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Local News from NYCHere is Isabel Walcott's second report. The first is here. — DS I feel that I can't stop writing things down. Giuliani gave a press conference this morning taking the media to task for saying that people were rescued yesterday when, in fact, nobody was. He says ten thousand tons of debris in a thousand truckloads and no survivors found yet. He has aked the press to verify any reports before reporting. He said he has heard of a telemarketing group that is calling senior citizens and asking for donations. He said these people will be caught and put in jail. If anyone calls asking you for a donation, call the police. He is angered at websites that are giving inaccurate information. He reaches out to the families of the survivors and said the city is trying to get in touch with them, but that they should get in touch with the city so they can be helped, and he gave the number. A woman named Suhil Mahia wearing medical scrubs ran up to a police officer hysterically saying she had just heard from her police officer husband on a cell phone, who was trapped underground with nine other persons. She described the location and caused a huge disruption in the rescue effort as everyone raced to unearth them; it was later found to be a hoax and I beleive she is in custody. The police department is receiving hundreds of bomb threats to other buildings in the city, and each threat is taken seriously. The amount of support the terrorists are being given in this way by people who live in New York is surprising to me. Isolating the actors in this terrorist act will be harder than we think. Suspecting that ordinary citizens, who may have ethnic reasons to ally with the terrorists, are complicitous in some way is not outrageous. This is hard for someone who does not believe in ethnic profiling to understand, but it is not as outrageous as it seems. It's complicated. It's scary. It's my sense that a large community was asked to participate in the attack in whatever way they could. Giuliani's popularity had declined until this disaster occurred. He has found his true calling with handling this disaster. He speaks eloquently, with no repetition, no unnecessary information, and all the necessary information. His opinions are sound and he takes questions from the press, answering them reasonably until they don't have any more. Bill Clinton was on the street yesterday speaking out in support of the current administration, hugging families of victims and giving his personal support. An interview yesterday with Laura Bush was articulate, heartfelt and unrehearsed. New York is wondering what George Bush's problem is. Giuliani, Clinton, and Laura are all publicly proving their compassion and their leadership qualities. While people elsewhere have moved on to discussing what the reaction of the US should be, New York is still concerned with handling the disaster in a more immediate way. Please be understanding of your friends in New York if you have opinions on next steps, how and who to punish, etc. -- we are not there yet.
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