An account from NYC
David Barnes
dbarnes at istar.ca
Fri Sep 14 12:30:28 PDT 2001
Michael, I read this . IT is very powerful.. He is just a little younger
than you.
Author: tim330i (---.ne.mediaone.net)
Date: Sep-14-2001 01:43:45 AM
This is from a good friend of Mark, Jordan and mine.
My name is Usman Farman and I graduated from Bentley with a Finance
degree last May. I am 21 years old,
turning 22 in October; I am Pakistani, and I am Muslim. Until September
10th 2001, I used to work at the
World Trade Center in building #7. I had friends and acquaintances who
worked in tower #1 right across
from me. Some made it out, and some are still unaccounted for. I
survived this horrible event.
Id like to share with you what I went through that awful day, with the
hopes that we can all stay strong
together; through this tragedy of yet untold proportions. As I found
out, regardless of who we are, and
where we come from, we only have each other.
I commute into the city every morning on the train from New Jersey.
Rather, I used to. I still cant
believe what is happening. That morning I woke up and crawled out of
bed. I was thinking about flaking out
on the train and catching the late one, I remember telling myself that
I just had to get to work on time.
I ended up catching the 7:48 train, which put me in Hoboken at 8:20 am.
When I got there I thought about
getting something to eat, I decided against it and took the PATH train
to the World Trade Center. I
arrived at the World Trade at 8:40 in the morning. I walked into the
lobby of building 7 at 8:45, thats
when the first plane hit.
Had I taken the late train, or gotten a bite to eat, I would have been
5 minutes late and walking over the
crosswalk. Had that happened, I would have been caught under a rain of
fire and debris, I wouldnt be here
talking to you. Id be dead.
I was in the lobby, and I heard the first explosion; it didnt
register. They were doing construction
outside and I thought some scaffolding had fallen. I took the elevators
up to my office on the 27th floor.
When I walked in, the whole place was empty. There were no alarms, no
sprinklers, nothing. Our offices
are, or rather, were on the south side of building seven. We were close
enough to the North and South
Towers, that I could literally throw a stone from my window and hit the
North tower with it.
My phone rang and I spoke with my mother and told her that I was
leaving, at that moment I saw an
explosion rip out of the second building. I called my friend in Boston,
waking her up and told her to tell
everyone Im okay, and that I was leaving. I looked down one last time
and saw the square and fountain
that I eat lunch in, was covered in smoldering debris. Apparently, I
was one of the last to leave my
building, when I was on the way up in the elevators; my co-workers from
the office were in the stairwells
coming down. When I evacuated, there was no panic. People were calm and
helping each other; a pregnant
woman was being carried down the stairwell.
Ill spare the more gruesome details of what I saw, those are things
that no one should ever have to see,
and beyond human decency to describe. Those are things which will haunt
me for the rest of my life, my
heart goes out to everyone who lost their lives that day, and those who
survived with the painful
reminders of what once was. Acquaintences of mine who made it out of
the towers, only got out because 1000
people formed a human chain to find their way out of the smoke.
Everyone was a hero that day.
We were evacuated to the north side of building 7. Still only 1 block
from the towers. The security people
told us to go north and not to look back. 5 city blocks later I stopped
and turned around to watch. With a
thousand people staring, we saw in shock as the first tower collapsed.
No one could believe it was
happening, it is still all too-surreal to imagine. The next thing I
remember is that a dark cloud of glass
and debris about 50 stories high came tumbling towards us. I turned
around and ran as fast as possible. I
didnt realize until yesterday that the reason Im still feeling so
sore was that I fell down trying to
get away. What happened next is why I came here to give this speech.
I was on my back, facing this massive cloud that was approaching, it
must have been 600 feet off,
everything was already dark. I normally wear a pendant around my neck,
inscribed with an Arabic prayer for
safety; similar to the cross. A hesidic Jewish man came up to me and
held the pendant in his hand, and
looked at it. He read the Arabic out loud for a second. What he said
next, I will never forget. With a
deep Brooklyn accent he said Brother, if you dont mind, there is a
cloud of glass coming at us, grab my
hand, lets get the hell out of here. He helped me stand up, and we ran
for what seemed like forever
without looking back. He was the last person I would ever have thought,
who would help me. If it werent
for him, I probably would have been engulfed in shattered glass and
debris.
I finally stopped about 20 blocks away, and looked in horror as tower
#2 came crashing down. Fear came
over me as I realized that some people were evacuated to the streets
below the towers. Like I said before,
no one could have thought those buildings could collapse. We turned
around and in shock and disbelief and
began the trek to midtown. It took me 3 hours to get to my sisters
office at 3 avenue and 47th street.
Some streets were completely deserted, completely quiet, no cars, no
nothing
just the distant wail of
sirens. I managed to call home and say I was okay, and get in touch
with co-workers and friends whom I
feared were lost.
We managed to get a ride to New Jersey. Looking back as I crossed the
George Washington Bridge, I could
not see the towers. It had really happened.
As the world continues to reel from this tragedy, people in the streets
are lashing out. Not far from my
home, a Pakistani woman was run over on purpose as she was crossing the
parking lot to put groceries in
her car. Her only fault? That she had her head covered and was wearing
the traditional clothing of my
homeland. I am afraid for my familys well being within our community.
My older sister is too scared to
take the subway into work now. My 8-year-old sisters school is under
lockdown and armed watch by police.
Violence only begets violence, and by lashing out at each other in fear
and hatred, we will become no
better than the faceless cowards who committed this atrocity. If it
werent for that man who helped me get
up, I would most likely be in the hospital right now, if not dead. Help
came from the least expected
place, and goes only to show, that we are all in this together
regardless of race, religion, or
ethnicity. Those are principles that this country was founded on.
Please take a moment to look at the people sitting around you. Friends
or strangers, in a time of crisis,
you would want the nearest person to help you if you needed it. My help
came from a man who I would never
have thought would normally even speak to me. Ask yourselves now how
you can help those people in New York
and Washington. You can donate blood, you can send clothing, food, and
money. Funds have been setup in the
New York area to help the families of fallen firefighters, policemen,
and emergency personnel. The one
thing that wont help, is if we fight amongst ourselves, because it is
then that we are doing exactly what
they want us to do, and I know that nobody here wants to do that.
My name is Usman Farman and I graduated from Bentley with a Finance
degree last May. I am 21 years old,
turning 22 in October; I am Pakistani, and I am Muslim, and I too have
been victimized by this awful
tragedy. The next time you feel angry about this, and perhaps want to
retaliate in your own way, please
remember these words:
Brother, if you dont mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us,
grab my hand, lets get the hell out
of here.
***LET'S JOIN TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY AND DONATE TO HELP THOSE IN NEED***
Post Has Been Edited By Author - Sep-14-2001 14:07:1
At 11:14 AM 9/14/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Read this immediately. It puts everything in perspective.
>
>An account from NYC:
>
>http://www.e46fanatics.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=45274&t=45274
>--
>Kenoli Oleari, Horizons of Change, http://www.horizonsofchange.com
>1801 Fairview Street, Berkeley, CA 94703 Voice Phone: 510-601-8217,
>Fax: 510-595-8369, Email: kenoli at igc.org (or click on:
>mailto://kenoli@igc.org)
>
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David Barnes & Associates
76 Victor Ave.
Toronto, Ontario M4K1A8
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