Re: OK?

**A*@aol.com**

John,

I'm OK & at home.  My son brought a couple of his out-of-borough friends home 
from school, all have made their phone calls - a few have already left via 
the subways, most of which are working now by late afternoon.

Earlier, the streets of Manhattan were filled with hundreds of thousands of 
office workers walking home.  The crowds were orderly and dignified: it 
reminded me of the transit strikes or the days when blizzards knock out the 
subways.  Somehow, for some reason, even the drag nasties were behaving. 
Folks here are calm and beginning to get pissed off - more than once, on the 
way to St. Vincent's Hospital, I heard, "Who the f*** do these people think 
they're f***ing with?" 

It is absolutely  surreal. Looking north, the sky is perfectly blue.  It is a 
beautiful day. The only planes I hear are fighter jets skimming the clouds. 

This gives you a sense of what the people of this city are like and what it's 
like giving blood during a terrorist attack.

Five folks set out with me from Bowne to St. Vincent's Hospital in the West 
Village. When we got there around noon, the lines of donors, literally 
thousands of folks, calmly waiting lined the blocks in queues behind 
makeshift signs with blood types on them. The wait was said to be 5 hours and 
that St. Clare's Hospital on West 52nd Street needed the blood and that there 
would be a bus "any minute now" heading there. 

Some of us decided to walk to St. Clare's. In lieu of someone else with a big 
mouth I played lance corporal and got a crew of 50-60 O+ & O -'s on the move 
and away from incoming ambulances.  When we got to the 14th & 9th avenue, we 
comandeered a bus ( the driver called his supervisor who okayed it )and we 
took the Number 11 bus directly to St. Clare's Hospital.  It was funny to 
find one of the Earth Celebrations people on the bus with us. Community 
gardeners are everywhere.

Evidently St. Vincent's had not been in communication with St. Clare's and 
despite the fact that I had called them on a mobile phone, were not able to 
accomodate blood donors.  We were directed to the Blood center on 67th Street 
and Columbus and the bus driver, a great sport took us.

It was sheer pandemonium at the Blood Center where the wait was also 5 hours. 
Some are still waiting, some signed up to do Red Cross work. others like 
myself will be giving blood this evening, because this effort will be going 
on around the clock.

I'll be cooking dinner this evening, the community board land use meeting 
having been cancelled ( we did a voice poll - the developer with the 
skyscraper application, for once didn't break our chops.)

My wife the nurse is on duty at her hospital, where they've taken in 
casualties.  Evidently, the death toll is supposed to be in the thousands.

To give Mayor Giuliani and his administration their due,  the coordination of 
the cops, firemen and crisis teams have been nothing short of superb. 

Stay well,

Adam Honigman  

_______________________________________________
community_garden maillist  -  community_garden@mallorn.com
https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden