I'd hope the rest of the country and the world would forgive New Yorkers for being a little bit on edge. I mean, after all, the tenth anniversary of 9-11 is a few weeks away, and there has been chatter that the bad guys are going to do something to mark the anniversary.
I still walk down the street and shiver if I see a large plane going overhead. I don't know if I will ever lose that and I make no apologies for it. The images of 9-11 are so etched in my mind, the nightmares spawned by that video clip of the planes going into the Twin Towers still come and go, and the thoughts of friends and family lost do not recede: they only get stronger.
So, yes, maybe we New Yorkers are earthquake wimps, but so what? We still navigate the frenzied streets of the greatest city of the world: we hike through the canyons of skyscrapers, and we brave the bridges and tunnels and rails despite all that has happened or has been threatened to happen. We have heard "If you see something; say something" for years, and now the rest of the country is getting with the program. So I don't wish what happened to New York on any other place or people, but you can't really judge us until you've gone through what we went through.
We earthquake wimps got back to normal today, but now we are shivering our timbers over Hurricane Irene heading in our direction. Yeah, go ahead and call us hurricane wimps. We can take it. Now, excuse me while I go out and get the batteries, the flashlights, cases of water, and some canned goods just in case Irene is as bad as they say she will be.
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