Following the Footsteps

This past Sunday I participated in the 10^th annual Tunnel to Towers Run held in New York to commemorate the heroic service of Firefighter Stephen Siller on September 11, 2001, as well as everyone else who gave their lives that day. The run traces the route Siller took from Brooklyn to the World Trade Center.

A water taxi from Wall Street took us to the Ikea parking lot in Red Hook, Brooklyn and a staging area for the race. It’s several blocks away from the starting line, and we spent at least an hour or more standing on a crowded street waiting for the race to start.

Once it gets under way, there are a lot of ceremonial things happening before the race starts, with plenty of breaks in between to allow for television coverage and its commercials.

It’s a warm and crowded race, and you can’t help but elbow and be elbowed in the course of it. But it is the friendliest big city crowd you will ever be in. There’s a great feeling of camaraderie and patriotism. Chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” broke out along the route, and the run is a tribute to the resilience of New York and America itself, but there were plenty of non-Americans there, including firefighters from Germany and the U.K. running in their full gear.

The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel gets pretty hot when thirty thousand people are running through it, but once you’re through the tunnel, it’s very pleasant. And when the Finish Line is in view, it motivates you to sprint to it.

On the Brooklyn side before you go into the tunnel, firefighters lined along the route shout encouragement from their trucks. On the Manhattan side, firefighters in dress uniforms line the route, holding banners representing each of the 343 firefighters lost in the September 11^th attacks. Another long line of firefighters hold 343 American flags. It’s a moving sight.

I did not personally know anyone who perished in the September 11 attacks. But I do know the punk rock band The Bullys and love their music. One of their founding members was Firefighter John Heffernan, a member of Ladder Company 11 and died in the South Tower of the Trade Center. I wore my Bully t-shirt as a tribute and when I came upon the Firefighter holding his memorial banner on the Manhattan side of the Tunnel, I high-fived him. Before the race, I was heartened to see a young woman with a Dead Kennedys tattoo getting ready to run. I hope to be back next year with a small army of Bullys fans, maybe some will have big Mohawks.

There are marching bands, cheerleaders from around the country, rock bands, tourists, yachtsman at the Battery Park Marina tooting their boats’ horns for you, and throngs of well wishers along the route applauding your efforts. It’s a great cross-section of New Yorkers, Americans, and people from all over the world.

The run encompasses all that is great about New York and drives home the point that no matter what horrors strike our city, New York will bounce back and we can’t be shaken.

I finished the run in 43 minutes and 52 seconds and came in 8,877^th place. Volunteers were handing out water and bananas after the finish line. I took some water and ate a banana; it was the most delicious banana I have ever eaten.

See you there next year.

A Better Way to Remember September 11

This was the first year I skipped going to Ground Zero on September 11 since I’ve had the chance to go. I was working out of town on Sept. 11 in 2001 and 2002, and that solidified my desire to go to the commemoration, which is usually easy to do since I have worked close to the site of the attacks since late 2002.

When I first began attending the moments of silence and reading of the names at Ground Zero, there were lots of regular citizens with no personal connection to anyone lost in the attacks who came to pay their respects.

Things took a turn in 2006 at the five-year anniversary of the attacks. Multitudes of conspiracy theorists showed up in obnoxious matching black t-shirts and banners; the somber memorial became more of a circus after that, and the authorities began allowing less room for the general public each year, and now the general public is thoroughly discouraged from attending the ceremonies. Victims’ families are allowed into a restricted area for the ceremony, but there is little space near the site for the general public.

Last year was pretty discouraging. There seemed to be few people there to pay their respects and lots of people there for other reasons. Mennonites handed out literature and had their choir singing while the names of victims were still being read. Tourists dumbly snapped photos. People handed out fliers opposing the Islamic center planned to open nearby or else prepared to rally for or against it.

This year I didn’t feel bad about skipping because it promised to be even more of a circus thanks to it being the 10^th anniversary and the attendance of President Obama and George W. Bush. The police locked down the city pretty tightly and let it be known that travel would be misery. I had no desire to give credence to any politicians in town to capitalize on the event or be a lost soul amid the circus that has become the commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But I will not let this anniversary pass unobserved. The September 11^th anniversary requires our attention, especially for New Yorkers. Hundreds of people sacrificed their lives that day in service to our city and country; hundreds more were victims of a horrific death.

