the reason I didn't post anything yesterday is because I spent all day and evening at the red cross in brooklyn doing data entry. It gave me some immediate personal connection to one of the things frank talked about in his email the other day.
One of the really amazing things about this red cross structure is that many of the old-hand volunteers are retirees from all over the country. I was given an orientation by a retired married couple from a little town outside Kansas City, the sort of just-folks americans that I hardly know. They gave all of us (mostly motley new yorkers) a plain-spun lecture about tolerance and intercultural sensitivity (among other things) that just blew my mind. Something simple about the 66 different ethnic groups that have been directly affected by the WTC bombing, and that racial or cultural slurs "will not be tolerated."
For me it was a slight counterbalance to today's news reports about muslim- and arab-americans not being able to get on planes, about muslims murdered in california and texas.
I'm thinking of the legendary story about the people of Denmark during the Nazi occupation: when the edict was promulgated that jews must wear a yellow star, the king showed up wearing a yellow star, and it spread among the citizenry so that pretty soon everyone was wearing one, you couldn't tell who was or was not a jew.
I'm posting this photo for heather steliga and for ansel elgort for reasons each of them will understand. It was taken by my cousin, amy pawl, at the red house in michigan in july.
