Posted: 12/11/17 at 10:26am
Thinking of all of you out and about in the city.
Posted: 12/11/17 at 12:48pm
Thank you.
It was strange waking up this morning to text messages from my family regarding this. Luckily I was still in bed when it happened.
It also comes on the heels of what turned out to be a false alarm incident I was in Friday night at the Angelika. I was seeing I, Tonya there at the 10:00 showing, about about 2/3 of the way through the movie (right as they were leading up to "the incident"
some random guy slipped into the back of the theatre and was apparently just standing there for a few minutes with a guitar case on his back. In the dark several people in the back rows mistook his guitar case for a gun, and within moments mass panic spread through the theatre and it turned into a stampede for the exits. Luckily no one was hurt, and it was all a huge misunderstanding, but it was surreal and frightening in the moment, especially since nobody seemed to know what was going on, just that we had to get out of there and fast.
Stay safe everyone.
Posted: 12/11/17 at 1:53pm
My bus just arrived at the terminal when a message from my husband appeared on my phone "Are you safe? There was an explosion in the subway below the Port Authority" I disembarked the bus and went down the escalator the 2 flights to the second level of the south terminal building. Everything appeared normal but slightly less people...still plenty relatively calm. Passed by many military personnel - a regular sight daily and they were calmly standing around in twos as they usually are. Walked to the north building on the second floor when the announcement came over the public address "all entrances and exits to the subways are closed until further notice due to police activity/investigation" (something along those line). People made annoyed remarks about being inconvenienced. Went down the next escalator in north building to ground level and that is when police started to get everyone out quickly to the 42nd street exits. People huddled on the sidewalks not trying to move. I crossed the street mid-block and as I went to the corner of 8th and 42nd street it was obvious this wasn't good. Police had K9s sniffling the garbage cans and free daily news boxes. Police were frantically rushing people north up 8th Avenue. Ambulances were pulling stretchers out and rushing them towards the Port Authority. I tried to tell many people to not go south towards the mess but they just looked annoyed at my warning. One young woman I believe was not a resident and she asked how to get to Wall Street area - she took my advice to walk to east side for a subway if that was working. When a parade of vehicles: Police, Fire Engines and Ambulance were speeding south on 8th Avenue (it is a one way heading north) into and around on coming traffic - that really hit me. I wanted to walk to work crying but my phone was ringing off the hook with calls from friends in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut...even Georgia and Florida! Reality check! morning...
Posted: 12/11/17 at 3:44pm
Have they revealed the identity of the atheist/secular attacker?
Updated On: 12/11/17 at 03:44 PM
Posted: 12/11/17 at 3:47pm
qolbinau said: "Have they revealed the identity of the atheist/secular attacker?"
Gross.
I'm surprised you're not a Trump fan. You have a lot in common.
Updated On: 12/11/17 at 03:47 PM
Posted: 12/11/17 at 3:52pm
I think you’ll find atheists* have almost nothing in common with Trump or the Republican Party.
* Perhaps I should use the term anti-theist instead of atheist to disguish myself from other atheists.
Updated On: 12/11/17 at 03:52 PM
Posted: 12/11/17 at 4:01pm
You don't have to tell me about atheists because I am one. And I wish people like you would shut up. You're one of the minority of atheists who give us all a bad name.
And coming into a thread expressing concern for the people of New York, where many people on this board live and work, righ after we suffered a terror attack to gloat is EXACTLY something trump would do.
Troll.
Posted: 12/11/17 at 4:08pm
Posted: 12/11/17 at 7:11pm
Posted: 12/11/17 at 7:55pm
This is why I wish the left and right would stop confusing ideas with people. The majority of peaceful Muslims just want to live their lives in peace, and should be allowed to do so. The right wing ‘racists’ need to stop taking these incidents to mean that individual Muslim people should be targeted or victimised. At the same time, the left need to understand that criticizing ideas - a belief system, which is part of the systemic reason why this keeps happening (along with other terrible humanitarian outcomes, especially homophobia) is not the same thing as targeting or victimising individual Muslim people.
It is this very protected nature of the belief system both from within and outside Islamic communities that continues to prevent its reformation in the 21st century. Ideas will not change by themselves. I am very proud of several Muslim and ex-Muslim activists that are attempting to forward this conversation. The left need to stop getting in their way.
Updated On: 12/11/17 at 07:55 PM
Posted: 12/12/17 at 9:38am
I hope that those who were injured will quickly recover and that we'll just as quickly forget about this two-bit "attack." Let's not give him what he wants - what every wannabe terrorist wants - by pretending this was a bigger deal than it was. If a similar amount of damage to persons and property occurred in some other kind of incident - say, a traffic accident - it would barely make the news. So it should be with this bumbling idiot.
Posted: 12/12/17 at 11:04am
Trump & Co is going to RUN with this with Trump probably taking credit for there not being more severe injuries or loss of life.
Posted: 12/15/17 at 10:51pm
I'm glad everything was okay and it basically misfired. I'm also interested that it was a Bangladesh man since this - kind of - ruins that whole Isis stereotype of the long-bearded Muslim man. But, as someone who works in the area, was def a wake-up moment. And frightful.
And yes, people need to learn to be more inclusive in general - on both sides of the argument. Be who you want to be, love who you want to be, pray to who you want to be. Just don't hurt other people.
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