The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 9/9/21 ~ Wondering Whether You Have Been Worth the Windfall

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Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Wondering Whether You Have Been Worth the Windfall

You recall the frenetic chaos—people wandering blithely into traffic, while cars with flashing lights and bleating sirens tried to make lurching progress by driving on sidewalks. And everyone staring upward, transfixed.

   Even amid the bedlam, one anomalously serene (even festive) detail stood out. Confetti—a jumble of office paperwork and shredded aluminum—drifting lazily toward the ground. Reminiscent of nothing so much as a ticker tape parade, but in reverse. The honorees didn’t know the parade was for them, because they had not yet become heroes and martyrs. Although in just a few moments, they would.

   A few minutes later, you stood at the foot of a tower, looking up at an airplane-shaped hole in its side and thinking, “there is no way that building is going to fall down.”

   Now you look back and wonder, who decided? When the difference between remaining or passing into the country of myth was determined by a few inches. Why them? Why not you?

   Some time later, you were reunited with the love of your life in a darkened stairwell, where she tearfully confessed, “I thought you were dead.” And when you tried to reassure her with the words, “I don’t have a scratch on me,” she laughed and sobbed at the same time, and then smacked you.

   How was the call made, when a few seconds divided those who would continue from those who would be remembered? Why you? Why not them?

   You speculate about how many of them left this world uttering the word, “please…” without time to finish the sentence. What would they have asked for, given a few more seconds? To trade places with you? To be forgiven? Protection for those they loved?

You reflect on those fallen in the years since, now surpassing even the toll of that day. Family nearly taken from you. Friends vanished. You remember how many times in recent years you have murmured, “please” — on behalf of someone you loved, but to whom you did not know.

   You dwell, also, on those raised up in the years since. Two beautiful children blossoming into adults more magnificent than anybody had a right to expect with you as a parent. A sainted better-half who continues to endure you.

   You ponder the familiar, nagging certainty that, sooner than you imagine, your name will be called, and perhaps etched on a wall somewhere.

   You are haunted less by this likelihood than by the question: What have you done with the gift of those extra years? And would whoever or whatever chose you for this bequest perhaps have decided more wisely to grant the favor to someone else?

   Wearily, you resolve once more that you will try to merit, years after the fact, a bounty you still haven’t found a way to deserve. One that, in the hectic flush of those moments 20 Septembers ago, you never even thought to ask for.

   And a whisper, something halfway between a confession and a plea, slips from your apostate’s lips: “In whatever time remains, help me find a way to be worthy of this.” Then, sounding vaguely like an appeal to an old friend whose name you have nearly forgotten, one word more: “Please…”

Matthew Fenton

Anniversary Exclusion

Lower Manhattan Community Sidelined from September 11 Observances, Again

A time-honored tradition will be upheld on Saturday, September 11, when residents from the community that was devastated by the terrorist attacks of that day 20 years ago are once again excluded from the ceremonies marking the anniversary.

This ongoing snub became the focus of a heated discussion at the Executive Committee of Community Board 1. To read more…

The Broadsheet Sept 7 – 20 in Downtown lobbies today

EYES TO THE SKY

September 6 – 19, 2021

Reach out to Jupiter, Saturn all night

Planet Jupiter shines with startling brilliance above the southeast horizon in evening twilight. The great planet, orbiting fifth out from the Sun in our solar system, could be mistaken for the light of an airplane flying low above the skyline. Jupiter (-2.83 magnitude) is the Evening Star rising in the southeast while dazzling planet Venus (-4.05m), is the Evening Star setting in the west-southwest during twilight. Note that the smaller the number the greater the magnitude of a celestial object. Sunset is, roughly, 7:15pm this week and 7:00pm next week. Twilight begins about half an hour later and, for nightfall, add another hour. To read more…

THE CALENDAR

Thursday, Sept. 9

Two Photo Exhibitions

SohoPhotoGallery

1pm-6pm and by appointment

At the SohoPhotoGallery (15 White Street), see two exhibitions commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11: “Witness” with photographs by Lee Day, Hans Weiss and Wolfgang Staehle, and “911: Our First Responder Heroes” with photographs by the FDNY and NYPD.

Friday, Sept. 10

Flotilla Commemorating the Great 9/11 Boatlift

Early afternoon

The boatlift of 9/11 was the largest water evacuation in history. In today’s commemoration, vessels will board around noon, gather south of Governors Island, sail pass the Statue of Liberty and north on the Hudson River. Vessels will disembark around 2:30pm. You can join this event by booking passage on a participating Classic Harbor Line vessel. (For details, see “Remembering the 9/11 Boatlift” event at 11am on Sept. 11, described below.)

