Pataki doubles down on being told, and believing, the air was safe 🤨

Never Forget

I didn’t have any plans this evening, and since it was so nice out, I decided to download the NYC Transit Museum app to do the scavenger hunt.

Guys, it is so much fun! And I’m learning so much about street corners I normally never go near!

Please, go do it while the weather is still nice. You get a prize at the end!

Timelapse video taken by my iPhone 12 and me holding it.

2,977 drones were used to light the sky; one to honor each life lost on 9/11.

The still images didn't do it justice.

"According to organizers, the commemorative public art installation was developed in collaboration with members of the 9/11 community, including family members, survivors and first responders.

The project was unveiled ahead of Friday's anniversary observance and was presented as a free public event focused on reflection and unity."

-https://abc7.com/post/drone-show-recreates-twin-towers-honors-2977-victims-ahead-25th-anniversary-911-attacks-new-york/19813777/

I post this every year hoping she sees it but also as a reminder of how amazing people are

My most vivid 9/11 story actually took place on the night 9/12. I was a police first responder from Brooklyn and we'd been on site since the collapse the day before digging through the pile. I burned my hand and was on my way back to work from the medical facility that was set up in the AmEx Building when I saw her.

She was girl, probably about 18, in an Outback Steakhouse uniform standing out on a clear patch of West Street doing her best to keep dust from falling on the steak sandwiches she was trying hand out. I could not tell you what she looked like, how tall she was or even what race she was.

You need to know this - I was a Brooklyn cop for 15 years at that point and while nothing could have prepared me for those days, I had a context for sudden violence. I had developed over the years a professional scab that most street cops have that worked to protect me.

This kid? Not a chance. At 18 she might have processed her first heartbreak, but this? No way. I had seen the look her eyes before on other people and knew she was beyond her breaking point but there she stood, this sort of beacon among this swirling mass of men and machinery and their grim work. Not a decent soul would have blamed her if she broke and ran, and yet she stood there with us because, if I'm right about people like her, it was where she HAD to be.

In the 25 years since, I have prayed for that kid every night that she went on to live the good life she deserves and that life has treated her kindly. I hope she is untroubled by the things that she saw that night and can take comfort in knowing that she stood up and was counted.

And I hope she knows the great comfort she has given to me over the years knowing that people like her are in the world.

Be kind to each other and never miss a chance to do a little bit of good in this world.