September 11th FDNY Lieutenant Remembers Ten Year Later

Ex-FDNY Lieutenant

Interviewed: September 10, 2011

Irene Lee: This was actually an assignment. We had to find somebody who witnessed September 11^th and interview them.

C P: I didn’t witness the planes. I got down there after the second building collapsed, but we saw number 7 collapse. But I wasn’t there when the planes hit and I wasn’t there when they fell either.

IL: Okay

CP: We lost a lot of guys from our firehouse and I spent about a month down there. I was actually supposed to work that day. The guy who was my mutual partner wanted to switch it and I couldn’t do it because I was going to visit my mom that weekend. Then my mom called afterwards and said, ‘it’s not a good weekend.’ So I called this guy up and said, ‘you can switch if you want to switch, I can work Sunday night and Monday and you can work Monday night and Tuesday’ and he said, ‘great!’ So I actually went in Sunday and worked Sunday night Monday day, and then Monday night I went home and all these guys came in to relieve us- those were the guys that went the next morning. We had 16 guys in the house because we had an extra engine at the time and like 14 of those guys died.

IL: Out of 16!

CP: Not the guy that was working for me, he was one of the guys that got out, which is amazing.

IL: That is amazing.

CP: So I think my mom saved my life, actually. (laughs) I’m a pretty big guardian angel advocate. She was mine that day.

IL: I think you’re a great person to interview because you were so involved in it. You were working right there, so close to the people.

CP: How could I not be involved? Not even a week before, I think it was five days before, I worked in the firehouse in the shadows of the Trade Center. I was a lieutenant. My area was Times Square down to like the Trade Center, or, Battery Park. That’s the first division and that was where I was assigned. I worked in Ladder 10, which is right across from the Trade Center. So I knew a lot of the guys that died.

IL: So, you were there that day? You came down after you heard about it and then you went down to help out?

CP: There wasn’t very much to do. There were just a lot of fires, a lot of silence and chaos. There really wasn’t much in the way of survivors; it was all very quiet. They assigned me to St. Vincent’s Hospital for a little while, to see if I could locate some guys that were missing. Because some guys, if they got hurt, they’d just jump onto a bus or whatever, and guys weren’t really accounted for. So I went there and there weren’t many survivors coming in. They were all geared up for all these survivors to come in and there weren’t really any. There was so much dust and there weren’t many full bodies, a lot of body parts and a lot of pieces of bodies. There was just so much debris too, there was like 4 stories of debris. It wasn’t like it was wide open, there were two towers lying on the ground. It was just this big mountain. I couldn’t believe that those were actually the buildings. I didn’t know where they all went, compared to the size of those towers when they were standing up, there wasn’t that much to look at when they were lying on the ground. For such tall buildings, it was just very surreal.

IL: I bet. How long had you been working as a lieutenant before?

CP: Well, I was a fireman first in Queens and then I got promoted in June of 1999. I was in Manhattan for 3 years before 9/11, working all over the area.

IL: What did you do after September 11^th, I know that a lot of the firefighters had health problems afterwards, was that, or is that a problem for you?

CP: Well, I continued to work, and they were doing all these screenings on the guys, this was after like 3 years. I had noticed; everybody was having problems breathing. So we all had to go down for these medical exams. I had an issue with my lungs. I wasn’t breathing the way they wanted me to. They give you this chemical that you have to breath in, that judges your lung capacity and how much it decreases. Mine had a significant decrease after I breathed in the chemical. They put me out on disability. I wasn’t really ready for that. I was going to be a captain. I was on the list. A lot of guys had retired with lung issues after that, and many of them continued to get sick. We actually buried a guy that we worked with just last week, came down with a real funky cancer a few years ago, and he just passed away. Guys are having a lot of trouble with this. My condition seems to be stable; I seem to be doing alright.

IL: I hope that continues. That’s a huge, life changing experience. How did you cope after it? It seems almost like a war zone experience, surreal, intense. How did you master it?