1pm-2:30pm

American Merchant Mariners’ Monument, Battery Park

Shoreside ceremony, blessing of the fleet, vessel procession. Speakers will honor those who participated in the 9/11 Boatlift.

9/11 Memorial & Museum Community Hours

2pm-5pm

Special gathering of the 9/11 community, on the eve of this year’s 20th anniversary. During these hours, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum will be reserved exclusively for 9/11/01 and 2/26/93 family members, family members of individuals who are sick or who have died from 9/11-related illnesses, 9/11 rescue and recovery workers, active duty first responders, 9/11 survivors, active-duty military and veterans, lower Manhattan residents and business owners, and active and retired flight crew members. Reservations are required. Reserve your free ticket at 911memorial.org/September10/.

A Time and Space for Remembrance and Healing

9pm September 10 to 8pm on September 12

St. Paul’s Chapel

This will be a time and place to pray, reflect, mourn, or simply sit with your memories. Clergy will be present to offer support and prayers, and from 7am-7pm on Saturday, brief musical interludes and readings will be offered on the hour by Trinity Church’s staff and community of musicians. An exhibit displaying artifacts from the events of September 11 will be available at St. Paul’s Chapel, along with interactive digital exhibits at trinitywallstreet.org/911. Free.

photo: William Johnston

Eiko Otake: Slow Turn

At sunrise and sunset on Saturday, September 11, movement-based artist and dancer Eiko Otake will perform in Belvedere Plaza (north side of North Cove), accompanied by clarinetist David Krakauer. Eiko & Koma were artists-in-residence in the World Trade Center North Tower through 2000. In 2002, they premiered Offering: A Ritual of Mourning on Belvedere Plaza. Eiko Otake returns to Belvedere Plaza to explore memories from 20 years ago. A reservation is advised and available at https://bpca.ny.gov/. Walk-ups will receive a headset if available. Free. This performance is presented in partnership with NYU Skirball, Battery Park City Authority, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Saturday, Sept. 11

Eiko Otake: Slow Turn

7am and 6pm.

Belvedere Plaza

20th Anniversary Observance at the 9/11 Memorial

8:30am to 1pm

Family members of 9/11 victims will gather on the 9/11 Memorial plaza to read aloud the names of those killed in the 9/11 attacks and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Throughout the ceremony, six moments of silence will be observed, acknowledging when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck and fell and the times corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93. The first moment of silence will be observed at 8:46am. Houses of worship are encourage to toll their bells at that time.

9/11 20th Anniversary at St. Peter’s Church

9am morning mass; 4pm mass of remembrance

22 Barclay Street

Bishop Edmund Whalen, Vicar for Manhattan will be the main celebrant. The church will be open all day for private prayer. The first recorded causality of 9/11, Fr. Mychal Judge (Chaplain to the NY Firefighters), was laid in front the altar on that fateful day.

Remembering the 9/11 Boatlift: America’s Largest Water Evacuation

11am. Online

Zoom discussion, short film and Q&A.

Following the September 11 attacks, people were unable to leave Lower Manhattan due to the closure of roads, bridges and tunnels. Within minutes of the plane hitting the first tower, multiple fireboats from the New York City Fire Department rushed to the scene, and the U.S. Coast Guard coordinated a convoy of hundreds of merchant ships, tugboats, ferries and other vessels to evacuate stranded and injured victims. This extraordinary rescue was memorialized in the 2011 short documentary film Boatlift documenting the evacuation of more than 500,000 civilians in just nine hours—the largest maritime evacuation conducted in the history of the United States, moving more people from the island than even the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from France. See the short documentary film Boatlift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience narrated by Tom Hanks, followed by a panel discussion among National Maritime Historical Society trustee emeritus RADM Richard Larrabee, USCG (Ret.), USCG Safety and Security Division Chief for Sector New York John Hillin, president of the New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots Association Capt. Andrew McGovern, founder of the fireboat John J. HarveyHuntley Gill, and USCG-licensed marine engineer and author of “Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift” Jessica DuLong. Free. Tickets at https://seahistory.org/seminar-series-9-11-boatlift/

Tribute in Light

Dusk to dawn

Tribute in Light has become an iconic symbol that both honors those killed and celebrates the unbreakable spirit of New York. Assembled on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage south of the 9/11 Memorial, the twin beams reach miles into the sky and are comprised of eighty-eight 7,000-watt xenon lightbulbs positioned into two 48-foot squares, echoing the shape and orientation of the Twin Towers. The installation can be viewed from a 60-mile radius around Lower Manhattan.

