Audi List/World Trade Center

[Steve R]

To all'

Please keep the politics off this site.

----- Original Message -----
From: <cjcasati at hotmail.com>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 9:38 AM
Subject: Audi List/World Trade Center


> re: someone on the Audi list in Finland:
>
> I read your comment, thank you so much for your sentiments.
>
> I spent time in Finland on a Rotary scholarship (Paul Harris fellowship in
> central Finland to study government there) and know how closely-knit and
> strong the people of Finland are, and here in the States, friends are
> calling friends; New Yorkers are reaching out to each other to help;
people
> are lining up in small and large cities everywhere to donate blood.
> Everyone is calling each other in D.C., New York, and Pittsburg, making
sure
> people are safe, my friend Marc saw everything live across the river in
> Brooklyn, where the view is (was) OF the World Trade Center.  At the first
> explosion people ran into the streets, then, discussing it on the streets,
> they saw the second plane bury itself into the second tower.  The
> reverberations increase as my financial friends in London, Paris and
Hamburg
> express their shock. These were their colleagues, many who started their
> careers in the financial district in New York before being promoted to
> London and elsewhere.
>
> Here, where at 6 p.m. our Richmond, Virginia street is normally filled
with
> joggers, mothers strolling babies, women walking in groups with their
> dogs... it is quiet, people are in their homes with their family and
friends
> and the feeling is of utter loss, (my nephew who is 5 years old in
> kindergarten saw tv in the classroom today which totally infuriated his
> mother- that should be for the parents to explain and discuss) but also...
> vengeance.  The majority of people in the United States have been inwardly
> focused for too long and expect to see a major change in national
> consciousness and foreign policy.
>
> One thing I fear is that there will be a repeat of anti-Arab in general
> sentiments.  People need to remind themselves that there is still no
finger
> to whom we can point, no face to address.  And many nations in the Middle
> East on whom we need to call on for support.  There are so many
intelligent,
> kind people all over that geographical area.  Please remind yourselves
that
> just like hate, kindness and love is universal.  Do not let yourself
weaken
> easily into a stereotype.
>
> Without going into any politics I just hope that... well nevermind I will
go
> into politics.
>
> As a Virginian who studied & worked in international affairs in New York,
> Eastern Europe and Latin America, the whole Israelei/Palestinian/U.S.
issue
> has bothered me increasingly in the past years.  My personal feelings, and
> ones few politicians express because of the leverage they would lose, is
> that Israel has for too long encroached on their neighbors under the wing
of
> the United States.  If anyone tried to pull what Israel has done to their
> neighbors on a southerner, taking farms, a community, a hillside... oh,
> wait, we already lived that. And are still talking about it a hundred
years
> later.
>
> This has nothing to do with our friends, many, that have families in
Israel,
> but of the aggressive policies their government has taken in bold
> irreverence to those that were there before them.
>
> And:
> Our friend Daniel, who fled the Iranian revolution to Paris in his teens,
> later New York (where we met & became friends & are "family" to each
other;
> we're the only "family" he has here) has two weeks ago returned to Iran
for
> the first time to visit his family.  He was worried, but excited.  He left
> Iran this morning, early, to fly home, 3 a.m. our time.
>
> We do know he made it to Frankfurt, thank god; if he is still stranded
there
> we can send him to Christoph's family in Hamburg. At least he is out of
the
> middle east- by a hair!!!! We think his plane may have been diverted to
> Newfoundland, because it would have been in the air by 9 this morning, but
I
> have the 11th written down and Christoph has the 12th. And no word from
> Daniel. But we just learned 5,000 people have also been diverted there,
and
> they probably have 3 pay phones & a swarm of mosquitoes to greet them.
>
> Well that's not true- and I'm confident: kind people like all of us
waiting
> to take them in.
>
> COPELAND CASATI
>
> wife of Christoph Casati, driver of our 1988 90s, a great girl and wife in
a
> troubled world
>