9.

ONE YEAR LATER

T H E P E O P L E O F M E R R I L L LY N C H R E M E M B E R
 9.11

CONTENTS
A MESSAGE FROM DAVID KOMANSKY AND STAN O’NEAL 3

REFLECTIONS ON THE MEANING OF 4

SEPTEMBER 11 BY RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI

THE DAY THE WORLD STOOD STILL 8

BEARING WITNESS: 15 ON-THE-SCENE ACCOUNTS 12

FRONT AND BACK COVERS: CAROLINA SALGUERO/SIPA PRESS; THIS PAGE: RUSSELL BOYCE/REUTERS/TIME PIX
REMEMBERING DAVID B. BRADY, 42
ROBERT G. M C ILVAINE AND MICHAEL B. PACKER

MERRILL LYNCH’S TRIUMPHANT 46

RETURN TO THE WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER

HOW THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11 48

INSPIRED US TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

EPILOGUE: WHAT WE LEARNED 52 C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 02 .

M E R R I L L LY N C H & C O. , I N C .

A L L R I G H T S R E S E RV E D .
COMPASSION, COURAGE, STRENGTH A MESSAGE FROM
DAVID KOMANSKY AND STAN O’NEAL

In considering how to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on
the U.S., we were concerned that the events of that day were too sad, too traumatic. All of us have worked
so hard with our families, friends and co-workers to begin healing. Could we remember in a way that
would help that process? We recognized the need to acknowledge what we lost, but also to acknowledge
what we gained in understanding about ourselves, our company and our world community.
On that day, it was not just Wall Street or New York City or Washington, D.C. that was attacked. More
than 90 countries lost citizens. People of virtually every religion, ethnicity, race and nationality were
personally touched by this tragedy, and personally involved in the physical and emotional recovery. It is
often said that New York City is the capital of the world and this was never so starkly demonstrated. New
York has been called a visible symbol of aspiration and faith. It was not just New York that was attacked,
but that symbol, that faith and that hope.
This publication commemorates 9/11. We remember those we lost—David Brady, Bob McIlvaine
and Michael Packer, who loved their families and shared a tremendous enthusiasm for life.
Also included are reflections from Rudy Giuliani, New York City’s former mayor, whose calm,
determined presence epitomized leadership and inspired the world.
However, it is the stories of our people that are the real heart of this publication. In the months since
September 11, many of you shared thoughts with your colleagues—about coping and carrying on. Some
experienced terror firsthand, while others watched helplessly from half a world away. We have featured
accounts of heroism and fear, but all are about courage.
Courage, of course, takes many forms, and we also relate the stories of those who helped the world
regain its bearings. One colleague left the company to lead the World Trade Center Memorial Committee,
while another ran in the New York City Marathon to honor a fallen fire fighter. Large or small, these acts
of charity and commitment demonstrate that if we are to move ahead, we must do it together.
Looking back on all that we have accomplished throughout this year of heartache and challenge in
helping each other, serving our clients and standing tall in the face of terror we never have been prouder
of the men and women of Merrill Lynch, prouder to be a part of this organization or more confident
about our future.
We hope this publication helps the healing process—with its remarkable stories of the men and
women and everyday heroes, who together turned one of the greatest tragedies of humanity into one
of the greatest triumphs of the human spirit.

DAVID KOMANSKY STAN O’NEAL

WHAT WE STAND FOR CAN
NEVER BE DESTROYED REFLECTIONS ON
THE MEANING OF SEPTEMBER 11 BY RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI
 9.11

New York City was not a random target.

It was attacked because of the principles
our city represents: political democracy,
economic freedom, religious tolerance,
equality of opportunity. Even in the first
hours after the terrorists struck, when I knew the days to come
would be unthinkably horrible and unbearably sad, I also knew
that we would persevere and emerge stronger than ever. And we
did. As I said at the time, “We met the worst of humanity with
the best of humanity.” Each of us did our part, and each of us
made it a point of personal pride and determination to recreate
what had been destroyed.
At the core of that effort was the financial community.
Entire trading floors were built from scratch. The largest, most
complex financial institutions in the world were relocated, Hoisted into history at
Ground Zero, then flown
OPPOSITE PAGE: MARK LENNIHAN/AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS; THIS PAGE: CHRISTOPHE AGOU

reassembled and rewired for business within days. And our aboard the aircraft carrier
USS Theodore Roosevelt and
capital markets reopened within a week. Merrill Lynch was six other ships in the war on
Afghanistan, September 11’s
most famous flag came
home six months later,
returned to New York City
to tour police stations
and firehouses.

M E R R I L L LY N C H .5
9.11
Three months after
the attacks, the lone
remaining piece of
the World Trade Center
façade went down
stubbornly. Torch-wielding
ironworkers spent most
of a week trying to topple
the steel skeleton. They
finally succeeded shortly
after 2:30 p.m. on December
15, using cables and a
construction vehicle.
6 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
W H AT W E S TA N D F O R C A N N E V E R B E D E S T R O Y E D .
a leader, completing the very first trade made
after the attacks.
Displaced from its offices, still mourning
members of its corporate family lost in the
attack, Merrill Lynch never even considered
abandoning lower Manhattan. Instead, the
company led the return, asserting its leader-
ship and faith in New York City as the best way
to stand up to those who would do us harm.
Reflecting on the events of September 11,
I still feel the sharp edges of grief, anger and
THIS PAGE: GARY FRIEDMAN/AP POOL/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS; OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP, FRED R. CONRAD/NEW YORK TIMES; BOTTOM, TOM STODDART/IPG/MATRIX
loss that the passing of time will never fully
blunt. But a year later, there is also strength.
Strength in knowing that enlightened, decent
people around the world share in our pain and
join in our remembering. Strength in knowing
that the cowardly attack of that morning has
resulted in a world that is safer, if less innocent. Strength, above all, in knowing
that the spirit of New York City, and indeed the human spirit, is invincible, because
what we stand for can never be destroyed.
“Each of us did our part, and each of us made
it a point of personal pride and determination to
recreate what had been destroyed.”

