On the way back home from Annapolis two weeks ago, I got off the Jersey Turnpike in Newark to step out of my car and look at the Manhattan skyline for the first time since September 11. I was struck by how tall the Empire State Building looked now without the towers to balance it out on the south end of the island, and with Chrysler behind it from that angle. There was still smoke in the air, although it was more of a blurry hazy cloud than a single plume from the pile. Disturbing, even from that far away. I have no desire to visit ground zero . . . I’d feel like a ghoul, and can’t imagine getting any closure from such a visit, since I didn’t lose anyone in the pile. I think it would just open up sores that I don’t need to have exposed. Seeing it from Jersey was enough.
