I was on the brink of falling asleep last night, thinking that I could get up early this morning and suck up to my bosses, err, I mean, "get some work done", when I decided to flip on the TV for a few moments before hitting the sack. I started changing once I saw the ticker on CBS news and was headed to Times Square as soon as Obama finished his address. After experiencing some of the revelry there, it only seemed right to head to Ground Zero. There were modest crowds – probably 750 in Times Square, 1,200 at GZ – but there was pride, patriotism, and – most of all – relief. The groups broke out into spontaneous chants and songs of our country: Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, “U-S-A”, “nah-nah-nah-nah Goodbye” (my ironic favorite), God Bless America, and the Pledge of Allegiance. People hugged firefighters, shook hands with police, and military personnel climbed street poles to address the crowds with uproarious applause. I started to move back towards my hotel around 2:30am as the crowds began to descend into a little less revelry and a bit more jackassery (Keithism).
NYC wasn’t any different when I awoke this morning; construction was going on, a siren sounded, cabbies honked, and I’m probably going to get an unpleasant cavity search at JFK in a few hours. But with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 only a few months away, I do believe that the world is a better place now that the pale of one truly sinister a****** will not be part of it.
The first five shots from this gallery are from Times Square, the next few and videos are from Ground Zero. I also threw in a shot of my seats from the Yankee game on Saturday b/c, well, come on! Look at that! Against the bottom wall at Yankee Stadium watching Rivera get a save! I gotta brag a little bit…
https://picasaweb.google.com/burke75/OsamaBinOver?authkey=Gv1sRgCNzgqrX56-uFUw&feat=directlink
U-S-A
