Obama's Arizona Speech

"If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost."

(At some point soon, I will write a post on the Arizona shootings, and this speech).

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

U.K. Conference: "The 9/11 Decade"

The "9/11" Decade: Rethinking Reality: first call for papers, deadline 15 December 2010

Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE), University of Brighton
contact email: nc95@brighton.ac.uk

Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE)
University of Brighton, UK

6th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference
The “9/11” Decade: Rethinking Reality
Wednesday 31 August – Friday 2 September 2011

Joint conference organisers:
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics, University of Brighton;
Centre for Ethics and Value Inquiry, University of Ghent;
Centre for Research Ethics & Ethical Deliberation, Edge Hill University;
Centre for Research in Ethics and Globalisation, University of Groningen

Invited keynote speaker: Geoffrey Robertson QC

Call for Papers

It is no exaggeration to claim that the politics of the last decade have their origin in one event: the hijacking and flying of passenger aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Since then wars, putatively justified as responses to this attack, have raged in Iraq and in Afghanistan. These wars have resulted in the growth of violent opposition to a perceived US imperial polity; have been used to justify the rewriting of long established legal frameworks protecting the people’s rights have led to neurosis about the protection of borders which the age of global capital was supposed to bring to an end; and have seen the crippling of active leftist opposition to the opportunistic furtherance of the neo-liberal revolution.

This interdisciplinary conference seeks critically to rethink this last decade and to put into question the nostrums it would have us take for granted. We call for papers that:
• challenge dominant paradigms for understanding terror, war, rights, citizenship, legitimacy, politics and the person;
• address the shifts in our cultural landscapes that the securitisation of everyday life has created;
• rethink the architecture of Empire, the literature of “9/11” and the geography of the unending “war on terror.”

Proposals are invited on any relevant topic and should be addressed to an interdisciplinary audience. Likely themes may include be the following, although the conference is by no means limited to these:
The architecture of terror: cities “at war”; designing the security society
“Just” war and asymmetrical warfare: aerial bombing; “suicide” bombing; drones
The politics of 2001-2011: the “war on terror”; rethinking empire, globalisation and sovereignty after “9/11”; the re-articulation of Capital; the “shock doctrine”
Rethinking ourselves: torture; identity; Islamophobia; immigration, asylum and refugees
Culture after “9/11”: art, literature, film and popular culture.
The politics of death after “9/11”: “remembrance” and memorialisation; counting the dead
Philosophy and its limits: the language of terror and the terror of language; sincerity and conviction
Theorising resistance: rethinking the law; rethinking the political

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be emailed to Nicola Clewer by 15 December 2010: nc95@brighton.ac.uk

Decisions will be communicated no later than 15 January 2011.

For further information please visit website here

Call for 9-11 Book Reviews

9-11 Book Reviews

Randy Robertson / Modern Language Studies
contact email:
robertson@susqu.edu

Modern Language Studies, the journal of the Northeast Modern Language Association, is seeking reviews of works related to 9-11. The reviews will appear in a special issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. Relevant works include those on terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy in the wake of 9-11, etc. The reviewed work can be fiction or nonfiction.

Please submit your review electronically (as a Word attachment) to Randy Robertson, Reviews Editor of MLS, at robertson@susqu.edu.

New book on Trauma - Haunting Legacies

From: Columbia University Press

About the book:

From mass murder to genocide, slavery to colonial suppression, acts of atrocity have lives that extend far beyond the horrific moment. They engender trauma that echoes for generations, in the experiences of those on both sides of the act. Gabriele Schwab reads these legacies in a number of narratives, primarily through the writing of postwar Germans and the descendents of Holocaust survivors. She connects their work to earlier histories of slavery and colonialism and to more recent events, such as South African Apartheid, the practice of torture after 9/11, and the "disappearances" that occurred during South American dictatorships.

