DAY SIXTEEN:Sept. 26:
For observant jews today -- from dusk tonight to dusk tommorrow -- is the most holy of all days of the year: Yom Kippur, a day of atonement. I am not a jew, but I can feel the energy of this day in New York -- a place with the largest urban jewish population in the world. There is a mood of reflection, and, of course, many offices are low on personnel because people are taking the day off to meditate or attend services.
Atonement: I can't imagine what the hell New York's jews have to atone for. Not in this debacle, certainly.
We are now in the beginning of Week Three of the New World Order Part Two, and searching for gas masks seems to be all the vogue in Gotham since Attorney General Ashcroft announced terrorists might be plotting a chemical or biological attack. Half the phone calls I've received over the last 24 hours have been from New Yorkers who wanted to know how they could protect themselves, and their children: Should they stockpile antibiotics? Get a gasmask? Get body protection suits? Drink only bottled water?
All manner of nuts and creeps have come out of the gutters of academe and shysterville to exploit this new wave of fear. Previously unknown "experts" are yammering on local radio and TV, telling New Yorkers to buy special filters for their air conditioners, keep their windows shut and seal them tight with silicone caulking. One fellow ("he's a junior college professor of biology!") claims people should pour a little chlorine bleach in their drinking water. That should do wonders for the ozone layer, not to mention the liver. The most cynical exploitation may be found at www.freegasmasks.com, where $95.00 gets you a "free" mask plus a lifetime enrollment in a bogus global terrorism alert system.
There seems to be a run on cirprofloxicin here in NYC, and anecdotally I'm hearing the same thing from physicians all over the country. Bioterrorism experts are flooded with calls, mostly from people who couldn't conceivably have any rational basis for fear. The hospitals and research labs in this town are increasing security, lest some nasty fellow walk off with their test tubes full of microbes. With so many new Yorkers suffering psychosomatic illnesses secondary to depression right now it's remarkable our ERs aren't flooded with suspected "terrorism victims".
With everybody so jittery the post-WTC changes in this city that were labelled merely "inconvenient" are becoming nearly intolerable. The Transit Authority issued new subway maps, and rerouted most of the system. As a result, trips that three weeks ago took me 20 minutes on sparsely occupied cars now last an hour and a half on jam-packed trains. The alternative -- a taxi -- is worse if your destination in any place besides the interior of Manhattan. Some bridges and tunnels are still shut down, and most others have limited access to keep lanes free for emergency vehicles. Outcome: a cab ride last night at 11 pm from lower Manhattan to Brooklyn Heights took 90 minutes, instead of a "normal" 15-20 minutes.
So people are testy. Rush hour subway rides are about a lot of pushing and shoving, as well as anxiety. Before the Calamity a shove from a stranger was cause for consternation, perhaps cussing. Now it is those things, but also a twinge of fear: who was that? Why did he bump me? What's in that bag of his? Who -- really -- is he?
Sadly, Newsday's predictions for our elections proved accurate, and we must go through yet another primary before we will know who the Democrat candidate for Mayor will be, as well as for most of the other offices that are up for grabs. One race -- for public advocate --- turned out so sloppily that four candidates will be in a runoff. On the Republican side, Bloomberg did, indeed, sweep, taking some 60% of the vote. Rudy Giuliani got 13% of the GOP vote on write-ins.
Giuliani may further muck up the works, as the Conservative Party, a tiny, usually irrelevant group, has offered to have its candidate step aside and let Rudy run on their slate for reelection, if he chooses. As he is not legally allowed to serve a third term, this would be a cynical ploy on his part, but would probably destroy Bloomberg's run. Giuliani would probably win, however, and that would throw the mess into the lap of Govenor Pataki, who would have to decide whether to ask the State Legislature to allow Giuliani to serve, thus striking down the term limits law.
If that's not all bad enough, the race between Democrats Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer may take an ugly turn. Ferrer is talking about "the two cities" of New York: rich v poor; white v all others. Green sputters and fumes but is not managing to counter Ferrer's appeals to the Latino and African American voters.
And so New York, reeling from calamity and looking towards a recession, will spit and bicker its way into the fall.
Be well. Be safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
PS For an absolutely amazing font of information, check out this web site: http://www.mediamap.com/Sept11.asp
