Impressions from Ground Zero:
PART 2

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They call it "The Pile" this mass of twisted metal and human debris. I would call it Heartbreak Ridge. The hope, the dreams, the future of 5000 human beings lie buried in the rubble. The lives of tens of thousands of others lay shattered.

At the Prayer Service in the seats in front of me in this vast Yankee Stadium sits a young mother with two children - "her husband," she said was missing". (No New York fireman or policeman is yet willing to concede their comrades to death.) She was reading a card of condolence from a child far removed. In the child-like writing of an eight-year old comfort came pouring out like a torrent.

The two tykes were active, happy totally unaware of the tragedy that surrounded them. They didn't understand that daddy would not be coming home. It brought back memories vividly burnt into my memory to another date and another time when on a beautiful April morning our Oklahoma world forever changed. I still shudder as I think of the moment as they brought out children - I was there! At least New York was spared the parade of broken and maimed little bodies.

I talk with the firemen, the policemen staggering with exhaustion, yet determined to see this thing through to the end. The smell of burning rubber, of rotting flesh, the permeating dust, the noise and din of the great machines removing the remains takes it toll. But what really keeps them in Ground Zero is the fact that their friends are in there somewhere, someplace. They are family and so they keep on keeping on.

Sure we all know that New York will survive, that America will be an even greater nation - but what of the victims, the firemen, the policemen, the workers, the pastors - all those who have given so much in so short of time? What will their future be?

We are still dealing with people from the Oklahoma City bombing and it has been six years! I foresee a problem, a great one - when all the hype, all the activity, all the help, all the attention is gone - who will be there for them on Thanksgiving, on Christmas or six years from now?

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