Schwab's texts include memoirs, such as Ruth Kluger's Still Alive and Marguerite Duras's La Douleur; second-generation accounts by the children of Holocaust survivors, such as Georges Perec's W, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Philippe Grimbert's Secret; and second-generation recollections by Germans, such as W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz, Sabine Reichel's What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, and Ursula Duba's Tales from a Child of the Enemy. She also incorporates her own reminiscences of growing up in postwar Germany, mapping interlaced memories and histories as they interact in psychic life and cultural memory.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Writing Against Memory and Forgetting

3. Haunting Legacies: Trauma in Children of Perpetrators

4. Identity Trouble: Guilt, Shame, and Idealization

5. Replacement Children: The Transgenerational Transmission of Traumatic Loss

6. Deadly Intimacy: The Politics and Psychic Life of Torture

Bibliography

About the author: Gabriele Schwab is Chancellor's Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. Her books in English include Derrida, Deleuze, Psychoanalysis; Accelerating Possessions: Global Futures of Property and Personhood; and The Mirror and the Killer-Queen: Otherness in Literary Language.

Upcoming publications on the 10-year anniversary of 9-11

From UPenn CFP:

"9/11/2011" Abstract deadline: November 30, 2010 Paper Submission deadline: May 2011

Other Modernities, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
contact email:
amonline@unimi.it

9/11/2011
Guest Editors Emanuele Monegato and Cinzia Scarpino

If the risk of turning the forthcoming ten-year 9/11 anniversary into a commemorative rhetorical triumph is very high, for us, Altre Modernità (http://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/index), a journal of Literary and Cultural studies, that date may otherwise invite reflections that encompass the one event – or, better, “the mother of all events” – which has marked a watershed in late-modern history. Hence the idea of a special issue, “9/11/2011”, which welcomes proposals for papers that explore how the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers have re-drawn both the political boundaries and the world’s imagination of our time on the basis of the “war on terror” ideology endorsed by George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. Beside considering the effects posited by such rhetorical strategy – what U.S. scholar Donald Pease has called “the New American Exceptionalism” – another issue we are interested in investigating is the “collateral language” which has been imposed upon American and world citizens as a weapon of “mass distraction”, a doublespeak aimed at containing political dissent and cement national as well as international consent. Fuelled by a renewed East/West clash of civilizations, Washington “war on terror” ideological tenets have been responsible for restrictive immigration policies not only against Arabs but also against other peoples, for example Mexicans.

We also welcome theoretical-philosophical analyses of the epistemological changes associated with a post-9/11 paradigm as well as aesthetics insights into the literary and artistic output which has been shaped after the very “futurable” event long anticipated by mass culture (cinema, TV, comics, etc.).

A further area of consideration will include, accordingly, a study of 9/11 as a turning point in the writing of American and world literature and literary criticism.

Possible topics of relevance include:

• 9/11/2001 – 9/11/2011
• 9/11 East-West
• 9/11 and the contemporary philosophical paradigm
• Aesthetics of 9/11
• “Language is power”: collateral language
• “War on terror” rhetoric
• New 9/11 in contemporary arts
• Theories and acts of violence in post-9/11 cultural representations
• 9/11 and (new) mass culture(s): cinema, documentaries, TV series, comics, music

Proposal Submission deadline: November 30, 2010 at amonline@unimi.it
Paper Submission deadline: May 2011 at amonline@unimi.it
All essays will undergo a double-blind peer review.
Online: September 11, 2011
Languages of contributions: Italian, English, Spanish, French.

We also welcome book reviews (fiction, criticism, poetry, etc.) and reviews for art events (exhibitions, installations, etc.) addressing the above-mentioned themes. Please write to amonline@unimi.it

2. “Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country”

Leslie Shortlidge/Kirwan institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
contact email:
shortlidge.2@osu.edu

Call for papers
Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 4 Number 3
Spring 2011 (June 2011)
Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010

“Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country”
The ten-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on American soil encourages us to consider how the events of that day have framed how we address race, religion and national origin in the policy and public realms. The 9/11 moment has shaped American domestic and foreign policy, and has transformed individuals and communities both in the United States and abroad. Here in the United States, Arab Americans, South Asians, Muslims, and Sikhs have endured backlash, targeted law enforcement, and various forms of racial, religious and national origin profiling at the hands of the general public, the media, and the U.S. government in the name of national security. Nor were the repercussions of 9-11 felt only within the United States; Muslim communities around the world have experienced unprecedented backlash since 9/11.

