Commemorating 9/11 right here in the Big Apple
NEW YORK CITY – Today is the 17th anniversary of the infamous 9/11 terrorist attack that killed 2,977 people, 18 of them Filipinos. We just flew in today from Seattle and we painfully recall that when it happened on September 11, 2001, my family and I were in Honolulu, frolicking along the beach north of Waikiki with my parents and siblings who were permanently residing Pearl City, Oahu. That was the city historically remembered for the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, leading to the declaration of war by the US against Japan. Many Filipinos also died in that attack. Today, we recall 9/11 with unhealed anguish and disillusionment.
Anyway, we are here to enjoy New York, not linger on painful memories. New York, the Big Apple State, the city that never sleeps, the megacity that inspired Frank Sinatra’s famous ballad “New York, New York,” is not to be confused with the State of New York, just as Washington DC is not to be confused with Washington State. New York State, particularly Saranac Lake, is where our second president Manuel L. Quezon died in 1944, leading Vice President Sergio Osmeña Sr. of Cebu to become president. New York State is represented by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, perhaps the first female US president they almost had, if not for Trump.
New York produced no less than seven presidents of the USA; Martin van Buren, Millard Filmore, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Trump. It also produced 11 first ladies: Melanie Trump, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rose Cleveland, Mary Arthur, Abigail Filmore, Julie Gardner Tyler, Priscilla Tyler, and Elizabeth Monroe. We mention this because our family loves history. We are here to see museums and historic sites like the Arlington National Cemetery and the White House.
New York is America’s most populous city, and is a megacity in league with Tokyo and New Delhi in population. New York has about 9 million people. It is the world’s financial, cultural, and mass media capital. They say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. It is a giant metropolis which is a combination of five boroughs; Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. New York was the capital of the USA from 1785 to 1790. It has the world headquarters of the United Nations, and the Statue of Liberty. We climbed that structure 20 years ago, I don’t think I can join my children and grandchildren climbing there again.
We are here in New York to see broadway shows like Hamilton, Cats, and Les Miserables (for the nth time), and Mama Mia, of course. I hope they shall have Crazy Rich Asians soon.
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