By Brandon Sapienza
Like many who watched or read the news, I was devastated by the attack that took place in New York City. For me, however, there was an added layer of sadness. Being a native of Brooklyn, I am very well aware of the anguish people felt following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
On top of that, it was the first time that I can remember hearing the words I never thought I would hear, “Terrorist attack in New York City.” A sad reality hit me; I watched the cameras from all over the city point to one spot just three blocks away from the World Trade Center where, just 16 years earlier, we were shaken down to our core.
In my head, I had a flashback to when, just months earlier, I was smiling and laughing with my family as we walked along the Hudson River. To see pathways where I have walked now filled with bodies of innocent people and federal investigators, it completely breaks my heart.
Because of this, I was finally able to feel the emotions that were felt in Nice and Barcelona when similar attacks happened a few months ago.
However, now that an attack, one that I can remember at least, occurred just 10 miles from my house, it changes my view on how I have seen these incidents.
As a New Yorker, we’re told that terrorism in our city will not bring us down, but only make us stronger. They’re right. It won’t. Many stereotypes depict New York City as a place where everyone is angry, the streets are dirty and it has some tall buildings.
However, it’s so much more than that. New Yorkers have been through a lot in recent years. That makes them some of the most resilient people in this country and around the world. Nowhere else will you find a group of citizens so unaffected yet so tough at the thought of some terrorist trying to change the way we live our lives.
This is what it is like living, as Billy Joel once said, in a “New York state of mind.” I hope that you will join me in sending your prayers to all of those affected by this tragedy.
sapienbm17@bonaventure.edu