Guest Editor Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts invite submissions for the third issue of its fourth volume, entitled “Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country .”
We especially welcome analysis, critiques, reflections, and documentation by activists, community-based organizations, and others who responded to the crisis that enveloped the South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, and Arab American communities in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

Topics of inquiry can include but are not limited to:
• How has 9/11 changed the way that we think about race, religion, national origin, and immigration status in the United States and abroad?
• What tools and strategies have been used by community activists to sustain and build community during and after the 9/11 moment?
• What impacts does being targeted as “suspect” by the United States government have on an individual? A family? A community?
• What are some of the success stories around coalition-building and race relations that have occurred since 9/11?
• What lasting impacts, if any, have the events of 9-11 and their aftermath had on relationships between racial and ethnic minority communities in the United States or abroad?
• What lasting impacts, if any, have 9-11 and the subsequent decade-long, global War on Terror had on the political consciousness of Arab American, South Asian, Muslim and/or Sikh communities inside or outside the United States?
See our suggested Style Guidelines (www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html) and please feel free to contact our managing editor, Leslie Shortlidge (shortlidge.2@osu.edu), with any questions or concerns about submitting your work.

Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome. See website at http://www.raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.

My Visit to Ground Zero

In May 2000, I made my first trip to New York City. I was attending a wedding between a Japanese woman and an American man, and the couple had arranged a tour of the city for some of their guests. It was an ideal first time experience, and I was lucky to be a part of it, essentially for free. We did many of the typical tourist excursions -- the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Little Italy and Chinatown, a boat tour along the skyline. And, we also stopped outside the Twin Towers, just long enough to get out of our shuttle and shoot several photographs. I really had no understanding of what occurred inside those buildings or in the surrounding area. But I did recall the 1993 bombing and knew that the towers had been, at one time, the tallest buildings in the world. Mainly, my recollection of the towers is limited to the one or two images left behind by my point-and-shoot camera: massive, institutional gray structures that blocked the sun and sky, making it seem like night on the street below. Because it was impossible to capture the buildings in their entirety, most of us tried to catch the top of the towers in our lens (see my photo below, from May 9, 2000). Maybe I am wrong, but I also recall sitting or kneeling on the sidewalk out in front in order to get the best view. And then it was time to board the shuttle again with the remainder of the gawkers, most of whom had never been in the city before.

personal photo, taken May 9, 2000

Since 2000, I've returned to NYC three times; however, because I usually spend time in other areas of the city, I had never gone to Ground Zero until a week or so ago. There were several factors that motivated me to visit the area this time around. First, after the memory course I taught last semester, I thought it was essential that I be able to talk about my direct impressions of the site, particularly since several of my students had already visited Ground Zero and the visitors' center. There is no substitute for being there. Waiting until now has also allowed me to have a more informed encounter with the site; I benefited from studying memory and traumatic events for many years prior to my visit, because I was able to observe and evaluate the scene differently than had I gone with say, only the TV images of planes crashing into the buildings. Finally, the fact that the site is under construction also compelled me to see it now, before the new tower goes up. The traumatic landscape is unstable and in the process of being transformed (though perhaps "transformed" is too strong a word because it signals something final, and I mean to indicate more of an evolution).

I made the trip to Ground Zero with a person who grew up just outside the city. At one time, he had worked briefly in Manhattan. He had last visited the site in December 2001, when the area was heavily protected by chain link fences still peppered with photographs of loved ones, letters, poems and other personal items. He experienced 9-11 while living in the Midwest -- actually, in what some call the "buckle of the Bible Belt," a phrase that to me, has always encompassed multiple points on the U.S. map -- and he had felt, early on, that New York's 9-11 had been "co-opted" by the rest of the country. Yes, of couse 9-11 was a national, collective event. But to him, it was as if suddenly, New York mattered in the Midwest. More than just the stereotypical image of rude people, insane taxi drivers and crime, New York suddenly became "ours," with the flood of "United We Stand" and "God Bless America" bumper stickers soon to come, followed by the yellow ribbon car magnets ("Support the Troops"). In other words, where he lived, the experience of 9-11 seemed to become political quicker than elsewhere. Revolting expressions of nationalism had not only (re-)surfaced, but taken over the entire landscape. Everyone's patriotism was questionable. If you didn't have an American flag in your yard, you were probably "the enemy." This was the logical mindset spawned by the "you are either with us or against us" mentality of the post 9-11 world. In his own words, he writes:

it was odd for New York, or at least certain very specific aspects of New York being embraced suddenly as "our America."  New York has always been regarded, especially in the rural midwest, as essentially "foreign" --- in ethnicity, values, politics, etc.  It felt manipulative and disingenuous the way very specific New Yorkers (Cops, Firemen, First Responders, Rudy Giuliani) were suddenly---it seemed---granted temporary status as exemplary Americans.  It was always and without fail these New Yorkers who were celebrated, not the ordinary citizens---not the Hasidic Jews and the Somali cab drivers and the Puerto Rican restaurant workers, etc.