M E R R I L L LY N C H .7
THE DAY THE WORLD
STOOD STILL IT WAS A MORNING LIKE ANY
OTHER—THEN, SUDDENLY, IT WASN’T

6 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
 9.11

The sun rose at 6:32 a.m. on

In less than two hours,
everything had changed.
At 8:46 a.m., the first
plane crashed into the
north tower, and by
10:29 a.m. that tower
had collapsed. In between,
the south tower was
destroyed, the Pentagon
was struck and the fourth
hijacked airliner crashed
in a Pennsylvania field.
OPPOSITE PAGE: KRISTINE LARSEN; THIS PAGE: TOP, AMY SANCETTA/AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS; BOTTOM, MATT MCDERMOTT/CORBIS SYGMA
September 11, precisely as pre-
dicted. The weather: sunny, warm
and clear —“comfortable,” the
forecast might have said. And so
it was, another comfortable day in a city where
millions of people went about their largely pre-
dictable lives. Then, suddenly, it wasn’t.
At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 ripped
a hole in the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Even as that unthinkable event was reported, many
of us were reluctant to leave our desks. Remember
how pressing work seemed that morning? There

was a fire at the World Trade Center. Some kind of freak accident.
A plane crash. But how bad could it be? Little did we know; little
could we imagine.
Seventeen minutes later, when United Airlines Flight 175
hurtled into the south tower, it was clear we were under attack. But
by whom? And why? And where would it end? There were rumors
about the Capitol, about car bombs, about other planes closing in.
Fleeing to safety, we saw and heard things we never could have
imagined: people plummeting to their deaths; the towers thundering

M E R R I L L LY N C H .9
 THIS PAGE: LEFT, DOUG KANTER/SIPA PRESS; RIGHT, PETER MORGAN/REUTERS; OPPOSITE PAGE: RICHARD COHEN/REUTERS/TIME PIX
Long before the smoke
had cleared, the names
of many companies had
become painfully familiar.
Trading firm Cantor
Fitzgerald lost all of the
658 employees at work
that morning on the upper
floors of the north tower.
Marsh & McLennan,
an insurance company,
mourned almost 300.
. T H E D AY T H E W O R L D S T O O D S T I L L
9.11

to the ground; a cloud of dust swallowing the street;

millions of pieces of paper—records of billion-dollar
mergers, While You Were Out notes—floating in the wind.
We heard sirens wailing and fighter jets
screaming overhead. We were shocked
and scared, dumb with disbelief. And
not just those of us peering from the
windows of the World Financial Center
or 222 Broadway across the street, trying
to make sense of it all. Almost immedi-
ately, the whole confusing tableau was
being broadcast to the entire country—
and the world.
On that sunny, clear, comfortable
morning, nobody expected to walk home
barefoot, because she couldn’t run for
her life in high heels, or bare-chested,
because he had used his shirt to bandage
a stranger’s bloody wound. And certainly
nobody expected to lose friends and
colleagues that day. Yet, tragically, we did.
When the sun went down at pre-
cisely 7:13 p.m., it left behind a company, a
city, a nation—a way of life—that felt far
less comfortable, and far less predictable.

M E R R I L L LY N C H . 11
BEARING WITNESS THE SIGHTS WE SAW,
THE THINGS WE DID, THE EMOTIONS WE FELT
 9.11

Around-the-clock
media coverage gave
millions a close-up view
of havoc so intimate
and intense that a major
mental health study
on the effects of
September 11 showed
that those who stayed
glued to the screen
for more than 12
hours a day suffered
“clinically significant”
psychological distress
at a rate almost twice
the national average.

In the aftermath of the attacks, many Merrill

Lynch employees wrote about their experi-
ences on that tragic day. Here, 15 share
their stories. P O R T R A I T S B Y K E N S C H L E S

D A V I D B LY N PA U L E T T E KO G O
OPPOSITE PAGE: DAVID TURNLEY/CORBIS SYGMA; THIS PAGE: TOP, RICHARD B. LEVINE/GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM, DANIEL BYRNE

A N YA B U E N G E R B R YA N M A C K I N N O N
RICK CAREY M A R I LY N M I L L E R
MICHAEL DALEY DAV I D P E N G
AL DELPIZZO PHILOMENA SIMONELLI
KEITH GOLDSTEIN WIN SMITH
RON HAKES RANDY SNYDER
WALEED KHOURY

M E R R I L L LY N C H . 13
9.11

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

I was standing beneath the overhang of 4 World Financial
Center, next to the Winter Garden, when someone
shouted, “My God!” and started running toward the river.
As I followed her line of sight—boom—a huge fireball
Severely damaged engulfed the top of one of the Twin Towers.
in the attacks, the
glass-domed Winter We were watching the fire spread down the floors
Garden is scheduled
to reopen in September when I saw the first person jump. Then the sounds: people
2002. Its $50 million
restoration involved crying, a manager from the Starbucks store yelling at his
replacing 2,000 glass
panes, half the marble workers to get back inside, pedestrians with cell phones
flooring and 16
40-foot palm trees, cursing because they couldn’t get a connection. Someone
native to the
Sonoran Desert. was screaming, “Why is this happening?” And then more
people started jumping from the tower. I was close
enough to see the color of their hair.
After the second plane hit, I began walking toward
Broadway. I could see the inside of the north tower of the
World Trade Center through a huge, gaping wound filled
with metal and debris.
When the south tower went down, I was
S T R AT E G Y, P L A N N I N G &
I N V E S T O R R E L AT I O N S out of range of the collapse, maybe 10 blocks
away. One of my co-workers was crying. I
KEITH GOLDSTEIN put my arms around her and let her cry.
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
Then I went into a store and bought a bottle
of water. I remember thinking that the other tower would stay up.
It went down by the time I had made it to Greenwich Village. Suddenly,
it was quiet, just whispered conversations and sirens fading off.

