Neighborhoods Weep Anew

When American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in the Rockaways section of New York City last week, killing all on board and five on the ground, the nation initially feared there had been a repetition of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, that concern has faded as the investigations point toward a mechanical or structural failure as the disaster’s cause.

But in the Rockaways, people still weep. They cry for a neighborhood that has had more than its share of pain. Between 70 and 100 people from this neighborhood of small family homes died in the World Trade Center, many of them police officers or firefighters.

An intense pain is also still being felt in another part of New York City--the gritty Manhattan neighborhood known as Washington Heights. More than half a million people who have immigrated from the Dominican Republic live there. And they weep for the 175 paisanos who died on Flight 587, which was bound for Santo Domingo.

Aboard the flight were people like Ivelisse Taveras, a 42-year-old hairstylist and mother of two who was traveling to her home island to visit her husband. And Felix Sanchez, a young financial consultant who handled investments for Dominican baseball players. He had been away from his World Trade Center office when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred. His luck ran out when he boarded Flight 587.

New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani organized a prayer service last Sunday for the victims of both of the neighborhoods; the rites drew top officials and more than 4,000 others to the Rockaways area of Queens.

It won’t be easy, but healing will come. Even if the Nov. 12 deaths are not linked to the terrible events of Sept. 11, these victims are just as deserving to be remembered as those who perished in the terrorist attacks.