DAY EIGHTY-THREE:Dec. 2:
The bodies of at least 25 people were strewn across Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza this morning, in the wake of three suicide bombings and some subsequent retribution killings.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in Washington for meetings with Pres. George Bush when the first suicide bombing occurred in Jerusalem. He flew back to Israel while Bush was left to condemn terrorism, linking the activities in Jerusalem to those here in New York on September 11th. This morning’s pundit programs found Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfield demanding that Yasser Arafat either bring Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups “under control”, or step aside and let “us” deal with them. President Bush went a step further, saying that the onus is on the Palestinians “to stop terrorism”.
The pundits blathered about 72-year-old Arafat’s “ineffectual” leadership, his failure to rein in the “religious fanatics” and speculation that “it may be time for him to step down in favor of a more credible leader of the Palestinians.” It’s not clear who, exactly, is supposed to determine what constitutes a “credible leader” for the Palestinians – the Palestinians, themselves, perhaps?
Meanwhile it is becoming increasingly obvious that the lines of terrorism are getting distressingly blurred in Washington’s eyes. It’s one thing to go after Osama bin Laden, and quite another to step into the middle of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, labeling on side of the dispute as terrorists. Given President Bush’s declaration that the entire world is either “for or against” the war on terrorism, labeling any government leader as soft on terrorism is dangerous.
Washington had other problems to occupy it, like anthrax. After thoroughly scrubbing every millimeter of the Senate’s Hart office building, this weekend the EPA gassed the place with chlorine dioxide. And then they re-scrubbed it, hoping to remove any remaining toxic gas. Sen. Tom Daschle, who was the target of one of the anthrax-laced letters, was noncommittal when asked this morning whether he was ready to reoccupy the building. U.S. Capitol Police spokesman Dan Nichols also said it still was not clear when the Hart building would reopen. The building has been closed since a few days after a letter contaminated by anthrax spores was opened in Daschle’s office Oct. 15.
In Connecticut the mysterious anthrax death of 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren on November 21st has become less opaque. Anthrax spores were found this weekend at the Southern Connecticut Processing & Distribution Center, which sorts mail that ends up in Lundgren’s neighborhood. Combined with discovery of spores in a home three blocks from Lundgrens’, this seems clear evidence that the contamination of the US Postal system was more extensive, and more dangerous, than previously thought.
Authorities keep saying the quantity of spores was “a trace amount”, as if that should be comforting. But the “trace” killed a woman, meaning all assumptions about what constitutes a safe level of anthrax exposure ought to be reconsidered. What numbers of spores are too many spores?
The funny thing about numbers is that the very same figure can be interpreted as both good and bad news. For example, estimates of how many people died on September 11 in the World Trade Center have been revised downward again, now sitting at around 3,300. That ought to ring as very good news, given that Day Once estimates were as high as 40,000. Having those horrific numbers come down should hearten everyone in America, right? But today the New York Times reports that the lowered numbers are saddening, even angering, many New Yorkers because they fear the Nation will turn its back on the city in light of a less-awful catastrophe.
Part of that fear is tied up with what seems to be happening with the money raised for the families of September 11 dead. An obvious class system is appearing, as the uniformed officers’ families, particularly those of the firefighters and police, stand to become millionaires, have fully paid college tuition for all their children, substantial pensions and even free mortgages on their homes. In contrast, the other 3000 families have yet to receive a dime, and there are signs that they may realize less than 10 percent per family of what the firefighter 's families garner. It’s becoming a nasty situation.
Yesterday coming home from a long bike ride I passed more than a dozen hook-and-ladders, plus ten ambulances, racing towards Ground Zero. I called the office, but nobody heard anything on the police scanner to cause concern. It turns out a ventilation unit in an office building a few blocks from Ground Zero exploded, injuring some fifty people, including 38 firefighters. Before September 11 those numbers would have led the news, figured prominently in today’s newspapers and caused angst citywide. Today the story was buried. Fifty isn’t a big number when you’re coping with 3,300; and 3,300 isn’t a big number when you thought it was going to be 10,000 or 20,000.
Finally, there are numbers of degrees. And those are still bizarrely high in Gotham. Temperatures this week will break records, they say, hitting the upper 60s, perhaps seventies – in December. This is simply too, too weird.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