14 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

THE STREET GREW DARK

FORMER SENIOR
S E C R E TA RY, T R E A S U RY /
CASH MANAGEMENT
PAULETTE KOGO
Worries that insurance
coverage would be voided
by “act of war” exclusions
proved baseless. The
Insurance Information
Institute estimates that more
than $40 billion in claims
related to the events of
September 11 will be paid
out. The 1993 World Trade
Center bombing, by
comparison, caused $510
million in insured losses.
There was nothing unusual about my commute that morning. The
weather was exceptionally fine; not a cloud in the sky.
Coffee and doughnut in hand, I crossed the bridge connecting
the World Trade Center and the World Financial Center and spotted
some familiar faces—people whom I had passed on my way to work
day in and day out. One little boy, whom I looked forward to seeing
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
every morning, always wore the same fireman’s hat and toy utility
belt. As always, his mom held his hand and had this look of proud love in her eyes.
Seconds after arriving at my desk, I felt my chair shake and saw the lights blink. “Are we
having an earthquake?” I joked with a co-worker. All of a sudden, another co-worker came
rushing down the hall: “Paulette! Paulette! Come on, come on! We’ve got to get out of here!”
When we were about a block away, the entire street grew dark, and we heard the deaf-
ening boom as the second plane hit. Our group made it to Battery Park and lined up at a pay
phone. The concern from everyone was overwhelming. People made calls, told loved ones
they were fine, got off immediately and left whatever change they had in their pockets on top
of the phone for the next person.
As the first tower fell, we headed straight for the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The
smoke was not as bad inside. I kept thinking how grateful I was to be with my co-workers. By
the time I got home, I was exhausted. My sister and my three-year-old daughter were waiting
for me on the front steps. I will never forget the way my little girl described our ordeal:
“Mommy! The plane hit the firecracker! Did you see that, Mommy?”

THIS PAGE: MICHAEL LISNET

16 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11
The incomprehensible task
of clearing 1.6 million tons
of debris from the 16-acre
disaster site, projected to
take more than a year, was
finished in eight months.
By February workers had
dug down to the foundations
of the destroyed World
Trade Center towers, and
by May they were scraping
bare earth.

SMOKE, THEN SILENCE

On that terrible morning, those on the scene in New
York City experienced the tragedy, while everyone
else, wherever they were, watched helplessly.
I was at home in Tokyo, on a conference
call with colleagues in the World Financial
M E R R I L L LY N C H
JA PA N S E C U R I T I E S , Center. It was around 10 p.m. in Japan, and
G L O B A L T E C H N O L O G Y
& S E RV I C E S my mind was drifting to the following week,
when I was scheduled to be in downtown
B RYA N M A C K I N N O N Manhattan. Suddenly someone on the phone
To k y o, Ja p a n
shouted, “The Trade Center is on fire!”
I turned on CNN, and for a few minutes saw nothing. I began to hope that
somehow the caller had been wrong. Then an image appeared, at first without
sound, of smoke pouring from the north tower of the World Trade Center. I
dialed in to Merrill Lynch’s global crisis line and shared everyone’s horror as
the south tower collapsed.

THIS PAGE: CAROLINA SALGUERO/SIPA PRESS; OPPOSITE PAGE: TOM WAGNER/CORBIS SABA
Several weeks later, I came across a credit-card statement from the last
time I had been to New York City. It was like a map of a lost landscape. There
was the World Trade Center Marriott, where I always stayed, and the clothing
and toy shops in the mall beneath the World Trade Center, where I shopped for
gifts for my wife and souvenirs for my kids—all places that no longer exist,
along with thousands of people, some of whom I knew.

18 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

ANKLE-DEEP IN ASH

Fires at the site

smoldered until mid-
December, feeding on
the wood, plastic and
paper that had fueled
an estimated 50,000
workaday lives—
a combustible mélange I have never been that close to a fire. I have never seen
of conference tables
C O R P O R AT E L AW,
and computers, memos such black smoke—billowing and mixing with huge,
about next week’s O F F I C E O F G E N E R A L C O U N S E L
meetings and summer raging flames. I remember wondering how the firemen
photos of smiling kids
at the shore. would put out such an inferno. But I had no idea of the
PHILOMENA SIMONELLI
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
horror unfolding.
I work on the 17th floor of 222 Broadway, a block
east of the World Trade Center. Everyone was congregating by one of the
large windows when suddenly someone shouted, “Oh my God!” and I saw
the first person fall from the north tower. I still can’t get that awful sight
out of my head.
Then our building shook. I held on to the desk as we watched the fireball
of the second plane tear a huge hole through the south tower. We pushed
through the emergency door and flew down the stairs, around and around,
down and down. My arms were numb; I could hardly breathe from terror.

THIS PAGE: SARA K. SCHWITTEK/REUTERS/TIME PIX

20 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

The hundreds of fire fighters

who raced into the Twin
Towers each carried as much
as 100 pounds of equipment.
At least two reached the
crash site on the 78th floor
of the south tower and were
evacuating the injured when
the building came down.

Suddenly, we stopped. I looked down. There were hands on the banisters,

creating a spiral pattern as far as I could see. Why aren’t we moving? They’re
going to bomb us next! We have to get out of here! People began shouting
for quiet, so we could hear any instructions from below. Eventually, word
came that there were so many rescue workers in front of the building that
we couldn’t get out.
Time passed. It grew very hot. Then the stairway began to fill with ash.

THIS PAGE: TOP, SUSAN MEISELAS/MAGNUM PHOTOS; OPPOSITE PAGE: LEFT, CHRISTOPHE AGOU; RIGHT, SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS
People panicked, thinking it was smoke. We were told to leave the stairwell
immediately and enter the floor we were closest to.
For the next two and a half hours or so, I stayed in the building’s central
computer room. It was air conditioned. Some people ventured back into
the stairwell, but quickly returned, completely covered in ash, coughing
terribly, their eyes bloodshot.
Finally, around one o’clock, we were told that it was safe to go outside.
The plan was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We were all given wash-
cloths and told to wet them. They would be used to cover our faces.

