Of hurricanes and 9/11

zeb

A poster commenting on the Houston sit and closed kh's made reference to '9/11' referring to the failure of the wt/Bethel to offer first aid support to people fleeing from the crashes.

Could someone enlighten me please.

konceptual99

I recall that they locked the doors of Bethel but I am happy to be corrected.

darkspilver

Hey zeb - have you been to New York?

The Brooklyn Bridge is a high bridge and on the Brooklyn side it stays high and goes right past the Bethel.

I think the first exit (via stairs, at Washington Street) is shown in the picture below (left hand side) - thus to get to bethel (right hand side), you would need to exit and turn round and 'go back' on yourself walking along fairly blank roads (no shops, not much residential) - I think the only ones who would do that would be JWs - every one else would just carry-on walking away and doing their best to get home.

Therefore I would have thought that there would have been a very limited footfall of people going past the actual bethel?

Yes, bethelites could have gone out to help at the exit points from the Bridge (there is another further away), may be some did? may be they could have done more?

But I think the vision some may have of thousands of thousands of people walking directly past the front (or side) entrance of bethel as they escape Manhattan is wrong.

zeb

NY, haven't had the privilege but was curious as to the account of doors being locked by the gb but ordinary bethelites opening them.

Hecce

This is what I posted about 9/11:

If they open the KH for the brothers, they will have to do it for everybody. They had a golden opportunity on 9/11 by opening Bethel and they didn't do it, the goodwill and good publicity out of that was invaluable besides the human and compassion factor, but they couldn't see it.
I will be surprised if they open the Halls, but I could be wrong.

I now nothing about this comment:

NY, haven't had the privilege but was curious as to the account of doors being locked by the gb but ordinary bethelites opening them.

What I know is that they put a station at the Bridge and were giving water to the people going by and that they lent some of their fire fighting equipment, but they didn't open the doors as a refuge to the public.

Diogenesister

If I remember there was a posting by an ex-Bethelite about this. It was something to do with going to help.

The Bethelites wanted to but we're initially forbidden. Later management changed their minds and allowed bethelites to go help with, please don't quote me, either being medics or searching the rubble? Honestly can't remember.

John Davis

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/76761/jws-9-11

has a link to the press release about what Watchtower did that day. The Link is dead but the release is on that thread.

It also has a copy of the awake article where it does describe that people sought refuge at Brooklyn Bethel. There is another reference where Watchtower sent material aid to ground zero

I am sure everyone here is going to take those accounts with a huge grain of salt but that is what they claim.

zeb

ok thanks all. was just wondering.

Of hurricanes and 9/11

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