Dear Franklin Furnace Community,
I used to not like using the word "community" because it had been co-opted so often to create an image of togetherness where there was none. But after hundreds of messages poured in to Franklin Furnace by phone and email to ask if everyone was OK in the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the word community was the only appropriate one. All of us thank you for your concern; know that everyone at Franklin Furnace is fine and accounted for.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I was in Buffalo and luckily had taken my son so he could see Niagara Falls. We were on a JetBlue flight that was turned back to Buffalo when all the planes in the nation were grounded. Franklin Furnace's webmistress, Tiffany Ludwig, was one of the volunteers who coordinated the deployment of structural engineers to inspect buildings in the surrounding area. All Franklin Furnace staff was on hands and knees for archival dusting, phone service has been restored, and except for the blank hole in the sky, Lower Manhattan is starting to get back to business as usual.
But at the same time, everything is now different, provisional, insecure. We feel ready to trade our civil liberties for greater physical safety. My 12-yaer-old son said he hoped the WTC disaster would not keep us from being able to listen to each other, and I feel the same.
Please check out the links on the mainpage for some ways the community is responding to the disaster. Again, my profound thanks for your messages.
Best,
Martha