Tue, Sep 18, 2001 page5

• Nation rallies to New York's side

  PULLING TOGETHER The bravery and strength of purpose exhibited by New Yorkers since last week's terror attacks has galvanized the country and engendered a new respect

  • AP
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  From the vast stretches of America that lie beyond the Hudson River, the view of New York City is not always complimentary.

  It's an unfriendly place. A place of callous people, a city without a heart.

  

  A man places his hand on a wall showing photos of missing people outside Bellevue Hospital in New York on Sunday.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  But since the day terrorists demolished the World Trade Center, Americans have seen something different from the Big Apple: bravery, compassion, heartbreak.

  And tears. Tears falling down the faces of crusty New Yorkers.

  "It just shows that the stereotypes aren't true," said Gail Pedro, loading groceries into her car Sunday in Bloomington, Indiana, 1125km and a lifetime removed from Manhattan.

  "You see movies where they show you that New Yorkers are cold and distant. Now you know it's not true."

  People from the Carolinas to California and all points in between have lined up over the past week and opened their veins to give blood, opened their pocketbooks to give money and opened their hearts to the pain being felt on the East Coast.

  Signs outside restaurants no longer advertise just the day's special -- they read: "God Bless America" and "United We Stand."

  And with the unity that tragedy brings comes a change in attitude for some.

  Danny Flowers of Molino, Florida, said he's never been to New York City, and he's never associated with anyone from there. But that doesn't matter. He now sees New Yorkers as people like everybody else.

  "And just like most everybody else," he said, "I'm sad and hurt by it all."

  Cotton farmer Buster Thornton of Rogersville, Alabama, said watching New York's response to the attacks, how the city suffered but strived to move forward, has given him a different perspective.

  "My opinion of people in New York City before this was that they were crazy and didn't have no feelings for their fellow men," Thornton said.

  "But I think people in New York City have come together and pulled together. My attitude toward them is different. I feel sorry for them."

  In Indiana, Kathleen Plucker sat by a swing set enjoying a beautiful Sunday while her husband rocked their 6-month-old baby. She's lived on the East Coast, but now resides in a small college town in middle America.

  "I never really felt like people in New York fit the stereotypes," she said. "This whole incident has reminded people that New York City is just a microcosm of our entire country."

  Thanks to rival professional basketball teams, Indiana and New York have often been at odds. When the New York Knicks played the Indiana Pacers in the NBA playoffs in recent years, a New York tabloid announced the series as "Knicks vs. Hicks."

  But on a basketball court in Bloomington, on a day not far removed from one of the worst tragedies in American history, people were seeing far beyond the name calling and taunts of a trivial sports rivalry. They were seeing something they'd never seen from the rowdy fans at Madison Square Garden.

  "I didn't think people there really cared," said 15-year-old Lindsay Edwards, taking a break from a pick-up game with her family. "But a lot of those people care a lot more than I thought they did."
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