22 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
BEARING WITNESS . ANKLE-DEEP IN ASH

Approaching the revolving doors, we could finally see outside. It

looked just like a fierce snowstorm. As we made our exit, I could see
hundreds of police and firemen, all looking up, all in a line, standing in
silent disbelief. My eyes began to burn, so I looked down. I was walking
in ash up to my ankles. There was paper everywhere, not chopped into
tiny pieces but mostly whole and half sheets.
The police hurried us along. Everything smelled like burning tires.
In the distance, thousands of people were walking across the bridge to
Brooklyn. Soon, I was among them, covered in soot and thinking, This is
not happening. But I had escaped with my life.
9.11

AWASH IN MEMORIES
I arrived in Shanghai on a business trip at 6:30 p.m. on September 11
(6:30 a.m. in New York City) and checked into the world’s highest
hotel, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. I remember phoning my wife and
three kids in Hong Kong to tell them the hotel reminded me of the
C H I N A
World Trade Center. Later that evening a colleague from Hong Kong B U S I N E S S ,
A S I A PAC I F I C ,
called to tell me what had happened in New York City. Watching the M L I M
destruction live on CNN was a sad and lonely experience. I was
awash in memories.
DAVID PENG
H o n g Ko n g , C h i n a
My parents moved our family to New York from Taiwan in 1971.
On a cold brisk morning in March 1972, they took us on the ferry
to the Statue of Liberty. As new arrivals, we wanted to see the city’s most famous Early plans called for two
80- to 90-story buildings,
landmark. While everyone went over to the ferry’s port side to see Lady Liberty, my until the Port Authority’s
public relations staff pushed
attention was held by the Twin Towers. The north tower of the World Trade Center was to make the Twin Towers the
world’s tallest buildings, at
complete, but the south tower still had a huge crane on top. I already knew that each 110 stories. That distinction
lasted only a year, however;
floor was about an acre in size and that these were the tallest buildings in the world. when Chicago’s Sears Tower
opened in 1973, it was 82
Lady Liberty may have reached out to the masses that came to this country, but to me feet taller.
the towers represented the grandeur and marvel of America, the ingenuity of the
American people and the industriousness of my new home. My grandmother had a
nickname for the towers. She called them the chopstick buildings, an affectionate
term by which my family has always referred to them.
My nine-year-old son, Denyven, is extremely upset that the towers are gone. I tell
him the towers no longer matter. The attack destroyed a physical part of our greatness,
but it could not destroy the spirit of our people, the great masses on this teeming shore

THIS PAGE: ALAIN SCHEIN PHOTOGRAPHY/CORBIS; OPPOSITE PAGE: KATE SWAN

who are the true essence of America.

24 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

MESSAGES IN THE DUST

The things I saw were like the televised images
millions watched. I just had a close-up view.
A day after the planes struck, I was trudging
C O M M E R C I A L
through Ground Zero. My background as a paramedic F I N A N C E G R O U P,
got me past the checkpoints, but my motivation for B U S I N E S S
F I N A N C I A L
being there—I needed to help—was almost universal. S E RV I C E S , U S P C

As I walked down West Street, the sounds of

heavy equipment filled the air, and there was a fleet of
RON HAKES
J ersey City, Ne w Jersey
ruined fire trucks and ambulances, crushed where
they’d been left by crews rushing into the burning
buildings. Fire fighters wrote messages to their missing buddies in the
thick dust on the hoods.
At Vesey and West streets, the pedestrian bridge that had connected
Six days after the attacks,
the World Trade Center and the World Financial Center was now a when the New York Stock
Exchange reopened, many
twisted, burned hunk of metal. Steelworkers struggled to cut it into pieces downtown streets remained
littered with debris, several
small enough to be removed. subway stations were
closed and power was off in
Fires burned all around me. The smoke was a dense gray residue, many buildings. Yet trading
resumed without incident,
suspended in the air. Mammoth steel I-beams were mangled like twist- and even as the Dow Jones
industrial average lost 685
ties, and huge sections of concrete lay crushed amid bent and torn sheet points, the nation cheered.
metal. There must have been millions of feet of electrical wire, and
paper—single sheets mixed in the dust and soot, caught in trees,
obscuring buildings—was everywhere. I can hardly describe the vastness
of the desolation. It seemed to stretch forever.

THIS PAGE: CAROLINA SALGUERO/SIPA PRESS

26 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

LOST AND FOUND

E X E C U T I V E S E RV I C E S ,
COMMUNICATIONS
& P U B L I C A F FA I R S

In the days since September 11, our lives have

been filled with chaos and sadness. Almost
A N YA B U E N G E R
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
hourly, news of bombings in Afghanistan and
anthrax scares at home flashed across our television and
computer screens. Now, little things seem to mean more.
One weekend last November I saw a meteor shower.
As I watched the stars dance in the sky, I thought of the many
lives that were lost on September 11. Perhaps each of those
heroes was shining down on us from the heavens, showing us
they had found their place.

S T R AT E G I C
S E RV I C E S G R O U P,
I P C G

AL DELPIZZO
H o p e w e l l , Ne w Jersey

Unlike other sad and serious things that have happened in

my life, this, I suspect, will never pass. I forced myself to
read the New York Times obituaries of those who had lost
their lives that day. They were moms, dads, uncles, aunts,
best friends, sons, daughters, colleagues. They are all of us.
We are all of them.

28 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
 DATA M A N AG E M E N T G R O U P,
T E C H N O L O G Y, G M I

I was in Australia for a family

M A R I LY N M I L L E R wedding. My mum woke me
London, England
in the darkness to tell me the
World Trade Center had been bombed. With my dad, we huddled
around the TV, feeling helpless, watching everything unfold.

There is an unheralded group of Merrill Lynch men and women who

have worked tirelessly since September 11. Each employee, from mem-
bers of the Executive Management Committee to the folks in the mail
room, falls under their watch, and for that the men and women of physi-
cal security deserve our thanks. They were responsible for shepherding
our employees out of the World Financial Center—they were the last to
leave and the first to return to the building. They have been to Ground
Zero and back many times.
So, take the time to thank them, and don’t complain when they
ask to check your ID badge.
R E T I R E M E N T G R O U P,
Remember, they are here for us. U S P C

MICHAEL DALEY
P e n n i n g t o n , Ne w Jersey
THIS PAGE: TOP, ANDREW COTTERILL
9.11

A YELLOW FOG
T E C H N O L O G Y
S T R AT E G Y G R O U P,
G L O B A L T E C H N O L O G Y
& S E RV I C E S
I was finishing breakfast in the basement of the World Trade
Center’s north tower when the first plane hit. Outside on the
WALEED KHOURY
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
plaza, debris was raining from the sky, and scores of people
needed help getting to safety. In a split-second decision—more
mechanical than thought-out—I helped a stranger carry an
injured woman to a nearby deli. We used my shirtsleeve to
bandage her wound. That was when the second plane hit, crash-
Almost before the cloud
ing into the south tower, and I realized we were under attack. of debris had settled, the
city had huge vacuum
People were panicking, running in every direction. trucks on the streets, each
capable of sucking in 15
A few of us ventured back to the plaza to help the dazed and tons of solid material.
wounded. We went by twos so we could work in teams. Nine months later, crews
were scrubbing the façades
When the south tower collapsed, I dove under a bus and and roofs of more than
200 downtown buildings,
covered my head. The roar was deafening and seemed to travel and the Environmental
Protection Agency was
from the ground up rather than the sky down. By the time the testing interior spaces
for asbestos, dioxins and
north tower fell, I was making my way uptown through an other contaminants.
opaque yellow fog of smoke. I was caked in grime and dust and
other people’s blood.
A few weeks later, my emotional numbness gave way to a
deep, indefinable distress. I still have a hard time shaking that
feeling. But I thank God for the support of my co-workers. We
are more than just colleagues. We are friends.

