NBC REPORTS THAT THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON IS CANCELLED
The New York Marathon was canceled Friday in the wake of criticism that the race should not take place as the city struggles to recover from Hurricane Sandy.
Earlier Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had insisted that the race would take place Sunday despite some New Yorkers saying that holding the race would be insensitive and tie up police, generators and other resources when many are still suffering.
Joan Wacks, whose Staten Island waterfront condo was swamped with 4 feet of water, had predicted authorities would still have been recovering bodies when the estimated 40,000 runners from around the world would have hit the streets for the 26.2-mile race. She had called the mayor "tone deaf."
"He is clueless without a paddle to the reality of what everyone else is dealing with," she said. "If there are any resources being put toward the marathon, that's wrong. I'm sorry, that's wrong."
At a news conference, Bloomberg had defended his decision as a way to raise money for the stricken city and boost morale six days after Sandy flooded neighborhoods, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands homes and businesses and killed at least 39 people.
Bloomberg said New York "has to show that we are here and we are going to recover" and "give people something to cheer about in what's been a very dismal week for a lot of people."
"You have to keep going and doing things," he said, "and you can grieve, you can cry and you can laugh all at the same time. That's what human beings are good at."
Noting that street lights should be back on in Manhattan by midnight Friday and parts of the transit system are up and running again, he had given assurances that the race would not take away police officers and other resources needed in the recovery.
He also pointed out that his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, went ahead with the New York Marathon two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and "it pulled people together."
One of the world's pre-eminent road races, the New York Marathon generates an estimated $340 million into the city. This time, the marathon's sponsors and organizers had dubbed it the "Race to Recover" and intended to use the event to raise money for the city to deal with the crisis. New York Road Runners, the race organizer, will donate $1 million and said sponsors have pledged more than $1.5 million.
"It's hard in these moments to know what's best to do," NYRR president Mary Wittenberg said. "The city believes this is best to do right now." A short time later the call was made to postpone the race.
The New York course runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park, sending runners through all five boroughs. The course was not to be changed, since there was little damage along the route itself.
The damage all around it, however, ultimately swayed the decision.
Dear Brothers and Sisters of Lakewood
ReplyDeleteWith much of Lakewood NJ still without power for days, I humbly feel that Hashem is trying to send us a message that: "we" are putting out the light the power of the beauty of Lakewood, the largest town in the US of Torah learning. The light of the Kedusha the light of thousands of Torah learners right here in our town of Lakewood is being distinguished by us with our actions
We have more Yeshivas and Mesiftas than in any other town or city in America BY"H so we have more responsibility to keep Hashem happier with our way of life, get closer to Hashem as to be an example to the world how a Ben Torah is to behave
It's time for all of us to make a Cheshbon Hanefesh and see what could be corrected to bring back the light of the Shechinah to Lakewood the town of Torah and Chessed the town that was build by the big Rosh Yeshiva z"l
If we don't take the message from this storm seriously who knows what other difficult messages Hashem might have to send us in order to wake up and do Teshuva?
Take a moment and think...are we truly living a spiritual life at least similar to our great grandparents, the way they lived when they arrived in America some 60 years ago? or are we indulged in our clothing, i.e. shoes, jewelry, belt, coat, & mink coats, handbags, boots, sun glasses, non-stop shopping, hunting for bargains, living in restaurants, redoing our kitchens every so often, always planning our next vacations, now Leshem Mitzvah we are busy planning our winter vacation, and of course don't forget Motzai Shabbos hot Pizza & fries, eating it in the pizza shops with mixed company, we have turned into a major "planning board" not leaving enough time to see and plan our lives as "how to serve Hashem better”
Lets be honest it's almost impossible to walk the streets and keep our eyes clean, and yes, I am referring to neighborhoods of Bnai Torah and Chassidim, not in Harlem, Miami Beach or Las Vegas etc.
The "Franken-Storm" effect has been felt by many of us, we are all suffering because of it, one way or another, but..... The million dollar question is: are we waking up to Hashems cry?
Now it's our duty to be strong and say to Hashem:
OK we are ready to change our lives, our materialistic lifestyle that we have lived up to now, will change!!! We’ll start getting ourselves ready for the coming of Moshiach by living a true Torah life. BTW when Moshiach arrives there will be nothing left of all our Gashmius, so get a head start...and get rid of it now. Lets be more careful with all of the Halochos and 613 Mitzovos of our special sweet Torah.
Thank you for giving up your time and reading this note of Chizuk. Please copy and paste in Shuls, schools etc. so others can get Chizuk too.
s.p. It would be nice if everyone takes the Frankenstorm warning from Hashem very seriously to prevent future catastrophes.