Submitted by Joy Goldberg, Jan 30, 2008 23:26

When the air was still thick with acrid smoke and the ground with the white chalky dust from the ruins of the Twin Towers, a small and courageous group of small business owners and employees returned to their stores at Fulton Street and lower Broadway, turned the keys and opened their doors, in order to help revitalize the part of New York who needed it most. They had seen the towers come down and survived. And now, like pigeons and doves, they were returning to the place they had come to call home. They were the United Nations in miniature: they were from many nations and races of man. Standing side by side in peace, as did their small storefronts, they awaited the return of their customers. For many days they waited, and many times their stores were empty. But they stayed for as long as they could, and were depressed and wept, like prisoners on Death Row.

Some of them went out of business. Many did not. Those who did not were forcibly evicted by the Transit Authority, and their beloved buildings destroyed, so that the land could be forcibly violated by the corporate lust and animosity of big business.

GOD bless and keep these unsung heroes, and may HE restore them back to their home.

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