Then came the 2004 GOP Convention in New York, which took this manipulation to new heights.  911 memories and Ground Zero  was a kind of conquered "Red State territory" in the heart of the enemy.

It is difficult to be at Ground Zero and concentrate on the terror of 9-11 without also reflecting on the way 9-11 was used -- and continues to be used -- politically (a perfect recent example is the debate over whether a mosque should be permitted near the site). While the Ground Zero landscape is about the catastrophic loss of human lives, it is subsequently about other wars (Iraq, Afghanistan); about imperialism and capitalism; about religious freedom and (in)tolerance; about memorialization and urban landscapes. My visit to the site was relatively brief -- maybe 15 minutes -- because, truthfully, there is not that much to see, but a lot upon which we can reflect later on.

We took the subway to Ground Zero, and even though my companion thought the stop for the WTC had been eliminated, we later discovered it still exists, but on a different train than the one we were on. Even if we hadn't known which direction to head when getting off the subway, it would have become quickly apparent by the long line of tourists on the sidewalk and an enormous construction site at the end of the street. We bypassed the tourist line, which was gazing at a bronze-colored wall sculpture commemorating "first responders," and stood at the edge of the sidewalk across the street from the construction area.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of people with cameras out. I told my companion, "I feel guilty taking photographs," but at the same time, it seemed a necessary, important thing to do, as long as it was done in a respectful, unobtrusive way. This is the first photo I took:

I am not positive, but I believe that what we are looking at in the center of the photo is the beginning of the new building, "One World Trade Center," which is scheduled to open in 2013. While looking at this site, I was struck by the emptiness of the landscape, and the fact that the sky is visible. When I stood in front of the Twin Towers in 2000, what I recall is the shadow they produced, and the sliver of sky between them. What's interesting is that the view of this traumatic site of memory is also now obstructed by fences and gates and screens of all kinds. I don't know how much of this has to do with security, and how much is just a regular part of safety on any construction job site, but it certainly adds a sense of secrecy to the whole operation, despite the large banners designed to help viewers understand what the site will look like upon completion (see photos 3 and 4).

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Although it was important to contemplate the construction site, to take in the cramped quarters of the nearby streets and to imagine what the devastation must have been like, I found it more interesting to turn my gaze to the sidewalk area. I think I may have been anticipating a larger, public memorial on the street. But all that was there was this makeshift memorial:

This memorial, to NYC firefighters lost on 9-11 (see large poster), is also a place for people to leave fire and police uniform insignia from all over the world. The fluorescent uniform item in the lower right-hand corner is that of a police officer from Móstoles, just outside Madrid. If one looks carefully, above this memorial is a handwritten sign taped to a building window:

"Vendors are not allowed to sell near or around firehouse (photos/pamphlets/booklets/etc. Please do not purchase in these areas and report them to police. Thanks."

Just around the corner from the sign above, one finds the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, open 10-6 on most days, with a $10 admission fee. We did not go in. For some reason, to do so felt wrong. I had learned enough on the street outside. Nonetheless, I did pick up a pamphlet, and am intrigued by this description of the center:

Tribute Center Tour Guides are intimately connected to the events of September 11, 2001 as survivors, family members who lost loved ones, rescue workers, civilian volunteers, police, firefighters and Lower Manhattan residents and workers. Guides share their personal experience of loss, healing and survival with a factual description of the events, providing the visitor with an unparalleled opportunity to connect with history firsthand.

I am glad I made this visit to Ground Zero, though I must admit I am in opposition to the construction of a new building at this site. I can understand and respect the argument that sees construction as proof of strength and perseverance in the face of tragedy, as well as what comes "natural" to New York. However, the entire reconstruction process has already been marred by design polemics, and to me, there is something very American about the need to rebuild bigger and better and not just let it be. I do like the plans for the actual memorial, but I am resistant to that new memorial being located alongside more commerce and power. Perhaps, when I view the site in coming years, my impressions will change. Also, I should recognize that my Midwestern upbringing also probably colors my perspective on this site and what ought to be done with it.