Do not let the fact that the attacks have been exploited and abused discourage you from attending a memorial event. That our political leaders have done wrong by the September 11 attacks doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility to pay our respects to true heroes who gave their lives to save others.

You can visit the Ground Zero memorial, which is newly opened and in the footprints of the twin towers. Everything I’ve heard about it is good.

And if you haven’t heard of it before, I invite you to join me in the Tunnel to Towers Run. The Tunnel to Towers Run honors the memory of Firefighter Stephen Siller, who ran from Brooklyn through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the World Trade Center on September 11^th. He ran more than three miles with more than 60 pounds of equipment on his back.

Every year near the anniversary of the attacks, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation holds a running race that traces the footsteps of its namesake hero. Many firefighters run in their full rescue gear, as Siller did. The foundation focuses on helping children who have lost parents. They hold other events during the year and running races in other places besides New York but the New York run is the cornerstone commemoration.

The Tunnel to Towers Run is a way to honor the heroes of September 11^th, 2001 in a way that is positive and free of political exploitation. It raises money for a worthwhile charity and it’s a way for ordinary New Yorkers to pay their respects to those we’ve lost.

This year the run is being held in New York this Sunday, September 25. You can register at the last minute. See you there.

40%

A few years ago, I went to Battery Park in lower Manhattan to attend a ceremony unveiling a flag that honored those who died in the September 11 attacks but whose remains were never recovered. There were no more than a few dozen people there, if that. It was fittingly held at the Korean War Memorial.

The organizer was a Marine Corps veteran who had been active in many veterans issues and other patriotic, flag-waving efforts. It was all good and fine, though it bothered me that no television news organizations, not even New York 1, bothered to show up.

But the part of the ceremony that hit me like a sock full of concrete was when the mother of a firefighter killed in the attacks spoke. She mentioned that 40% of those families who lost a loved one in the September 11 attacks had no remains to bury. No evidence of almost half of those lost that day exists.

Bone fragments from victims of the attacks were still being found years later in some of the buildings near the site. In the initial cleanup, debris from Ground Zero was taken to the Fresh Kills land fill on Staten Island and sorted for human remains. People are still working to identify small bone fragments found at the sites of the attacks.

“Our loves ones' remains were taken to a garbage dump,” said the grieving mother, her voice strained with simmering anger.

How we treat the bodies of our dead is important. It reflects the love and respect we had for them in life, and signifies the pledge we make to keep their memory alive. For nearly half of those who lost someone in the attacks, there is no gravesite to visit, no picturesque site where ashes were spread, nothing for them to point to say that this loved of theirs lived and is still with us in some tangible form today.

Survivors of the attacks have been given short shrift also. People who worked there and have since been stricken with cancer are still not covered under legislation specifically enacted to help them.

Tomorrow, as political officials flock to the site of the attacks and heap encomiums on the first responders— some of whom haven’t been invited to attend—please remember that as a city and a nation we have not done right by either the living or the dead.

Staten Island Yankees: Baseball Done Right

Discouraged from travel outside the five boroughs by various obligations and the fact that much of upstate New York and New England is still damaged by tropical storm Irene, my woman and I decided to remain in the city for the Labor Day weekend.

Friday we spent on Coney Island, where I accomplished all my goals, which included riding the Cyclone, eating at the original Nathan’s, and seeing the Coney Island Sideshow.

Last night was for baseball and a trip to Staten Island to see the Staten Island Yankees play.

The Staten Island Yankees, a minor league team for the New York Yankees, play right next door to the Staten Island Ferry, which is free. It is an easy walk from your poor-man’s cruise of New York Harbor.

The stands were filled with the kinds of working people who used to frequent the major league ballparks until attending them with regularity became prohibitively expensive. The family next to us was part of the special all-you-can-eat deal and arrived at their sets with a cardboard box filled with cans of soda, burgers and hot dogs and bags of potato chips. The concessions were overpriced but not to the extent they are at major league ballparks and it’s damn affordable.

Richmond County Bank Ballpark is not a fancy place, but it fulfills its basic function as a ball park and allows for attendees to see the entire game, which is more than anyone can say for the monstrosity now calling itself Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. There’s not a bad seat in the park. You also get a view of New York Harbor and the lower Manhattan skyline. There was even a fireworks show after the game.

Sadly, the SI Yankees did not do as well on the field that night. They lost to the Brooklyn Cyclones by a score of four to 11.

But get yourself to Staten Island for a good time and a taste of what going to a baseball game is supposed to be like.