THIS PAGE: MASATOMO KURIYA/CORBIS SYGMA

30 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

FREEDOM’S PRICE
T E C H N O L O G Y
From a conference room in the World Financial Center, I
A R C H I T E C T U R E
witnessed many things that day, things I still see all too often in G R O U P, G L O B A L
T E C H N O L O G Y
my mind’s eye—things that, for some reason, sent me on a search & S E RV I C E S

for a letter and an album of stamps.

Twenty-two years ago, I was a swimmer on the U.S. Olympic
RICK CAREY
Hopewell, Ne w Jersey
Team, scheduled to compete in Moscow. Then my dreams were
shattered: The U.S. boycotted those games. As a 17-year-old, I struggled to
understand a world in which athletes could become pawns in the larger political
conflicts of the world. I returned to training, but my drive had deserted me. I
lacked purpose; I found it difficult to endure the daily rituals and strict regimens.
The week before Thanksgiving 1980, a large envelope arrived in the mail with September 11 was truly a
national tragedy. One study
a letter, signed by William F. Bolger, then Postmaster General of the United States estimates that those who died
in the attacks had more than
Postal Service, along with an album of brightly colored stamps. At the time, I was 10 million friends and rela-
tives: 2 million in New York,
500,000 in Washington,
D.C., and the rest dispersed
among grieving cities and
towns across the country and
around the world.

THIS PAGE: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

32 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
 The deaths of 23 NYPD
officers, 37 NY/NJ Port
Authority police and 343
fire fighters initiated a long
season of mourning. For
months, groups of solemn
men and women in dress
uniforms made their way
to and from memorial
services through suddenly
hushed crowds.

still struggling to make sense of my life. I had spent 10 years training, and it felt as if it
had all been for nothing. Mr. Bolger gave me hope. He wrote:

Dear Mr. Carey:

The sacrifices made by you and the other members of the United States Olympic Team
bring to mind a paragraph from “The American Crisis,” by Thomas Paine.
The first sentence is familiar to us all and the rest deserves attention when we
consider the position our Nation took regarding the Summer Games at Moscow:

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that
stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like
hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the
harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap,
we esteem too lightly: ’Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be
strange indeed, if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

THIS PAGE: LEFT, BRENNAN LINSLEY/AURORA; OPPOSITE PAGE: MICHAEL LISNET

On behalf of the more than 600,000 men and women of the United States Postal
Service, I am presenting you this special album. We are more in your debt than had you
competed and won a medal, for you remind us that freedom’s price has not changed and
that the few have always paid it for the many.

34 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
BEARING WITNESS . F R E E D O M’S P R I C E
9.11

I remember fighting to breathe as I read his last sentence—and never having been
more moved or proud to be an American. I copied the letter by hand onto a piece of
paper, folded it, and placed it in my wallet. I carried that copy with me for four years,
until my final race at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where I won three gold medals.
Although the album now has a faint mustiness to it, the stamps are still vivid and
the letter inside still powerful. As I read it again, I marvel at the elegance of Thomas
Paine’s words, written on December 23, 1776, to inspire a nation. Two hundred and
eight years later, those words inspired me
to achieve greatness in my sport. And now,
another 18 years after that, the words are
again helping me heal.
Please do not misunderstand my inten-
tions. I am not implying that my frustration
in 1980 compares to the tragedy of
September 11, 2001. What I am trying to say
is that there is comfort in the words of a
great patriot in times like these when the
world stops making sense.
What made me remember this album
of stamps? I think that we—as a company, as
a city and as a country—cannot completely
heal until we start to look forward again.
In 1980 I put a copy of a letter in my wallet
and pledged to make my country proud in
1984. This time, it won’t be enough to return
to what we had before September 11. We
must imagine a future better and brighter
than we ever imagined and pledge to make
it happen.

M E R R I L L LY N C H . 35
9.11
THE LASTING STORIES
Rescue workers fanned
out across downtown, and
hospitals braced for a
wave of injured, but
relatively few survivors
were critically hurt. The
nation’s largest burn center
at New York Presbyterian
Hospital received just 25
patients; the NYU Downtown
Hospital emergency room
treated 500 injured.
FO R M E R
E X E C U T I V E
V I C E P R E S I D E N T,
M E R R I L L LY N C H
WIN SMITH
New Yo r k , New York
36 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
On September 11, I was almost 7,000 miles away from
Ground Zero. At 9:50 p.m. in Tokyo (8:50 a.m. in New
York City) I was on the telephone, getting briefed
for a call with a client. As we chatted, my caller
said, “Wow, it looks like a plane just hit the World
Trade Center. I can see the smoke.” We finished our
conversation, thinking that a small Cessna had struck
the building.
Around 9:15, Terry Cunningham, my secretary,
sent an e-mail (I was logged on in my hotel room),
saying a second plane had hit the World Trade Center,
and they might have to evacuate our headquarters in
the World Financial Center. I called her immediately.
She began accounting for people on the 34th floor.
When I walked into our Tokyo office the next
morning, there was shock on the faces of our
Japanese colleagues, as well as deep concern for their
friends in Manhattan. It was clear that everyone
understood this was not merely an attack on the city
or the U.S. This was an attack on modern civilization.
The tragedy of September 11 makes everything else seem trivial. The
loss of life, the trauma that will affect thousands of families for years, the
courage and heroism of fire fighters, policemen, rescue workers and our
own colleagues are some of the lasting stories. From our technology and
trading colleagues to our partners in security, locations, operations and
the rest, we pulled together, proving once again that Merrill Lynch’s real
assets are our people and not our bricks and mortar. Buildings can be
destroyed, but the character of a people, a nation and a firm like Merrill
THIS PAGE: JEFF MERMELSTEIN
Lynch is far more resilient than a terrorist can ever know.
9.11

