The Trip To Ground Zero

WTC cross from Ground Zero Rubble now at St. Peter's Church

Hoping this doesn't sound too self-indulgent, I'd like to first relate my trip to Ground Zero today and share some photos before posting on the RALLY AGAINST the Ground Zero Mosque (sometime tomorrow).  My intent is to encourage others to make the same pilgrimage to Ground Zero without feeling daunted by traveling to New York City.

I started from home (in the Harrisburg, PA area) at 4:30am in my fancy rental car (my own car has a slow leaking rear left tire I've put off fixing).  The rental is a racy, black Dodge Charger which turns heads and makes me feel like Bill Hickman (chasing and then being chased by Steve McQueen) but only cost me less than $25 per day.  I arrived at my commute point in Carteret, NJ known as the Shop Rite grocery store.  They could have towed me, so don't do this!  I did it to walk a half block to the bus stop to pick up the #116 NJ Transit bus  to take to the Port Authority Bus Terminal located a block or two from Times Square.  But I came realize I could have driven through the Lincoln Tunnel bearing left and then taking the exit ramp to the right to park the car at the same place the bus was heading (Port Authority Bus Terminal).  Lesson learned at little cost.  Lucky me.

Then things got easy, travel-wise.  From the Port Authority you go downstairs to the subway and take the 'E' train straight to Ground Zero (WTC).  It's the last stop, so you can't miss it.  And when you climb the stairs you are there.  I climbed the stairs and met with a thick crowd of people, and made a short walk to  Ground Zero in time to hear names being read.  Unless you somehow acquire a press-pass you won't get in where the families are, holding their framed pictures of loved-ones.  They deserve their intimacy together without the general public crowding them.  Two years ago I sat with the press and it was horribly sad to watch the relatives of the departed and to hear the names of the victims being read aloud.

While I was diverted elsewhere, I realized that I was missing a camera battery and the other was running low, and that Sony didn't make the batteries for my 5 year old camera anymore, I did a quick check in nearby camera stores.  No one had them, or the memory stick that is also obsolete... until I stopped by J&R Music World, Computer World, Camera World, etc... mega store with cafeteria on mez level (with electrical outlets available to customers).  They had the memory stick adaptor and elusive batteries.  Hence the plug from me.  Now I'm in business.  More photos taken here and there since the Rally wasn't until 2pm.

Stopped by St. Peter's Church, the home of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's conversion to the Catholic Church.  Met Father Dave, nice man, heard my confession, gave me absolution in the corner by the candles.  Beautiful church inside and out.  See photos.

Later when I searched for the Rally AGAINST the mosque, the police kept pointing me toward the pro-mosque rally, saying that it would end at 2pm and ours would start at the same location.  They all seemed to parrot the same story, so I hung around listening to a lot of hate speech from crazy, fringe lunatics, who seemed to believe that the rest of us are racist and don't believe in freedom.  When I asked them how Iran treats homosexuals, they preferred to change the subject.  It's so awful how these nut-jobs stain such a sad occasion with their antics.  But they seem to know of no other way to express their fear and loathing of the attacks on 9-11 than to turn on the establishment they counted on to protect them.

At 2:30 I asked a police woman when our rally would start and she said that our side got discouraged and left!  She must have remembered she was on Bloomberg's dole.  Then another policeman told me it was a few blocks west on Park St.  And there it was....(to be continued tomorrow...).

WWGD?

The hate-filled lunacy of the other side...

Not to mention the gross hypocrisy...

To view my jumbled pictures LARGER, 'click' on them.

St. Peter's Church interior

Mennonites sing every year at Ground Zero

NYPD riding crotch-rockets

Thinks 9-11 was an "inside job"

Praying Muslim...notice no one impedes him.  He is free to pray.

Freedom Tower under construction