Battery Park City Gathering

6pm-8pm, Esplanade Plaza (south of North Cove)

Join neighbors and friends for an informal community sunset gathering sponsored by the Gateway Plaza Tenants Association in partnership with Battery Park City Authority. Light refreshments, music, and friendship provided.

Remembrance, Reflection, Resilience: A 9/11 Tribute Concert

8pm

Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra and the Museum of Jewish Heritage present a special concert to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. The concert will feature Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” the world premiere of Gary S. Fagin’s “9/11 In Memoriam,” and Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” featuring the KCO’s Orlando Wells on violin, among other musical pieces. Lower Manhattan residents will offer short readings, and the program will conclude shortly after 9pm. Tickets are free and available at mjhnyc.org. This program will be held live in the Museum’s Edmond J. Safra Hall. The audience may attend in person and via livestream.

Lower Manhattan

Greenmarkets are open

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Broadway & Whitehall Street

Every Tuesday & Thursday, 8am-5pm

Food Scrap Collection: Tuesdays only, 8am-11am

Greenmarket at Oculus Plaza

Church & Fulton Streets

Tuesdays starting August 31st, from 8 am to 5pm

Farmers Attending:

Samascott Orchard Orchard fruit, strawberries from Columbia County, New York

Francesa’s Bakery Breads and baked goods from Middlesex County, New Jersey

Meredith’s Bakery Baked goods from Ulster County, New York

Riverine Ranch Water Buffalo meat and cheeses from Warren County, New Jersey

1857 Spirits Handcrafted potato vodka from Schoharie County, New York

SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Dear Students, Staff, Faculty, Alumni and Neighbors,

We are pleased to announce that Metropolitan College, in partnership with our colleagues at NYC Health & Hospitals, mobile COVID-19 vaccination units will be stationed at our campus located at 60 West St, New York, NY 10006on September 7-10.

This schedule will enable those of you who have not yet received the vaccine to get one dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or two doses of the Pfizer vaccine three weeks apart—right outside our doors.

This is a walk-in vaccine clinic—no appointments are needed.

We encourage you to get the COVID 19 vaccine if you haven’t already done so. The pandemic is not over yet, and hospitalization and infection rates have begun to rise again in New York City. The safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccines have been demonstrated, and the vaccines have played a significant role in reducing serious illness.

Thank you for your efforts to keep our communities safe!

Joanne Passaro

President

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report

More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.

Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

TODAY IN HISTORY

September 9

1965 Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

1493 – Christopher Columbus, with 17 ships and 1,200 men, sails on second voyage from Cadiz.

1543 – Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned “Queen of Scots” in the central Scottish town of Stirling.

1739 – Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain’s mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina.

1839 – John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph.

1892 – Amalthea, third closest and fifth found moon of Jupiter is discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard.

1914 – World War I: The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army.

1940 – George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer.

1947 – First case of a computer bug being found: A moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University.

1956 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

1965 – Hurricane Betsy makes its second landfall near New Orleans, leaving 76 dead and $1.42 billion ($10–12 billion in 2005 dollars) in damages, becoming the first hurricane to cause over $1 billion in unadjusted damage.

1971 – The four-day Attica Prison riot begins, eventually resulting in 39 dead, most killed by state troopers retaking the prison.

1993 – Israeli–Palestinian peace process: The Palestine Liberation Organization officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state.

2001 – Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al-Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview.

1976 – Mao Zedong, Chinese philosopher, academic, and politician, 1st Chairman of the Communist Party of China (b. 1893)

Births

1737 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physician and physicist (d. 1798)

1828 – Leo Tolstoy, Russian author and playwright (d. 1910)

1887 – Alf Landon, American lieutenant, banker, and politician, 26th Governor of Kansas (d. 1987)

1890 – Colonel Sanders, American businessman, founded KFC (d. 1980)

1928 – Sol LeWitt, American painter and sculptor (d. 2007)

1941 – Otis Redding, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1967)

Deaths

1000 – Olaf I, king of Norway

1087 – William the Conqueror, English king (b. 1028)

1569 – Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Dutch painter (b. 1525)

1806 – William Paterson, Irish-American judge and politician, 2nd Governor of New Jersey (b. 1745)

1901 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter and illustrator (b. 1864)

1976 – Mao Zedong, Chinese philosopher, academic, and politician, 1st Chairman of the Communist Party of China (b. 1893)

2003 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-American physicist and academic (b. 1908)

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