Laughter helps Fensterstock bounce back
When people deliberately crash planes into buildings in your hometown, you need a sense of humor.
"It’s crucial," Blair Fensterstock of Fensterstock and Associates said of his sense of humor after addressing a room full of insurance and legal professionals in Milwaukee recently.
During his address at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, Fensterstock described the crowd rushing away from the World Trade Center after the initial impact Sept. 11, adding, "naturally, being a litigator, I ran toward the World Trade Center."
Moments before, Fensterstock had received a call from his secretary, who had just stepped off a train near the twin towers.
"She said something had happened – she didn’t know what," Fensterstock said. "She was wondering if I could pick her up."
Fensterstock and his office manager plowed into the fleeing throng, and he was some 20 feet away from the buildings when the second airliner impacted, raining glass and debris and fire.
His secretary escaped and survived, but is now too terrorized to return to work in the financial district.
Feeling the impact
Fensterstock directly felt the impact of the fall of the twin towers – both literally as he and his associates huddled in their offices four blocks from Ground Zero and figuratively as dozens of friends died in the disaster. The destruction of the towers is only a continuation of an intimate relationship Fensterstock has had with the buildings and their appeal as a target for terrorists. He and his firm represent clients in liability suits against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, having been appointed by the state Administrator of Courts in Albany, N.Y.
The initial attack involved the detonation of a rented van filled with about 1,200 pounds of ANFO – a concoction of ammonia nitrate and fuel oil — in the World Trade Center’s parking structure.
The attack left six dead and more than 1,000 injured, along 150-foot wide crater as much as five stories deep.
His involvement in litigation stemming from the earlier attack means Fensterstock may be reacting differently to the destruction of the towers than most laypeople with less intimate involvement in the original bombing.
"I think it is more controlled," Fensterstock said of his reaction. "It did not come as a surprise to me. That being said, it was still surreal to see."
Fensterstock recalled seeing the powder of pulverized concrete coating the one-square-mile area like a five-inch snowfall.
It is understandable, given the horrible power of the event and tremendous loss of life that, according to Fensterstock, 40% of those who live near the World Trade Centers are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Of course there is more than one way to deal with stress.
"Americans are making love more frequently," Fensterstock said, citing a study by Elizabeth Ellers of Grey Matter Marketing posted at www.adagency.com.
We are also dressing more casually and eating more high-fat foods, he said.
Dark humor
To make light of the attack after he and his associates proved the quasi-governmental Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had reason to believe such an attack would occur – and then it in fact did, twice – requires a very dark sense of humor indeed.
Fensterstock likened his joke-cracking in the wake of the attacks to the post-traumatic stress syndrome that so many – himself included – are feeling.
"We all have it," Fensterstock said. "It is just a question of the extent. The reason I have not been having nightmares and dreams about it is that I have been involved in anti-terrorism for years – and have been involved in the positive things that have resulted from the attacks."
One of those more positive things is the increased affection Americans are showing toward New Yorkers. Fensterstock hopes to leverage that affection as part of the NYC 2012 committee, which is seeking to land the 2012 Olympic Games in the Big Apple. His role on the committee ties in with a dream he has for the redevelopment of Ground Zero.
"I would love to see it turned into an Olympic City," Fensterstock said, acknowledging that it was not a realistic dream.
"It is a question of efficient utilization of space," he said. "After all, the business community lost 12 million square feet of office space."
February 1, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