And the odds are THE TRAGEDY

that at least one husband went to work that day
angry at his wife,
took the ferry to lower Manhattan,
took the elevator to the upper tower,
and now he’s dead. R E T I R E M E N T G R O U P,
U S P C

And the odds are

RANDY SNYDER
that at least one wife went to work that day P e n n i n g t o n , Ne w Jersey
angry at her husband, To extract the last measure
took the rails to the basement station, of humanity from the rubble,
trucks and barges carried
stopped for a morning muffin, tons of debris to Staten
and now she’s dead. Island’s Fresh Kills Landfill,
where it was broken down
using heavy machinery, then
And the odds are sifted by hand. Workers
recovered everything from
scraps of employee ID tags to
that of the thousands who died wedding bands to photos.

THIS PAGE: JANE EVELYN ATWOOD/CONTACT PRESS IMAGES

when the towers tumbled and the
fuels ignited,
not one would confess
that, in retrospect,
they wish they’d spent more time at work,
and less with family,
less with friends.

And the odds are

that something good will grow out of this,

a new awareness,
that leads to growth,
less selfish, perhaps,
less blind, perhaps

and our children will reap the harvest.

38 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
9.11

RACING THE CLOUD

I was less than two blocks away when the south tower of the
World Trade Center collapsed and a cloud of ash and dust
barreled toward me. All at once, there was panic. I realized that,
no matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t outrun the cloud. I twisted
my left ankle, but it didn’t matter; I just kept running. A woman
For many, the quickest
path to safety was across fell next to me; I helped her up and started running again, but
water. Commuter ferries,
harbor tugs, police the cloud was overtaking us.
and Coast Guard boats,
even private craft made I was having trouble breathing and I couldn’t see: People
round-trip sweeps
to help an estimated bumped into me, and I remember climbing over a fence. I
one million dust-caked
survivors off the crossed a street and climbed the steps to 1 New York Plaza and
burning island. pushed through the revolving door. As I coughed out ash,
someone patted down my shirt to knock off the dust. Then as
I was lining up to use one of the lobby telephones, a second
TRAINING SERVICES,
RESEARCH wave of ash and smoke came through the canyons between the
buildings: The north tower had collapsed.
D A V I D B LY N I still can’t believe that places I used to walk through
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
every day no longer exist. The Twin Towers, the north bridge,
the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, the Borders bookstore,
the fountain—all gone. The Duane Reade drugstore and the
subway stations, none of that familiar landscape will ever be
the same again.
And I will never be the same.

THIS PAGE: LES STONE/SIPA PRESS

40 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
IN MEMORIAM REMEMBERING DAVID B. BRADY,
ROBERT G. M C ILVAINE AND MICHAEL B. PACKER
 9.11

Fallen heroes are often remem-

bered as having been larger than
life, but David B. Brady, Robert G.
McIlvaine and Michael B. Packer
were truly special men. Each was
devoted to family and friends; each touched the lives
of many at Merrill Lynch. Here we remember the
financial advisor who instilled trust, the irrepressible
media relations executive and the brilliant tech-
nology strategist.

David B. Brady, first vice president in the U.S. Private Client Group,
was a Merrill Lynch financial advisor for 16 years. He was a member
D A V I D B. B R A D Y of the Directors’ Circle, made up of the firm’s top producers, and
often trained other financial advisors. But it was his special way
with people that distinguished Brady. “He made you feel as if you were the most impor-
“He made you feel as if you
tant person in the world,” says his wife, Jennifer, “and to David, you were.”
were the most important Brady’s colleagues say that, despite his professional success, his family mattered
person in the world, and to most. He made a point of spending as much time as possible with his wife and their four
children, Matthew, 10; Erin, 7; Mark, 5; and Grace, 2, shuttling the kids to soccer practice
David, you were.” and school events.
In the weeks after the tragedy, one of Brady’s clients wrote to Merrill Lynch:
Manhattan’s skyline, “I often called David the dream maker, because he helped my family, and many others,
forever bereft,
gained temporary realize our dreams.”
solace on March 11.
OPPOSITE PAGE: ORJAN ELLINGVAG/CORBIS SYGMA

In a memorial to On September 11, 41-year-old David Brady was meeting with a client on the 106th
the victims, artists
and architects floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower.
created “Tribute in
Light,” which for
a month aimed 88
7,000-watt spotlights
heavenward in twin
beams of hope.
M E R R I L L LY N C H . 43
 IN MEMORIAM .

When Robert G. McIlvaine got revved up at a meeting, his hands would shake. Co-
workers remember the 26-year-old assistant vice president of media relations as
a force of energy, overflowing with ideas and infectious enthusiasm. He was with
R O B E R T G. M C I LV A I N E
Merrill Lynch only a few months, but had represented the company for almost
two years at public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. “Bob loved the challenge of learning about new
products and explaining them to others,” says Jessica Oppenheim, his Merrill Lynch manager.
McIlvaine grew up in Oreland, Penn., excelling at both sports and academics, recall his parents,
Helen and Robert McIlvaine. He graduated from Princeton, where he majored in English, minored in
African-American studies, and won the Ruth J. Simmons Thesis Award for his work. A fan of the
Philadelphia 76ers, he also loved opera, says his brother, Jeff, and even volunteered to usher at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York so he could enjoy as many performances as possible. He and his
fiancée, Jennifer Elizabeth Cobb, were planning to wed in the next year.
On the morning of September 11, McIlvaine was attending a conference on the 106th floor of the
World Trade Center’s north tower.
“He loved learning about
new products and explaining
them to others.”
44 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
 9.11

“Even if we had to work nights

and weekends, Michael inspired
us to love every minute of it.”