18th-Century Ship Uncovered at Ground Zero

This story certainly speaks to the "archaeology of memory" (Benjamin). An 18th-century ship has been uncovered at the Ground Zero site. Strangely, I read about this in the Spanish paper El País, but have yet to see any coverage in the NYT. The article below comes from The Guardian:


Ground Zero diggers uncover hull of 18th century ship

Archaeologists examine timbers found at site of World Trade Centre bombings

Workers excavating the World Trade Centre site have unearthed the 10-metre hull of a ship believed to have been buried in the 18th century.

The vessel was probably used along with other debris to fill in land to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson river, archaeologists have said.

It was hoped the artefact could be retrieved by the end of today, said archaeologist Molly McDonald. A boat specialist was going to the Ground Zero site to examine the find.

McDonald said she wanted to at least salvage some timbers; it was unclear if any large portions could be lifted intact.

"We're mostly clearing it by hand because it's fragile," she said. Construction equipment may be used later in the process.

McDonald and Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist, were at the site of the 11 September 2001 attacks when the hull was discovered on Tuesday morning.

"We noticed curved timbers that a back hoe brought up," McDonald said. "We quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull.

"We're going to send timber samples to a laboratory to do dendrochronology to help us get a sense of when the boat was constructed." Dendrochronology is the science that uses tree rings to determine dates and chronological order.

A 45kg (100lb) anchor was found a few yards from the hull on Wednesday but the experts are not sure if it belongs to the ship. The anchor was about a metre across, McDonald said.

The archaeologists are racing to record and analyse the vessel before exposure to air makes the delicate wood deteriorate.

"I kept thinking of how closely it came to being destroyed," Pappalardo said.

"We Are Not Here to Reminisce" - Queen Visits Ground Zero Site

Via: NYT

Queen Addresses UN, Places Wreath at Ground Zero
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 7, 2010

Filed at 12:07 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Queen Elizabeth II challenged the United Nations to fight global dangers by ''waging'' peace, then entered ground zero on Tuesday for the first time to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Back in New York after more than three decades, the 84-year-old British monarch turned her eyes toward the future of the World Trade Center: new skyscrapers rising over what was once smoldering debris that had buried loved ones forever.

''We are not here to reminisce,'' she told the world body earlier Tuesday. ''In tomorrow's world, we must all work together as hard as ever if we are truly to be United Nations.''

Not even a record high temperature of 102 degrees, accompanied by a heat advisory, kept the monarch from New York's hallowed ground.

She arrived at the 16-acre site in lower Manhattan late Tuesday afternoon with her husband, Prince Philip. They walked slowly across a wooden walkway that reaches deep over the construction site. Huge cranes hovering overhead were stopped and workers took a break during the queen's visit.

In silence, Elizabeth laid a wreath of flowers on an iron pedestal near the footprint of the trade center's south tower. Bowing her head, she gently brushed her gloved hand against the locally grown red peonies, roses, lilies, black-eyed Susans and other summer blossoms.

Then the queen met dozens of family members and first responders who had lost loved ones as the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.

''The queen just was asking me about that day, and how awful it must've been,'' said Debbie Palmer, whose husband, battalion Fire Chief Orio Palmer, was killed. ''She said, `I don't think I've ever seen anything in my life as bad as that. And I said, `Let's hope we never do again.'''

Palmer said of the monarch: ''She's beautiful. She looks like she could be anybody's grandmother.''

The queen wore a two-piece white, blue and beige print dress with long sleeves and a matching brimmed champagne-colored silk hat with flowers.

While there were ''waterfalls coming down my body, there was not a drop of sweat on her face; I don't think royalty sweats,'' joked Nile Berry, 17, son of securities analyst David S. Berry, who died in the south tower, leaving behind three children.

''I think she understood'' the significance of meeting victims' relatives, Nile told The Associated Press, adding that it would take him a while to ''digest'' that he had met the queen.

Elizabeth left the site in a motorcade to tour the British Garden of Remembrance, built to honor the 67 Britons killed in the attack. She met their families there, joining them for a ceremony.

Tim Rosen, who called himself a ''fan of the queen,'' was angling for a glimpse of her at the corner of ground zero. ''She's been through a lot,'' said the 30-year-old attorney. ''She has a certain sense of duty that I like. A very elegant woman.''

''There she is!'' Patricia Farmer, a real estate project manager, shouted when she spotted her near the garden. ''The one in the blue!''

