Il Tirreno Giornale (PISA, Italia, Sunday 16 September 2001)
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Tuesday a ceremony proposed by the mayor in the moments after the attack A moment of recollection to remember the victims. Letter to Fontanelli from one of the witnesses |
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PISA. Tuesday, a week after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York, our city will remember the victims of the slaughter solemnly. Mayor Paolo Fontanelli, in fact, has had the idea to organize a moment of reflection under the Tower, and the initiative has quickly picked up numerous proponents. The ceremony will be held in the afternoon, at the same time at which the airplanes were guided by terrorists into the Towers. A ceremony of strong symbolic value, with which Pisa desires to give its original contribution to the memories of those lost and to the condemnatioon of terrorist violence. Meanwhile the mayor has received a letter from a witness of the tragedy in Manhattan, doctor Michelangelo Mancuso, who had met Fontanelli some months ago in New York during a visit to the Twin Towers. The mayor was in New York for the presentation, in the Onu palace, of the show of the Roman ships. "Kind mayor", he begins the letter, "I am Michelangelo Mancuso, neurologist of the department of neuroscience at the university of Pisa, currently in service as a post-doctoarte researcher in the department of neurosciences at Columbia Presbyterian medical center. We hade met here in the month of May on line at the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. You were in New York for the show of the Roman ships and I was a fresh New Yorker here for a formative experience at Columbia University. And that is why in this moment of sadness I have remembered our meeting, and decided to write you. I write you these few words to give a direct testimony on the events as they have upset the life of New York. The day after continues the unreal plot of the first day. The streets are full of cops and ambulances, along with the cloud of destruction where once stood the Towers. We at Columbia University, called up on alert, give blood, and also advise the donation by friends and colleagues (as it is an emergency). The impoverished horizon of Downtown leaves us amazed, bewildered; to knock the World Trade CEnter down is a stab to the heart of each civic being, and to see the city, the bridges, the tunnels, the jammed airports, still paralyzed, not to mention the feeling of diffused dizziness and the difficulties of communication still present, everything feels like a terrible emotion of war, never directly experienced by my young generation. I should come to Italy (and then to Pisa) for a meeting next week, but it is not yet known if JFK airport will be back in service". Fontanelli has received the message with emotion and in response he has invited Mancuso, once returned to Italy, to come to meet him. Here is the text of the answer. "Kind Doctor Mancuso, I answer as soon as I received your communication. The tragedy in New York with its load of destruction and death, makes it such that nothing will be the same as before. Also our city, like all the world, is living amazed with pain and great concern over the American events. For three days our flags have been at half mast and edged for mourning. A meeting of the institutions and of city has been organized by the Commune and the Province, with great participation. At the same time, in Firenze, organized by the Region, a large torchlight procession is held. Along with the pain for the victims there is great concern for the future. I have written, in the name of the city, a telegram of solidarity to mayor Giuliani mayor. Certainly our meeting in New York some months ago was one that turns the situation on the other : Pisa presented at the Onu palace the show of the ships and we had met like happy tourists in a visit right at the Towers". "Of that thought", concludes Fontanelli, "today nothing remains and you well represent the situation of today speaking about dismay, stabbed in the heart, fear, discouragement, pain. I have common feelings, increased by your presence in New York. If you will be in Pisa in the near future, I would like to meet with you". Translated by Gary Feuerstein, 13 October 2001, from the Il Tirreno article Building Homepage
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