Amid the horror, confusion and grief that followed their husbands' deaths in the 2001 terrorist attacks, Susan Retik and Patti Quigley were inundated with kindness.
Family and friends offered love and companionship. Their husbands' employers continued to pay their salaries. Strangers sent flowers, food and cash.
Yet through their grief, the two widows managed to react with kindness themselves, reaching out across an ocean and to a different culture to consider the plight of widows in Afghanistan.
Retik and Quigley were struck by how women, especially widows, were marginalized by the former Taliban regime and by Afghan society in general: They had no life insurance and often no money or property to help them carry on after their husbands' deaths.
"I thought -- look at all the support we're getting," said Retik, of Needham. "What must it be like for widows in Afghanistan?"
The two began talking about the connection they felt with widows in Afghanistan, the same nation where their husbands' killers had trained.
Months later, they came up with a plan to raise money for them.
Earlier this year, they created Beyond the 11th, a nonprofit foundation to aid widows in areas touched by conflict, and they plan to mark the third anniversary of the attacks by riding their bikes from New York, where their husbands' lives ended, to Boston, where their final flights began.
"Instead of the cycle of violence and terrorism escalating, if we can on that day show kindness and reach out to other people, what better thing to do on Sept. 11?" asked Retik.
The two women plan to ride the first 350km of the route together, making their way through back roads of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and into Massachusetts, where they hope to be met by another 200 riders for the final 48km to Boston.
For Retik, 36, and Quigley, 40, the ride is an outgrowth of their friendship, which blossomed even as they coped with a terrible loss. Both women were pregnant when their husbands perished aboard the planes that slammed into the trade center.
They are hoping to raise US$100,000 in the ride for food, clothing, education and job training for Afghan widows and their children.
With less than three weeks to go before the ride, about 75 riders have signed up to do the final leg with Retik and Quigley. The riders have pledged a total of US$30,000 so far to help Afghan widows.
"We want to help these women by providing them with the financial aid they need just to survive," Retik said. "But we also want to establish a personal connection between American and Afghan widows to remind both them and ourselves that we are all real people who have suffered terrible and unimaginable losses."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not