Last night we attended the first annual “Notes of Hope” benefit dinner, to raise funds and awareness about the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Jane Rosenthal, Craig Hatkoff, Robert De Niro and others who have been instrumental in the revitalization of downtown Manhattan since 9/11 were honored. Denis hosted the event, introducing Billy Crystal, Peggy Noonan, and the other speakers.
Jane, Craig and Robert DeNiro, (Jane and Craig are our friends, and though I’ve met De Niro quite a few times, I can’t do that Hollywood thing of referring to him by his first name, because he really has no idea who I am every time we meet.) Anyway, I adore (worship) him as an actor and am in awe of his quiet, gentle public manner and the way that he very privately works wonders for the city he loves so much. He and producer Jane Rosenthal (They co-founded Tribeca Productions, his film company) started the Tribeca Film Festival after 9/11 in an effort to help that neighborhood recover. Millions attend the festival each year, bringing huge amounts of revenue to the downtown area.
Anyway, the event was a great success. I got to meet and chat with Peggy Noonan at length, as well as Mayor Bloomberg, who really should be running for President, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat (I had a dream once that I lived in his house and he was my father, but I decided not to share that with him.) I met Governor Paterson, who is blind and has a great sense of humor and cracked jokes while we were posing for pictures with him. Well, it was a great night during this sad week leading up to the anniversary of the attacks on America. The Christian Cultural Choir sang a very soulful rendition of America the Beautiful. It was just really moving to be in a large crowd where the entire purpose of the evening was to honor the victims and the heros and work on something positive in their memory. Not one person put forth their own political agenda on the thing. Nobody tried to capitalize on the anguish and turn it into fear and propaganda. It was a nice night in New York.
This time of year makes my heart a little heavier, reflecting back on 9/11 and to keep into perspective the important things in life. Every person lost that day was loved by someone.
How wonderful to attend an evening in honor and rememberance of the victims, heros.
There was a scene in “Rescue me” where Denis was in a bar asking if anyone could name anyone lost on 9/11, I looked at my neice and named five, she was quite surprised.
They will never be forgotten.
My thoughts, prayers are for the loved ones left behind and the wonderful City of NY.
What a beautiful photo of the Twin Towers and how enjoyable your evening sounded. I don’t think anyone will forget what they were doing that morning of 9/11/01 and how it has changed our lives forever. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Ann — I just spent the morning reflecting on (and blogging about — cathartic and long overdue) our family’s 9-11 experience; our twins were 6 days old. It was their very first Tuesday.
THANK YOU and Denis for maximizing your abilities and access — doing what you can and are doing to support the funding for the National 9/11 Memorial (and for what you all are doing the Leary Firefighters organization as well).
My heart still breaks remembering that morning and the days that followed…the lives that ended, and those forever changed.
God bless us — everyone.