“Michael was a pied piper,” says Robert Ollwerther, first vice president
in the Global Markets & Investment Banking Group. “He was a natural
M I C H A E L B. P A C K E R leader. Even if we had to work nights and weekends, Michael inspired
us to love every minute of it.”
Packer, managing director in the Global Markets & Investment Banking Group, came
to Merrill Lynch in 1999 to head its e-commerce initiative. He had graduated from Harvard,
where he built harpsichords in his spare time, then received a Ph.D. in mechanical engi-
neering from MIT.
As much as he loved work, Packer was devoted to Rekha, his wife of more than 20 years;
his daughter, Sarita, 12; and his son, Jonathan, 8. His boyish enthusiasm, says Rekha, made life
an adventure, whether it was involving the whole family in science experiments at their home
in Hartsdale, N.Y., or touring the Aegean Islands, retracing the journey of Odysseus.
On September 11, Packer was preparing to deliver the keynote address at an e-commerce
conference on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower. He was 45.

M E R R I L L LY N C H . 45
COMING HOME REBUILDING WAS MORE THAN
A TEAM EFFORT—IT WAS A TEAM TRIUMPH
 9.11
Although many
businesses have come
back to offices near Ground
Zero and some are still
vowing to return, others
have permanently relocated.
Months after the attacks,
midtown property in
Manhattan was fetching
about $450 a square foot;
in the financial district,
less than $200 a square
foot was a good price.

After the Twin Towers collapsed, much of the

World Financial Center, which houses Merrill
Lynch’s global headquarters, was a shambles of
shattered glass and mangled marble. Yet just
three months later, 5,000 of the firm’s employees
were back at their desks in 4 World Financial Center.
By the numbers alone, that achievement was miraculous. For three
months following the attacks, crews working around the clock carted away
enough debris to fill the adjacent Winter Garden (which was also severely
OPPOSITE PAGE: MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES; THIS PAGE: BOTTOM RIGHT, KATHY WILLENS/AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS; BOTTOM LEFT, MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES

damaged in the World Trade Center collapse) from floor to 125-foot-high

ceiling. Then workmen restored 2.5 million square feet of ruined office
space, replacing 774 windows and 2,200 slabs of marble. Finally, on March
27, state and city leaders joined 700 Merrill Lynch employees to hear a
special video message from President George W. Bush and celebrate the
firm’s official return to its lower Manhattan home.

M E R R I L L LY N C H . 47
REACHING OUT FOR MANY OF US,
SEPTEMBER 11 WAS A CALL TO SERVICE

6 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
 9.11

Deciding how to fill

the gap in the downtown
skyline could take years.
The events of September 11 inspired people The first attempt to
build consensus—the
July unveiling of six
the world over, including many employees of architectural models—
sparked calls for more
Merrill Lynch, to do something—anything—to residential space,
fewer offices and a
larger, more inspiring
make a difference. In some cases the gestures memorial to the
victims of September 11.
were grand, the outcomes newsworthy. But
mostly they were acts of kindness by ordinary citizens seeking a sense of
hope in the face of tragedy. Taken together, these efforts seem to affirm
that September 11 didn’t fundamentally change us. It just brought out
who we already were. P O R T R A I T S B Y K E N S C H L E S

DIRECTOR OF
MEMORIAL, CULTURAL
AND CIVIC PROGRAMS,
LOWER MANHATTAN
D E V E L O P M E N T C O R P.
When the terrorists struck, Anita Contini’s first thoughts FORMER FIRST
VICE PRESIDENT,
were for her husband and son, both of whom worked MERRILL LYNCH

near the World Trade Center. They were safe, but the hours
of not knowing were emotionally overwhelming. The next
A N I TA C O N T I N I
Ne w Yo r k , New Yo r k
day, when Contini returned to lower Manhattan from
Washington, D.C., she was stunned. “So much had been taken away so quickly,” she says.
OPPOSITE PAGE: VIRGINIA LEE HUNTER/SIPA PRESS; THIS PAGE: TOP, NAJLAH FEANNY/CORBIS SABA

Some months later, Contini, then first vice president for global sponsorships and client events
for Merrill Lynch, was asked to work with families of the victims and with lower-Manhattan
business and cultural groups to plan a memorial for those who were lost that day. She knew that of
all the post–September 11 rebuilding efforts, none was more likely to generate controversy.
“No matter how great the challenge, I knew it was something I had to do,” says Contini, “and I
understood how important this was to the city and especially to the families.”
Contini has no idea what form the memorial will take, but she says she is certain of two things:
“It will be remarkable, and downtown is going to become more vibrant than it ever was.”

M E R R I L L LY N C H . 49
9.11
She has spent a lifetime with the same North Bronx Girl Scout unit, first
as a Brownie, then as a Scout, and now as a manager overseeing the 15
troops of North Bronx 4 Service Unit. But Valerie Andrusco had never
seen the girls work as single-mindedly as they did following the events of
September 11. Andrusco’s troops wrote cards and donated cookies to
local firehouses and police stations. They also organized an interfaith
service to recognize fire fighters and police officers. “We wanted to
thank them for all they do for us,” Andrusco says.
SY S T E M S D E V E L O P M E N T, G L O B A L
T E C H N O L O G Y & S E RV I C E S

V A L E R I E M. A N D R U S C O
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k

Rebuilding crushed
subway tunnels, which
was expected to take
more than two years
and cost as much as
$1 billion, may be
finished by year’s
After 26 distinguished years with Merrill Lynch, including 17 on the board of directors, end at a price of just
$92 million. Rapid
Steve Hammerman expected to retire in April 2002. But instead of swinging a five-iron on excavation of the World
Trade Center site made
some palm-lined fairway, he is now working 10-hour days as a deputy commissioner with the difference.
the New York Police Department—and loving every minute it gives him to serve his city.
Public service has always been in Hammerman’s blood. During the 1960s, he worked
as a federal prosecutor. And from 1979 to 1981, he was the regional administrator of
the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York office. But after witnessing
the devastation from a window on the 32nd floor of
D E P U T Y C O M M I S S I O N E R
FO R L E G A L M AT T E R S , N Y P D 4 World Financial Center, Hammerman’s resolve to
FO R M E R V I C E C H A I R M A N ,
M E R R I L L LY N C H serve intensified. He was reminded of his grandparents,
who had left Europe to make a better life in America.
S T E P H E N L. H A M M E R M A N “I thought, these terrorists are not going to do this to my
Ne w Yo r k , New Yo r k
country, to my family, to my friends.”
So when Raymond Kelly, the newly appointed New York City
police commissioner, called in December to ask Hammerman about
joining the department, he agreed. “We tend to take our freedoms for
granted,” says Hammerman. “We cannot do that anymore.”

