Baltimore member expertly took us to a Rent-a-Car in Laurel, and two of us drove back listening to the events on the radio on semi-deserted highways, finally arriving in the evening to a congested Tappan-Zee Bridge. Others that had gone to work that morning, would have much more painful personal memories. For me, the exhilarating view of Manhattan Island from the plane remains the most prominent remembrance of how we were before September 11.
The Editorial by Greg Curt [1] equated terrorism to a cancer that obeys no rules, and yet the cells are part of us. In a similar biological bent, I have tended to view the terrorists as parasites of our admittedly imperfect civilization. They learn to use our most sophisticated technologies, and establish networks of communication that were developed by others, to signal to each other on how to usurp the world's attention and allow their leaders to glow in the limelight of destruction. As parasites, they are nourished on notion of our vulnerability, and they prey on the weaknesses of our culture. However, the events of September 11 not only reflected our vulnerability, but also revealed some of the resilience and tenacity of our civilization.
REFERENCE
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| THE ONCOLOGIST | STEM CELLS | CME | ALPHAMED PRESS JOURNALS |
