JBelle: Ground Zero Is A Painful Place

JBelle: The dedication of the memorial in Somerset County Pennsylvania yesterday crystallized most of my thoughts and feelings. Presidents Bush and Clinton approached their remarks from completely different angles yet both speeches were brilliant, arguably the best of their careers, with President Clinton closing with “I hope to God that in 2500 years people remember Flight 93.” I was at the W Hotel at Ground Zero the night Osama Bin Laden was captured; in the last 10 years, I have never been in New York without going to Ground Zero for a few minutes, for a prayer and for renewing hopes. New Yorkers are tougher than you can possibly imagine and they have healed and gone on, in so far as that’s possible. They delight and stir my heart. But Ground Zero will always be a painful place for me and will never cease to trigger feelings of loss and loneliness. The thing today that bothers me is the youthful faces of the hijackers that flashed across the CNN feed late last night. Last weekend I rewatched ‘Troy’ and a line that Achilles tossed off in disdain sticks with me now: in war, young men die and old men talk.”

Question: Have you ever been to Ground Zero?