CP: I spent a lot of time with the guys at the firehouse; everyone was working 24-hour shifts. So we just leaned on each other. I was in an area where there was a lot of outside support from all over the country and the world. Every day there was different choir groups, people making crafts, cards and posters, benefits. They were sending us on trips. It came to a point that we couldn’t open our doors. It was just like ‘leave us alone for a little while.’ It never stopped. I worked in a really touristy area. Meanwhile, a lot of the areas and ghettos that had lost a lot of guys, they didn’t get the same attention. It was very tough. We were doing 3 to4 funerals a day. Sometimes there were 8 to10, but you could just go to the ones that you could get to, because we were stretched so thin. Usually if one of our guys dies today you get like 10,000 men in uniform. We didn’t have enough guys to give a proper burial. Honestly, it was like a big blur. Everybody was walking around in a fog and disbelief thinking, ‘how could this happen?’

IL: How did you do you think American reacted to this, then and now?

CP: I think people are forgetting. We’re being choked by political correctness, we can’t profile anybody and God forbid that we defend anybody in this country. I’m not trying to point the finger but when you’re trying to find people that are trying to blow us up it’s usually the Muslims that are doing it. I’m sure there are many good Muslims, but when you’re looking for someone who’s racketeering and doing organized crime you look towards the Italian guy. If you’re looking for someone who’s driving drunk you look for the Irish guy. There are these stereotypes and unfortunately they’re kind of accurate. Everybody’s afraid of offending everybody.

IL: Especially after that. Everything got so tense about the racial profiling.

CP: I think that now people forget and I don’t think we’ll be reminded any time soon, but we had a horrible attack on our country. Unfortunately, much of our enemy is right here among us and they’re American citizens, living in our country. It’s not like we’re wearing one uniform and they’re wearing the other one, and you can tell who the bad guy is. The guy that tried to blow up the car in Times Square was an American citizen. He was married and had had kids, it was unbelievable, it isn’t so much the Muslims, as the Muslim radicals.

IL: What do you think about the new building they’re putting up? I heard there’s not enough money going into it.

CP: There’s been a lot of stalling, 10 years later and they don’t have something. There’s so much red tape, and everyone’s so political and politically charged. They changed the name of it too. It’s not the freedom tower, people were thinking that you might as well put a big bulls eye on it. So they changed it to the Trade Center, they can’t get people to move in and I don’t blame them for that. We just passed a roadblock to check all the trucks, but they can’t check everybody. It doesn’t even need to be a truck. You can’t pull over every car and check every truck, and even if you open a truck and it’s full of lettuce so that you can’t see past it, it could be packed with explosives behind, you just can’t tell. It’s a very tough war to fight. We have to be right 100% of the time. They only have to be right once.

IL: So you think this war on terror is still going on?

CP: Absolutely, I don’t think it will ever end. It’s sad because I think if you took religion out of the equation, that’s what they’re fighting for. They don’t like our lifestyle but it’s all based on religion.

IL: Which is so bizarre, religion is supposed to be peaceful. What are you doing for September 11^th?

CP: Honestly, I have mixed emotions about what I should do. They have a piece of steel that they got from 9/11 in my town and they’re dedicating the memorial tomorrow. So I may be the FDNY representative for that ceremony, I’ve been invited. Tomorrow morning all this stuff starts at 8am because they want to have it at the time the plane hit, and then what time the buildings fell. So, I’m not going to be in the city tomorrow. And I feel like- I’m not a coward, but I am a little wary of what could be down there. I want to see the memorial, but I don’t want to be there for 9/11. A couple of times I’ve come close to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I missed it by the grace of God and my mom. I don’t keep in touch with a lot of the older guys. The firehouses now are all younger guys. Some of the older guys come around, but many of them haven’t been there since they retired. I think I’m just going to keep them in mind, say my prayers, go to the memorial tomorrow. It’s all very emotional. Yesterday I was riding my bike and started to think of it and began to cry my eyes out, I was like ‘where did that come from?’ That used to happen a lot after 9/11, it hasn’t happened in a while.

October 5th, Working Groups in Zuccotti Park

October 5- Zuccotti Park is a maze, first entering, it is difficult to tell where to go first, TV cameras are everywhere. People are discussing, wearing signs or meditating. But the protestors have made sure that it is not as disorganized as it may seem. In Zuccotti Park, where protestors are occupying Wall Street, signs hover overhead notifying visitors on where to find information or help. The signs advertise ‘legal,’ ‘media’ and ‘general information’ among others. Beneath each sign is a group of a few people manning desks. A person with a red cross on their arm will every once in a while wind through the crowds. Towering above will come voices that say ‘mic check!’ a call for the people surrounding to repeat their announcement. Occupy Wall Street JournalNewspapers are being handed out.

