Are you burned out on 9/11? If so, is that a tremendous moral crime for which there is no remedy? How can we — as a world of nations — have so quickly become so tired and weary of an event that smothered the end of any sense of freedom we have left a mere six years ago?
The bigger crime is an ongoing inexcusable wallowing mass of death and despair at “Ground Zero” that started as this:
In my article, The Incongruity of Mourning and the 9/11 Memorial, we discussed how to create an appropriate memorial for the World Trade Center loss.
Last week we received updated news the Ground Zero World Trade Center site would be re-built using invisible buildings that blend into the sky, reflect the environment around them and form a transparent skyline while shouting to the world: “Please don’t hit us again! We’re here, but our buildings really aren’t!”
Continue reading → Building Invisible Buildings at Ground Zero
When do the dead cost more than the living? Is there greater worth being dead than being a survivor? In the wake of a national tragedy the lost automatically become more important than the living and I wonder why such great value is placed on the dead. After the Towers fell there was great mourning and public expression of loss.
Continue reading → The Incongruity of Mourning and the 9/11 Memorial
Bones are hardy and can testify throughout antiquity to the state of the person who earned those bones in their body. However, the dreams and wishes of others embedded in those bones are frail and fleeting because memory is convenient and, as humans, we run from pain instead of searching out suffering.
With the recent discovery of 74 more bone fragments mixed with gravel that had been shoveled to the sides of the roof of the former Deutsche Bank building in the ongoing open wound that is the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11, we are forced to reconcile the way we choose to memorialize people beyond bones and flesh. Deutsche Bank — the building below shrouded in black netting and holding the American flag — will be demolished floor-by-floor in June.
by Andrea Puckett
When I stepped out of college, I felt I would conquer the world. However, I quickly learned the best teacher is failure. I completed my undergraduate degree in 2001. After graduation, I remember thinking that it would be no problem to find a professional job because I had the skills and people would want me. Also, I felt that I would be like my father who graduated from college in the 1970s and had the same job for 30 plus years where he was able to rise from the bottom to the top. What I didn’t realize at the time that my father’s generational rules, my role model, after college didn’t apply to my situation.
Continue reading → How 9/11 Changed the Entry-Level Job Market
I have been sitting here for three hours trying to find a way to begin this blog entry. Where should I start? How do I bring it all up again? There are some things you don’t ever want to recall. Forcible recall is treacherous.
Yesterday, for the first time since September 11, 2001, I returned to the killing grounds of the World Trade Center. I returned, not by choice, but by the happenstance of mass transit. In my GO INSIDE Magazine article, Celebrate the Dead, Mourn the Living I reflect on what the World Trade Center meant to me and to a city. I have been uninterested in returning to “Ground Zero” because I have no interest in gawking at the empty space where once stood giants.
Yesterday, I had a meeting in downtown Manhattan and I decided to jump on the PATH train and get off at the WTC stop. Now, “WTC” has always meant “World Trade Center” even when it was not operable for four years, but WTC has always been a destination, and not a place, in the minds of many who ride the PATH every day. The recently re-opened WTC stop on the PATH brought the end-of-the line back to Manhattan proper and, I while I was prepared to get off at the WTC stop, I was unprepared for what I was about to witness.
by Steve Gaines
between what might otherwise have been
an arbitrary date in December nineteen forty-one
and another in September two thousand and one
the world has turned at an inconstant rate
sometimes at peace
sometimes not
by Guy Lerner
In this time of contrast and conflict, where experiences that repulse and rejoice live side by side, the lines that keep right and wrong apart are dangerously entangled. Never has this been clearer than in the days and weeks following the senseless acts of violence by man on man in New York last September.
This may read to you like rehashed sentiment, but I’m not talking about the evils of terrorism or the heroism of the millions who revolted, united, against it. What I saw was hardly sensational; it didn’t make any headlines, wasn’t cited as a crime against humanity, barely fuelled a protest. But it was real all the same.
* * * * *
by Jorg Mutz
I don’t remember how many times I saw the same fragment: A man who suddenly looks up and says the memorable four-letter word which should be the only comment on what happened. Dead or alive, the man became a vital part of a new era. Conspiracy of evil surfaced and declared open war against “the bold and beautiful” (“cowardly and ugly,” in Muslims’ eyes).
by Tammy Tillotson
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Psalm 23:5
December 28, 2001 was an important occasion. It was my twenty-third birthday and also the first time I flew in an airplane since the terrorist tragedies.
The Shadows of Death
I hesitantly planned this trip in November and, as the official take-off date crept closer, I nearly decided to cancel the flight and catch a Greyhound. In the end, a bus would have been cheaper, yet it would have taken two days longer to arrive at my destination. Living on a bus for half of my already short vacation was not my idea of feeling comfortable. I was going to fly. Yet, an internal debate and discussion raged between my logical and irrational fears and emotions.
This hesitancy over air travel was entirely out of character for me. I considered myself to be a somewhat seasoned and unique traveler, as I had flown at least a few dozen times. My last several flights had even been international ones. After much contemplation, I did not change my travel plans. As long as I felt afraid of flying, I recognized that the terrorists had successfully taken away part of my freedom. I wanted to regain that freedom.
Despite the still recent shadows of death, I was determined not to be fearful. I decided that the goal of my entire trip would be to find examples of everyday heroes, who despite their doubts, were still endeavoring to light the way as shining examples of people who were truly proud to be Americans.
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