We All Lost a Lot

This commentary by Mark Fogarty, editor and associate publisher of NationalMortgage News, appears in the Sept. 17 issue of the newspaper.] A New York city firefighter with holes in his department-issue shirt tenderly wrapped duct tapearound a makeshift cross honoring fallen comrades at the Engine 1, Ladder 24 firehouse on West 31st Street in Manhattan.In front of the modest building, just a couple of doors away from the offices of National Mortgage News, a fire truck still covered by debris from Tuesday'smurderous attack on the World Trade Center Towers was covered with heartfelt messages etched in the dust by passersbywith their fingers: "God Bless," "Real Heroes," "Fr. Mychal Lives 4 Ever." Compared to the incomparably brave firemen (such as chaplain Fr. Mychal Judge) who lost theirlives by the hundreds in the tragedy, NMN has reason to be thankfulas we put out this edition of the newspaper with plumes of smoke still rising up into a towerless sky a coupleof miles from here. No one here lost their lives, but as the bouquets of flowers heaped in front of the firehouseshow, you don't have to go very far on this island today to find someone who did. As we go to press on Thursday, our parent company, Thomson Financial, is still trying to accountfor all its employees. Two hundred people worked in the World Trade Center, and a total of 2,000 TF employees workedwithin a few blocks of the doomed buildings. A vast majority of our colleagues is safe. Our hopes and prayers are with those not yet accountedfor and their families. Beyond our own extended corporate family, it seems certain that we have lost friends, neighbors,news sources, and business clients in the atrocity. We extend our deepest sympathy to the victims of the TradeCenter destruction and their families. The building NMN has offices in is not in the vicinity of the WTC, but it is near potential targetsPenn Station and the Empire State Building, so it was quickly evacuated Tuesday after the attacks. NMN staffers found themselves in a surreal situation on the streets outside on an incongruouslybeautiful day, as authorities quickly closed all tunnels and bridges and effectively penned up huge crowds of peopleattempting to get home in every direction. Electric as the streets were, however, everything was calm and orderly as many in midtown madetheir way to the Hudson River and the ferry docks there. This being New York, even in disaster street vendors popped up to sell their wares. One was sellingwhistles at $1 apiece (I'm not sure to what use) and another was offering a big American flag. Thousands of people were on a very calm line for the ferry boats to New Jersey, which were beingaugmented by Circle Line tour boats which shuttled hundreds of passengers at a clip across the river to Weehawken.Once there, passengers were whisked away on buses through quick disaster emergency routes to the safety of theGiants Stadium parking lot in East Rutherford. Through shock and grief, NMN staffers quicklyreturned to work in emergency-torn New York the next day. I'm proud of their efforts to get out this edition ofthe newspaper (in occasionally nail-biting circumstances) and to disseminate information on the effect on the mortgagebusiness as we've learned it through our website, www.nationalmortgagenews.com. Hard as it is, going forward is all we can do. We've all been hurt, even if you weren't herein New York on that dreadful day and witnessed the attack, as many here did (the thousands of reruns of explosionvideos on the news has extended this particular trauma to everyone in the nation). The losses are huge, and they hurt. The gains? We can try to keep the exquisite respect and concernfor each other that we evacuating workers showed in an emergency. We can take pride that what we do, whether it'sputting out vital information or putting a family in a home, is honorable work far removed from the evil of fanaticalsuicide bombers. We can share these values with our children, and take pride in seeing them grow up with them,like the World Trade Center towers once rose up, little by little, into their place in a proud skyline.