Each station or person with a red cross refers to a different working group. Working Groups are a phenomenon of the protest in an attempt to organize the event and meet the needs of the protestors. At 7pm every night The General Assembly, a gathering led by a chosen group of people called 'facilitators,' meets and those who feel the need for an organized program in the confines of the park can bring it up and have it be accepted as a Working Group or rejected.

“We have between 10 and 20 Working Groups, but it’s hard to know exactly.” Said Cara Hartley a Brooklyn resident working with the Community Outreach group. According to the General Assembly website there are 20 groups, but the numbers are predicted to grow “everyday, we are getting constant submissions for working groups.” Hartley said. Some are more utilitarian than others including the food, health and media groups. Others include arts and culture and the Info Desk Working Group. There is a subset called Thematic Groups which deal with discussion of a topic.

Anyone can join a Working Group and many have difficulties keeping up with those who are more experienced. Alex Nathanson, a photographer and protestor on Wall Street is working for the Internet Working Group. “I know some coding.” He said, “but I think they’re all really good hackers or something, I learned so much from them.” He added. Some working groups get more aid than others. Workers from the Nurse’s Union comes to train the medical team on EMT and how to be safe from the cold. The General Assembly website shows posts of professionals who offer to help in the training or the working groups including medics and social workers. “There is so much skill sharing in the working groups.” Said Nathanson.

The working groups act as structure. There is one for each of the basic needs of the people. The goal is to create horizontal government where each individual can do any job, according to Evan Wagner, a Brooklyn resident. “We’re trying not to create a hierarchy but it's beginning to happen.” Said Wagner. “An example of this hierarchy,” he added “is that one side of the park gets Internet access while the other side doesn’t. The technology group is working on that now." This means that there is not an equal access to information.

Though this form of social organization cannot be taken so easily out of the park, and it is difficult to imagine it in an outside setting. “I just hope that this reaffirms the importance of the Unions.” Said Nathanson, “Because it’s about the workers.” Wagner referred to the park as a laboratory, “It’s a space where we can practice these ideas.” He said.

A Walk in Riverside Park

http://www.flickr.com//photos/69361301@N06/sets/72157628035820790/show/

Upended Elephant in Union Square Raises Confusion

There is a huge bronze elephant doing a trunk stand on the east side of Union Square, across from Beth Israel and the Au Bon Pain. It was set up in September of 2011 and will “act as a bridge from uptown to downtown” the Union Square Partnership site insists. The elephant is one of 54 temporary art pieces set up throughout the 5 boroughs of New York City. The instillations vary on size and form, some cost very little money to build and other's much more to put into fruition.

Art in the Parks is a government program that decides what art is put up when, and for how long. Temporary art pieces range from about 3 to 6 months. The Program was organized in 1967 in an attempt to "set [art] under the light of day where they intrude upon our daily walks and errands" according to the Art in the Parks website. Many places in the city have temporary instillations. The city gives no funding for the projects so the artists must come up with money to set up and take down the works. Though various grants and awards can be arranged for the artists. Manual labor is not provided by the New York City government.

Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Adrien Benepe or a representative looks over the proposals that are sent in continuously. He decides how sustainable, durable and safe the art will be on the street. Community boards are called in to accept the proposal, “it’s just part of the procedure,” says Jennifer Lantzas, the Public Art Coordinator for the Parks and Recreation Program

Lantzas is trying to build the art out and immerse it into less lucrative boroughs. "Everyone wants Central Park" she says, "but we try to work with the artists to find a different location. Too much art in Central Park would not have been Olmstead’s vision," she adds. Lantzas hopes that locations will change with the help of the Clare Weiss Emerging Artists Award, introduced this year in honor of the late Clare Weiss who was the Public Art Coordinator until her death in 2010.

The elephant, entitled, 'Gran Elefandret' was constructed in 2008. It stands at 26 feet and weighs about 1/2 ton. This will be the second world class public art instillation in Union Square, a huge change from the regular exhibits in both Central Park and along the Park Avenue Mall.

