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This is my contribution in remembrance of 9/11. From 1993-1996, I was the executive assistant to the top brass at a major ad agency. And John Zimmerman was my boss. One of our clients was Bruno's, the grocery store chain.
Here is his touching story....


Subject: An Unbelievable Trip to Ground Zero

As many of you know, I spent the day yesterday, October 11, in New
York City delivering 8500+ letters of love, support, hope and prayers
to the men and women of the New York City Fire and Police Department
from the people of Alabama. I traveled with Mike Coppage, Chief of
Birmingham Police and Chief Brooks, Fire Chief for the City of
Birmingham and Raquel Mason from Bruno's, the supermarket that ran
a blank ad on September 16th asking the people of Alabama to express
their thoughts on a blank full page ad and send it to Bruno's for
delivery
to the New York Police and Firefighter rescue workers.

The two books we carried were beautifully bound and contained pictures,
poems, prayers and the most moving outpouring of love and support I
have

ever been exposed to. Several times, while reading through the notes,
I was moved to tears and great emotion I am at a loss to explain.

I wanted to take a moment to let all of you know what our day was like
yesterday.
We began by visiting the Fire Commissioner's Office in Brooklyn and
spent quite
a bit of time with two Battalion Chief's. They were visibly moved and
deeply touched
by the book we brought to them. One chief could hardly speak, he was
so
filled with
emotion. Everyone we met was wonderful and helpful and clearly the
letters of
support meant a lot. The senior Battalion Chief had just come from a
memorial
service for eight of his men, of the 341 he lost. How can I explain to
you
the honor I felt at delivering such an outpouring of love and support
from the
people of Alabama to so many men and women we will never meet? It was
a profound experience in my life, one I am grateful to have been a part
of.

Then we went to Mid Town Manhattan to one of the first two Police
Precinct's to
respond to the World Trade Center disaster. The Chief inspector of the
department
was again, grateful and moved and wonderful to be with. He asked us if
we had been
to ground zero and we said no, the fire department said it couldn't be
done. He just
shook his head and talked to one of his guys and then, while we were
standing in his
office after the presentation, his assistant came in and said "how many
are going?"
We said four, and he said fine. But we couldn't bring cameras or take
any pictures.
He was taking us to the real ground zero where the media is not allowed
to go.

We were driving down I think Houston Boulevard, a road I've been on
many
times to
go to the World Trade Center. Since 9/11 it has been closed off to all
traffic except
rescue and emergency vehicles. As we were driving towards the WTC
site,
in the
middle of the boulevard I saw something that was so moving that I
couldn't speak.
There were people lining the boulevard who were holding up hand made
signs
that said "thank you" and "god bless you" and "you are our heroes" and
they were
waving American flags wildly and cheering and waving as we drove past.
Our driver told us that people have been there on the boulevard every
day,
24 hours a day since 9/11. It began with hundreds of people and
children
lining the entire 3 1/2 mile distance. We saw somewhere between 40 and
50 young
women, old men, kids and adults. And, for a moment, I was so proud to
just be
an American, I wanted to get out and hug those incredible spirits who,
even after
30 days still come out to make sure our fire and police crews and
volunteers know
how much they are appreciated and loved. My God, it was awesome. Have
we
ever seen the best of America beyond this? I think not. I wish each
of
you could
have been with me, I can hardly breathe as I write this to you. This
is
our
country, these are simple citizens like you and me who have a need and
feel an
obligation to be there to cheer on and thank those who are suffering so
badly at
ground zero. And they are suffering, my friends.

At the end of our drive we got to Ground Zero. What can I tell you?
How can
I describe better what no reporter has ever described accurately yet?
First of all,
the smell is overpowering. I can feel it lingering on my clothing even
now. It is
a very odd and pungent combination of burnt building, human decay and a
gritty
debris which frankly defies accurate description, but it is an odor I
will never forget.

Second of all, the SCALE of the destruction goes beyond our ability to
understand.
Even after 30 days there is still four to five stories of rubble and
dust and twisted
metal where the two mighty towers of the World Trade Center once
stood. I have
been to Windows on the World at the top of the South Tower at least a
dozen times,
and to stand there, at the foot of the rubble that was once such a
mighty symbol of
American enterprise, twin gleaming spires of concrete and steel and
glass reaching
110 stories into the sky, this experience was to say the least,
humbling.

It was devastation beyond your capacity to imagine. Not only are the
twin towers
reduced to an incomprehensibly large pile of rubble, but all the
buildings that surround
the towers are grievously damaged. Building Five, the last to
collapse,
is still well
over five towers of pumice like dust and metal. There are at least
five
other
very large buildings which they told us had to be demolished.
Incredibly, once the
World Trade Center rubble has been removed to street level, there are
still EIGHT
floors below the street filled with compacted floor upon floor.

We went by the temporary morgue where they try to identify the bodies
and parts.
We soaked in the grim determination of the incredible men and women who
suffer
what can only be described as the most horrific experiences from moment
to moment
as they search through the heaps of pulverized building, desks,
computers and people.
I will not write here some of the stories we were told, because
frankly,
I don't think
you'd want to know.

And then, when it seemed like our devastation was complete as we stood
in silent
shock, our escort described the protocol that immediately kicks in the
moment a body is found. Immediately, all work stops. Period. All of
the police,
firefighters, rescue workers and volunteers form a cordon, shoulder to
shoulder.
The body is covered in an american flag, then carried with incredible
dignity between
the two rows of these incredible rescue workers to the temporary
morgue. No one
moves while the initial attempt is made to identify the body. When the
body comes
out of the temporary morgue, everyone salutes in silence until the body
is removed
by one of the many emergency vehicles on the site.

Tell me you don't believe in the honor and pride and love we all feel
for those
poor fellow men and women who were killed without a choice.
Tell me again that you're european american, or african American or
latin
american and explain to me the tears we all have shed regardless of
race
or creed.
Tell me this is not the most incredible nation, filled with the most
compassionate
hearts.
Tell me after yesterday, driving down a road filled with ordinary
people
who
cheered and celebrated and thanked the emergency crews who have given
so
much
that this is not the greatest country on earth.

George W. Bush is right. We are not Christian, Jew or Muslim. We are
human
beings, we are Americans and we are together.

If you have children, hug them. Let them know that there is good and
evil in this
world but we live in a land of the good.

If you pray, pray for those men and women who work at ground zero. You
cannot
imagine what they endure every day, and yet come back again and again
and again.

I love you all and am grateful to be alive and to have experienced what
I did
yesterday.

This is a great country.

John Z