As PaddleWise's resident New Yorker (or the most noisy :-) ) I have been receiving a lot of well wishes and very encouraging email from individuals on this list in the wake of the attacks on this great city. This support has been most heartening and very meaningful. And I want to express my sincerest thanks. I was watching television this week probably the most intently since my son was in Desert Shield a decade ago. I was struck by the outpouring of prayer and support from all over the US for NYC. Indeed, from all over the world for the US; Canadians and Brits singing the Star Spangled Banner, unprecedented bonding with us. The 15,000 people gathered in a square in Seattle. The many groups of people in town and hamlets throughout the US. We appreciate this here in Manhattan every time one of those scenes flashes across our television screens. New Yorkers have a reputation for being rude and heartless. I hope that your exposure to me over the years on PaddleWise has made you perhaps doubt this for a moment. I am not like that, as you have found out, nor are any of us...we certainly relish the reputation of being ornery and gruff...but it is all an act, a bit of harmless swagger, we all are unrepentant hams :-). You could see who we really are in the way we New Yorkers rallied to each others aid while buildings were falling down around us...the examples mentioned by President Bush at the National Cathedral's moving ceremony today. I wish you could have had as paddling companions those firemen who paddled with me back two years ago. Real New Yorkers everyone of them. You would have loved those guys as did I. Fun loving with respect and a sense of responsibility; you would not find warmer human beings than them, real New Yorkers. My city of birth has been hurt, no doubt of that. But we are made of better stuff as are human beings throughout this country, and indeed, in every country I have ever visited; and I have been to some 30 in my lifetime. While New York may look like Pompeii did two millenia ago, it is not. We will rise above the ashes. And we will be paddling again in these waters as soon as the Coast Guard lets us. :-). Maybe sooner . . . we are, afterall, ornery. :-)))) Thanks, obrigado, merci, gracias, vielan danke ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Sep 14 2001 - 20:02:02 PDT
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