I was @ ground zero for days 3,4,5, & 6 after 9-11.

I seen a lot, prayed a lot, helped a lot.

The most moving piece of that experience was meeting 2 VERY old women (upper 80's?) who had drove all the way to Manhattan's ground zero from Maine.

When I spoke to them they told me

They said they didn't know what else to do, so they made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drove down to pass them out to people. I ate that P B & J with tears rolling down my dirty face.

'Merica.

The staging area 4 ground zero was the Jacob Javits Center. By the 3rd day FEMA had still not made its presence known, NYC was handling everything. What a sight, NYC blocks filled with everything you could imagine. Dog food, generators, water, the generosity of ppl is staggering.

You could smell the jet fuel, and it was way..WAY bigger than it looked on tv. The streets were lined with people waiting for the heroes to come out after 12 hour shifts to thunderous applause.
Everywhere you looked was printed pictures of lost people, with a contact number.

It was the single biggest outpouring of humanity I'd ever seen. I think about the things I seen, felt, did, heard and said for those 4 days when I get down on humanity. I remind myself that inside people are good, really good, and there is reason for hope.