Originally written on October 11, 2001
What the devil, you ask, do the White Cliffs of Dover have to do with anything? Stand by...
So, it's been one month since Everything Changed.
These days, Manhattan is a different city:
-- There are uniformed troops directing traffic downtown. Battery Park is, as it was at its creation two hundred years ago, a military garrison. It's closed to the public; it's now an Army fort.
-- What used to be the WTC is ghastly, still smoking in places, haunted...it's a movie set, not real.
-- I gave up my precious parking spot in midtown; I don't know when, if ever, I'll be able to use it again. Cars with single occupants are no longer permitted to enter the city between the hours of 6 a.m. and noon.
-- I have to pass through three police checkpoints in order to get into the city by bus, and two checkpoints to get home.
-- The Battery Tunnel is closed to passenger vehicles; the FDR has been re-designed with checkpoint lanes and highway signs now read "Emergency Vehicles Only South of Canal Street."
There are, of course, some good changes. People are much more kind, and much more inclined to give you a smile and ask how your day is going.
People notice each other. They take care of each other. Personally, I have to be very careful about where I go and what I do when I'm wearing a uniform. I've noticed that my money is no good in NYC while in uniform. I can't pay for meals, bus rides, even a bottle of water at a deli. I offer to pay. Sometimes I get kind of insistent about it. It's no good. Last weekend, I was on a CAP mission with four colleagues. We were in the Bronx (very, very far from Ground Zero) (Ground Hero?) and we were waiting in a parking lot for some information from the Air Force before we could continue. I knew we'd be out another couple of hours, so I squared my shoulders and walked into, of all places, a General Nutrition Center. They sold bottled water, so I grabbed five bottles and walked to the register.
Got waved off. I said, please let me pay. Got waved off again. I brandished my money threateningly. The guy said; "What you guys are doing is amazing." I started to explain, for the thousandth time in my CAP career, that I'm not in the Army or the Air Force. It never does any good, especially these days. I sighed, took the water, smiled and thanked the guy. As one friend pointed out, it makes people feel good to feel that they're helping someone who is helping -- make sense?
Back to the White Cliffs. When I am nervous, or extremely tired, or in need of comfort, I sing a song to myself. The song is "White Cliffs of Dover", and many of you on this list have been, er, subjected to my rendition of it after CAP missions that last way too long, or camping trips that don't include enough sleep. I had to fly to Boston on business last week, and while I was waiting in the terminal at LaGuardia, I was, of course, thinking very hard about how unenthusiastic I was about getting on that plane. So I started to sing my song. And I stopped after about six syllables.
It's not just some silly song from the 40's anymore, is it? The anthem that came to represent the courage of the people of Britain during World War II now hits home very hard indeed.
"I'll never forget the people I met
braving those angry skies
I remember well, as the shadows fell
the light, the hope in their eyes
and though I'm far away
I still can hear them say
Thumbs up! for when the dawn comes up
There'll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover tomorrow...when the world is free"
I received two packages of letters this week from schoolkids. One package was from 6th, 7th and 8th graders in Harrisburg, PA and the other package was from slightly older kids from Australia. I was expecting the one from Australia; I'm to pass those letters on to schoolkids here in NY. I can't tell you how touched I was when I realized that the other package contained letters addressed to me -- thanking me for taking part in the rescue efforts. The letters are amazing; they're sweet and sincere and full of phrases like "I'll bet you're scared. Don't be. All of us here are thinking about you, and praying for you."
How can I be scared anymore?
There'll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover Tomorrow, just you wait and see...
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