50 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
 . REACHING OUT
THIS PAGE: BOTTOM LEFT, PETER MARLOW/MAGNUM PHOTOS

O F F I C E O F G E N E R A L C O U N S E L

MICHAEL SIMON HALL

New Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k

After fleeing downtown the morning of September 11, Michael Hall was drawn back
to the scene. “I realized that I was safe and my co-workers were safe, and I needed
to go back to help,” Hall says. Eventually, he made his way to Chelsea Piers. The
sports and entertainment complex had been converted into a support center, where
Hall and hundreds of others served meals, comforted the distraught and distributed
donated goods. “People of all ages and backgrounds came to lend a hand. It was
perfect teamwork,” he says.
Hall kept many of the memos, to-do lists, name tags and signs used in operating
the support center. Now he plans to mount an art installation titled “Pieces of Paper,” commemorating the spirit of
September 11 volunteerism. “Individually, the notes don’t amount to much, but together they paint a moving portrait
of cooperation and of hope amid terror,” he says. Hall wants to have the exhibit erected somewhere near Ground
Zero by April 4, 2003, the 30th anniversary of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the World Trade Center.

In 34 marathons spanning 13 years, Diane Kenna has run for many

reasons: to test her stamina, to meet personal goals and for the sheer
physical exhilaration of it. But Kenna never had a better reason than
the one motivating her in November 2001, when she ran the New
York City Marathon to honor the memory of a man she never knew.
Ruben Correa, a 44-year-old fire fighter with Engine Company
74 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where Kenna lives, died in
the World Trade Center attacks. He left a wife and three daughters.
GLOBAL
DEBT MARKETS, GMI “If something had happened to my home, Ruben would have been
there for me,” Kenna says. “I had to be there for him.”
DIANE KENNA Kenna and four other marathoners sponsored by Foot Locker
Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k
each raised $3,000 for the families of fire fighters lost in the attacks.
She ran through her tears. “The whole city was cheering,” Kenna
says. “It was the first time since September that you could feel joy
in the streets.”
WHAT WE LEARNED LIFE IS
FRAGILE, TIME IS PRECIOUS AND THE GREATEST GIFT
IS ONE ANOTHER
 9.11

It took exactly one hour and 43 minutes

for the Twin Towers to fall. But it may
be years, perhaps decades, before we
understand everything that happened
that day and how it has affected us.
Overnight, we were imbued with a deep sense
of vulnerability, as ordinary objects suddenly—and eerily—took on a menacing aura. Will
the plane overhead veer sharply toward our office building? Has that envelope on the
kitchen table carried poison into my home?
By sunrise on September 12, we realized that anyone who truly wants to hurt us can.
At first, that vulnerability crippled us. But in time it brought blessings. In the wake of the
attacks, many of us shifted focus from the chaos around us to the confusion within us.
OPPOSITE: JOHN REARDON/IPG/MATRIX; THIS PAGE: TOP, DANIEL BYRNE; RIGHT, ROBERT JORDAN/AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

Priorities were reordered. Goals reconsidered. Motives re-examined. Commitments

renewed. And a keen awareness of life’s fragility gave new meaning and pleasure to the
minutes and hours of our lives that had once passed almost without notice: breakfast with
the kids, an afternoon at the ballpark, a laugh with a co-worker. Life seems richer now,
family and friends dearer.
Our sense of community was renewed as well. The bravery of police officers, fire fighters
In a typical year, Americans and other emergency workers who risked—and often lost—their lives was a shining
buy 50 million U.S. flags.
After September 11,
sales tripled, as patriots
rushed to show their
colors everywhere—
pinned to lapels, printed
on T-shirts, flying from
houses and affixed
to cars and briefcases.
M E R R I L L LY N C H . 53
9.11 W H AT W E L E A R N E D .
In New York City this
September 11, there will
be a ceremony at Ground
Zero, candlelight vigils and
the lighting of an eternal
flame. Communities across
the country will stage their
own commemorations and
millions of Americans will
find personal ways to
mark the passage of a
year of sorrow and hope.

“The human spirit, universal in its

compassion, awesome in its resilience and
boundless in its reach, is something no
border can circumscribe nor evil deed divide.”

counterpoint to the dark deeds of murderous strangers. If there were people out there willing
to die to take our lives, we learned that there were even more who would die to save them. Even
now, a year later, walking by a firehouse reminds us that from the hottest fires heroes are forged.
And, of course, we learned that we were not alone. From across the city and the country,
our fellow citizens responded. Whether it was the downtown deli owner who provided water to
rescue workers, the volunteers who cheered on those combing through the rubble, or the welder
from Ohio who drove all night to help untangle girders, each of us lent a hand.
We watched as, from every corner of the globe, our anguish was echoed and our cause
joined. The Star-Spangled Banner rang out from Buckingham Palace—a resounding gesture
of sympathy and solidarity. From the streets of Seoul, South Korea, to Uhuru Park in Nairobi,
Kenya, thousands paid their respects. And in Paris, France, a newspaper headline read: “We Are
All Americans.”

THIS PAGE: JEFF CHRISTENSEN/REUTERS/TIME PIX; OPPOSITE PAGE: LAURA SIKES/CORBIS SYGMA
Indeed, in the end, the most important lesson we’ve learned is that we are all—individually
and collectively—part of something far greater and more potent than we had realized. The
human spirit, universal in its compassion, awesome in its resilience and boundless in its reach,
is something no border can circumscribe nor evil deed divide. We’ve seen the best of human
nature, and we’re far better for it. Whoever we are, wherever we are, we’ve learned that we may
be bowed, but never broken—and that we will step beyond the tragedies of the past and embrace
the triumphs of the future.

54 . M E R R I L L LY N C H
D E D I C AT E D T O T H E P E O P L E O F M E R R I L L LY N C H
A N D T H E I R FA M I L I E S, W H O R E S P O N D E D T O T E R R O R I S M A N D
T R A G E D Y W I T H C O M P A S S I O N, C O U R A G E A N D S T R E N G T H.