Farmer, who said she was born in Northern Ireland, called Elizabeth ''my queen.''

But not everyone was so enthused. Roman Shusterman held a sign near ground zero that read, ''Queen of British Petroleum,'' the British company whose rig explosion in Louisiana created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

''The queen hasn't said anything about it because she thinks she's too good for us,'' said Shusterman, 28.

Earlier Tuesday, Elizabeth's familiar formality graced the lectern at the United Nations, where she urged the world body to spearhead an international response to global dangers, while promoting prosperity and dignity for the world's inhabitants.

''It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all,'' she said, while praising the U.N. for promoting peace and justice.

Speaking as queen of 16 U.N. member states and head of a commonwealth of 54 countries with a population of nearly 2 billion people, Elizabeth recalled the dramatic changes in the world since she last visited the United Nations in 1957, especially in science, technology and social attitudes.

''In my lifetime, the United Nations has moved from being a high-minded aspiration to being a real force for common good,'' Elizabeth told diplomats from the 192 U.N. member states. ''That of itself has been a signal achievement.''

But she also praised the U.N.'s aims and values -- promoting peace, security and justice; fighting hunger, poverty and disease; and protecting the rights and liberties of every citizen -- which have endured.

''For over six decades the United Nations has helped to shape the international response to global dangers,'' the queen said. ''The challenge now is to continue to show this clear ... leadership while not losing sight of your ongoing work to secure the security, prosperity and dignity of our fellow human beings.''

Elizabeth and Prince Philip flew to New York from Canada for the five-hour visit and departed for London from John F. Kennedy International Airport at around 7 p.m. Tuesday.

------

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer and John Heilprin at the United Nations and Marc Beja in New York City contributed to this report.

New Photos of 9/11

From: The New York Times

February 15, 2010

Editorial
9/11 From Above

In the days and weeks immediately after Sept. 11, there was, in many people, a deep hunger to see and see again what happened as the World Trade Center towers burned and then fell, a hunger fed by disbelief and shock. But as the years have passed, 9/11 has resolved itself into a collection of core images — photos, impressions, memories — whether you were in Manhattan that day or not.

This is the condensation that time nearly always accomplishes. So it comes as a surprise — just what kind will vary from person to person — to see the photographs taken that morning by Greg Semendinger, then a New York police detective, from a Police Department helicopter, the only aircraft allowed over Manhattan once the crisis had begun.

The dozen photos — obtained by ABC News from the National Institute of Standards and Technology — were shot from several different angles: over the Hudson, crossing Manhattan north of the towers, looking back toward Brooklyn, and up the island. They capture an aerial glimpse of a burning tower and then the immense plumes of smoke, ash and dust that engulf the sudden vacancy where the trade center stood.

Because they’re shot from on high, they capture with startling clarity both the voluminousness of the pale cloud that swallowed Lower Manhattan and the sharpness of its edges, a reminder of the beauty of the morning out of which so much tragedy so quickly roiled.

It is surprising to see these photographs now in part because we should have seen them sooner. It took a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain them from the national standards institute, which provided the official, technical analysis of why the towers fell. These photos also remind us of how important it is to keep enlarging our sense of what happened on 9/11, to keep opening it to history.

They will be part of what we hope will be an enormous and publicly accessible archive at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

From: The New York Times
February 10, 2010

Aerial Photos of Trade Center on 9/11 Released
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, in the NYT

Newly released aerial photographs of the World Trade Center terror attack capture the towers’ collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the dust clouds that spread over Lower Manhattan and New York harbor.

The images were taken from a police helicopter carrying the only photographer allowed in the air space near the towers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which investigated the towers’ collapse.

The still images are “a phenomenal body of work” that show a new, wide-angle look at the towers’ collapse and the gray dust clouds that shrouded the city afterward, said Jan Seidler Ramirez, the chief curator of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which is compiling a digital archive of attack coverage. The photos are “absolutely core to understanding the visual phenomena of what was happening,” Ms. Ramirez said.

The images of the dust clouds rising as high as some downtown skyscrapers “are some of the most exceptional images in the world, I think, of this event,” she said.

ABC said the photographs were among 2,779 pictures on 9 CDs the Institute of Standards gave the network. Some of the photographs had not been released before, it said.

The network posted 12 photos this week on its Web site, all taken by Greg Semendinger, a former detective with the New York Police Department’s Aviation Unit, who was first in the air in a search for survivors on the rooftop. He said he and his pilot watched the second plane hit the south tower from the helicopter.