The Spanish artist, Miquel Baro, was born in 1957 and separates his time between Barcelona, Paris and... The sculpture has travelled from Avignon, France and will be teetering in its position until late May. However, there are many complaints already, on the art site, 'Designer Boom,' several people have commented that the sculpture is a copy of another sculpture by the artist Daniel Firman whose piece Wursa at 18,00km from Earth resembles Baro's piece. “This is a Will Ferman piece” one of the comments below says, “how can they allow it??” Another comment simply says “horrendous.”

Lantzas encourages controversy, “that’s the fantastic thing about the project.” She says. “There are people who like them and there are people who don’t.”

Unveiling of New Temporary Art Bring Tears to their Eyes

glacial UN building, Jonathan, of the New York City's Art in the Parks Program stood in front of a crowd of almost 30 people to unveil a new temporary work of art by Rachel O entitled, Inveterate Composition for Clare. The event took place in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 1st Avenue and 47th Street. The atmosphere was a bittersweet one, for the 'Clare' referred to in the sculpture's name is the late Clare Weiss, who worked as the curator of temporary art for the Art in the Parks Program until her death in 2010 after struggling with breast cancer.

The fruition of this piece marks one of the last Ms. Weiss curated.

"The last thing I did with Clare was pretty much interview Rachel and-I don't believe in karma- but I think it was good." Jonathan said through tears as he ended his opening speech.

Inveterate Composition for Clare will stand in the center of the park until May 2012. It is a statue built from one Hummer SUV. The pieces have been remodeled and painted white to take the shape of an iceberg. Within, Ms. Owens placed the first underwater recording of a humpback whale made in 1971. The sound echoes from the great structure belly like from the belly of a hungry beast. The piece is in response to issues on global warming and consumerism to which Ms. O insisted,

"Though this piece does not propagandize, it sits in solidarity with freedom of speech and battles against oppression."

Although Inveterate was created originally for the location, O hopes that it will move on to other places at the end of its term.

Ms. O, born in Atlanta, Georgia is currently living and working in Brooklyn. With the exception of an exhibit in Miami, Owens has shown only locally to New York City. Many of her sculptures comment on global warming and the environment. She often uses found materials to create situations surrounding animals and their relationship to waste and consumerism.

As this is one of Ms. Weiss' last acheivments as curator, the Parks Department, like the scultpture has chosen not to forget her. A new award, entitled The Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award will be put into action next year, the deadline being January 2012. The award recognizes upcoming artists as well as locations around the city, underserved with public art, the current outstanding location for the project is Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx.

The New School Looks To Find Home For Their Occupiers

Monday November 28^th, students and faculty attended a University wide Town Meeting at 2 West 13^th Street, aimed address a case of vandalism that had occurred in that specific room on Saturday by a select few of a group of occupiers who had moved from their original location at the Student Study Center on 90 5^th Avenue. The Student Senate who aimed to have, what Co-chair Melissa referred to as, “an informal town hall” monitored the meeting. Melissa added, “the meeting aims to look at how we are going to move forward, not only in terms of this space, but in terms of this community,” the meeting would decide if the students would be allowed to occupy the space, or any space in the school.

The meeting revolved around a queue of speakers from the audience. Many feared that the occupation was out of control. “They are writing demands that don’t make any sense,” student and worker, Adam Rod said of the graffiti. Of the atmosphere within the occupation, one speaker referred the aggressive atmosphere within the occupation as being a “psychological pepper spray.” However, many agreed that The New School hosting an occupation was in accordance with The New School’s relationship to political activism. Occupier and Masters student, Ted, called the occupation a “revitalization of politics.”

Through a jungle of complaints and comments, a theme arose to support the occupation, though not in the Kellen Gallery. The Kellen Gallery is a semi-public ‘state-of-the-art gallery’ used for school events and art exhibits. The occupation would force the curator and people in charge of the space to reorganize their events.

The end of the two-hour meeting did not find a decision and the room had emptied to a group that could not represent a majority. A couple of forms of voting were proposed, one to create a class where voters would sign up, another was in email form. The Student Senate promised to email the student body an update as to where the occupation would go and how the final decision would be carried out.