Whats Good For the Goose
Is Good For the G_ _ _ _ _

The subject for this column is an article in the Boston Globe by Marcella Bombardieri.

The impetus for her article was the return in December to Newfoundland and a reunion with her hosts, of one of the passengers stranded in Lewisporte near Gander on September 11, 2001.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, U.S. airspace was closed to all but military aircraft , and civilian pilots were instructed to land elsewhere as soon as possible. About 200 planes touched down in Canada, and of these, 38 landed at Gander's International Airport. Since the population of Gander is only 10,300 and 6500 passengers were received, calls went out to outlying towns and villages for assistance. Lewisporte, a town of 3930 took in 773 passengers. The visitors were housed in churches and assembly halls with the townspeople supplying toilet articles, bedding and linens. Families with children, the elderly and even a few newlyweds were accommodated in private homes. Schools were closed for the week and the Junior High School turned into a utility center for showers, television sets, computer and e-mail access.

Ms. Bombardieri reports that meals bordered on the decadent and that volunteer cooks were in the kitchens from morning to night. Doctors and pharmacists who had to be seen by the passengers during their four day stay refused to take any money, which was gener­ally the rule for everyone else. Some of the passengers were taken on sightseeing trips during one of which they saw their rst moose. One of the passengers said of the Newes: They dont have a lot of money, but Ive never in all my life met people so generous and so giving.

I think she was right on both counts because Newfoundland is the poorest Province in Canada and the unemployment rate is around 17%. But the story which was headlined in the Montreal Gazette as Stranded in Gander and bombarded by love does not end there. Some of the passengers started a scholarship fund for Lewisporte even on the plane back, which was at $35,000 and growing at the time the article appeared. One of the stranded passengers was a vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundaton which donated $ 67,000 to the Town, most of it to be used for building a new computer lab in the Junior High School.

My own reaction is, that the extraordinary kindness of the Newfoundland­ers was reciprocated thoughtfully and respectfully by the mostly American passengers. Love was shown by the two groups without shame. The terrorist attack was unusual in the enormity of destruction and the large number of victims. But killing innocent civilians for a noble cause is as old as recorded history. Thats the way our world is. The Newes and the passengers have given us a glimpse what our world might be.

January 2002