One good thing that has come from this tragedy is that finally we are all (most of us) united as a people. Of course there are still those who are stealing from the dead, and telemarketing schemes to get cash for the relief effort..... What I mean is much broader than that. The people of New York City have showed that we are all there for each other. The amount of supplies that has come in is staggering....I have seen truckloads of food, pizza places dropping off 40 pies of pizza, Poland Spring water by the warehousefull (I mean Thousands of cases), dealerships lending us brand new flatbed trucks, brand new explorers, expeditions.........I saw a coupla flatbeds come in with about 20 brand new quads with carts attached......shoe stores bringing in every boot that they had left in the store.....Dry socks (oh god dry socks feel good)....Even car batteries!!!....I have seen candy stores empty the shelves of M&M's, Sweedish Fish, Granola Bars, and anything else that you could imagine. Restaurants feeding the rescue workers meals fit for a king....... One day it was hot, next day it rained really bad and there was a cold wind.....We were ALL in short sleeves....We asked for sweatshirts and within an hour, hundreds of people had gone home and emptied their drawers for us.....I was given a grey Duke sweatshirt that smelled like a girl, the point is that everyone has done something....There are volunteers and church groups that arent law enforcement or rescueworkers who are walking around the frozen zone handing out bottles of water, candy, hot food, sandwiches, going to the storage areas and getting whatever we need (socks, etc). I just want to say thank you to all who helped.....If you were a part of the rescue effort, please drop me an email. For all the thanks that I have gotten this week, I want to do the same..... I also want to let everyone know that OLD NAVY donated truckloads of Heavy Sweatshirts, Thousands of T-shirts (with American Flag on front), Boxers, socks... INTERSTATE batteries donated palets of car batteries, DURACELL cases upon cases of batteries......When I see a complete list of who donated what, I will definitely put up a post so we can send our business there....they deserve it!!! Oh yeah, VERIZON had dozens of employees walking around with cell phones so we could make free calls to people, even long distance!!!Even the payphones were set up to make free calls!!! (Which is more than I can say for my MCI cellphone which hasnt let me make a long distance call since Tuesday......all circuts are busy, THANKS FOR NOTHING MCI!!!!!I will be switching to Verizon this week for sure, never had anything but trouble w/ MCI Service And Billing!!)sorry about the rant!! I cant beleive the support that people have shown, and the thanks and the praise that the people of New York City have for Firefighters and Police Officers. Its truly a great feeling to be a cop right now. I am so used to being bashed and ridiculed, that Im overcome by this show of support. It actually feels good to be a NYC Police Officer for the first time in 5 years....This is the same feeling of pride that I had on graduation day.....Thanks Everyone

America is one big family. We fight and bicker amonst ourselves. The southerners hate the northerners. East hates west. Rural hates urban. Vice versa on all above. And everyone hates New Yorkers, even New Yorkers [;)]. But by God no else had better pick on one of ours. Then we all band together as one. When this is all over we will go back to bickering again. But for a generation we will be closer. And better for it. Oh BTW... "I was given a grey Duke sweatshirt that smelled like a girl..." Those are the best kind of sweatshirts. [:D] Beats the hell of a smelly ol' jock. [:X*]