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To The Editor:
People downtown have gone through a lot these past
several months. Some of our kids have only recently gone back to their
public schools. Anxieties persist about air quality. Some folks are a
bit traumatized still.
Because of the great generosity and sympathy shown by the American people
toward the victims of the attack, there have been extraordinary levels
of contributions to the various relief funds. The families of the Trade
Center workers who were killed, and those of the selfless public servants
who rushed to the scene and died have been, rightfully, the beneficiaries
of most of this aid. Businesses devastated by the attack and its aftermath
have also been given a helping hand.
Now the American Red Cross has seen fit to give significant financial
assistance to just about every resident south of Canal Street.
Although some individuals and families may be in real need, many of our
friends and neighbors, at least in Tribeca, are pretty affluent by anybody’s
measure. Those of us not in real need of the American people’s largesse,
through the instrument of the American Red Cross, should seriously consider
giving some or all of the money we’ve just received back to worthy
organizations.
Our family is choosing to give to those organizations we think work to
build a better world so that the sort of terror we all experienced on
September 11 doesn’t have ground as fertile as it currently does
to grow. We give to such organizations as the U.S. Committee for UNICEF
and the Carter Center. There are hundreds of others.
We encourage you to give to some of these organizations and perhaps to
the Red Cross itself for some of its other important work in disaster
relief.
Bill Hewitt
RESPOND
TO BILL HEWITT'S LETTER
To the Editor:
Psychologically, the tragedy of 9/11 was compounded
enormously by the odd things that followed.
The policemen at the corner of Greenwich and Canal standing around 24
hours per day, for weeks after they were no longer checking cars, to simply
burn logs against the cold. The persistence of crazy numbers long after
their plausibility could be supported by any logic (15,000 orphans). The
carnival atmosphere at Ground Zero ("T-shirt five dollar!").
However, nothing rips me apart more than wealthy people accepting charity.
Our building, just below Canal on Washington, was evacuated for a couple
of hours on September 11. Besides the horrible fumes when the wind blew
north, our damage was zero. The Red Cross has been around offering cash
grants. The average value of a co-op in our building? Well over $1 million.
The average income? About that level, except for a couple of visionaries
who bought when the building was co-oped in 1979.
The New Yorker just had a piece in the "Talk of the Town" with
a Tribeca woman justifying taking the money because she had to walk home
from uptown on September 11 in designer shoes. I guess you can justify
anything in this world.
My wife was at a book club where a corporate lawyer bragged about the
money she was collecting. She was never displaced. Nothing. The family
income is probably $300K. Her kid goes to the same fancy New Hampshire
camp that ours does each summer. The cost is about twice the GNP of the
Congo.
Presumably, this money does not get thrown away if you don’t take
it. Doesn’t it get redirected to those truly in need? People accepting
charity they don’t need make the world seem even colder than it did
on September 12
.
Ted Bosworth
RESPOND
TO TED BOSWORTH'S LETTER
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