“We didn’t find one single person. It was surreal,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “There was no sound. No sound whatsoever but the noise of the radio and the helicopter. I just kept taking pictures.”

View photos here

Spielberg to produce documentary series on WTC rebuilding

The re-building of the Twin Towers has already generated a great deal of controversy -- what the design should look like; what sort of structure it ought to be; what the memorial component might entail; whether or not to rebuild at all; whose design ought to prevail, etc. etc. Now, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg will be following the reconstruction process in a new TV documentary series. The structure, previously called "Freedom Tower" (some other time, I will reserve a post just for this name!), is slated to be completed in 2013, so stay tuned for further posts on this front. I've included a few recent YouTube videos that illustrate the current state of the site (second video includes rather Hollywood-esque soundtrack):





From: BBC News

Spielberg to make Ground Zero doc

Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is to produce a TV documentary series on the rebuilding of New York's World Trade Center, to be shown in 2011.

Rebuilding Ground Zero will chronicle the engineering and building of the skyscraper being built on the site of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.

It will also pay tribute to those who died in the 11 September 2001 attacks.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said the series would tell "a compelling story of remembrance and renewal".

He said Spielberg's involvement as executive producer would ensure "the story will be brought to life for people around the world for generations to come".

The Science Channel series will use 3D, time-lapse cameras, computer modelling techniques and other methods to chart the construction of One World Trade Center.

Formerly known as the Freedom Tower, the 1,776 foot (541 meter) skyscraper will be the tallest building in the US.

Work on the building officially began in 2006 and is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

Rebuilding Ground Zero will be produced by the Science Channel, a division of the Discovery network.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/8460887.stm

Published: 2010/01/15 10:39:06 GMT

Hacer clic aquí para leer la noticia en español

Documentary Film: "Man on Wire"

I recently had the opportunity to see Man on Wire (2008, dir. James Marsh) for a second time, the award-winning documentary film which chronicles the exploits of Philippe Petit, who walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

As a child, I was fascinated with stories of daredevil acts, like the guy who rode over Niagara Falls in a barrel and came out alive, or Harry Houdini's exploits to break out of chains underwater. I am not old enough to remember Philippe Petit's stunning, illegal high-wire act, but I was able to visit the Twin Towers just one year before 9-11 (though I never went inside). It truly boggles the mind to contemplate what it meant to walk, essentially on air, not once, not twice, but eight times back and forth in the two hundred or so feet between the towers. And to lie down, and look down, as Petit did!

Perhaps the most extraordinary feat of Man on Wire is the complete omission of any direct reference to 9-11. While the director has stated that he did not include 9-11 on purpose -- "Why burden this beautiful story with the ugliness of that?" -- a 2008 review of the film in the Times Online (U.K.), questioned whether this film about a high-wire daredevil may actually be the "best 9/11 work of art so far" (see "Is Man on Wire the most poignant 9/11 film?"). Again, what is not stated, or what remains silent, is a powerful driving force of this film. We will discuss this movie further here after we view it for class.

The Re-Writing of Terror

As the labels of this blog suggest, I have thus far spent considerably more time posting on news from other countries regarding memory, amnesia and politics, while giving domestic news less coverage. There is no secret motive here. On a daily basis, I listen to, watch and read news from the U.S. Of course I am keenly interested in what goes on in this country, but I am even more intrigued by the news coming out of the international press (international news can often be hard to come by or superficially-treated in the mainstream U.S. media). I believe it is essential -- a duty, even -- for every citizen, in any country, to familiarize him or herself with current events, from a variety of perspectives. Part of understanding one's own country comes from observing and reflecting upon how that country is perceived abroad.

As a rule, I do not believe in political apathy. I think it is dangerous, or at least irresponsible, for those living in a democratic society to proclaim "not to care" about politics. Cynicism about today's political landscape is understandable; however, refusing to be informed or to reflect upon current debates because it is easier to do so is simply unacceptable! I can say this now, but I am rather ashamed to admit that when I was 18, I actually recall telling my parents I did not want to vote, because it was my "right" not to do so. My parents tried to drive home the point that voting was a privilege not afforded to everyone, and yet, in my teenage mind, it seemed easier to just "opt out" of politics. The first election I voted in was 1992. Yet it was really after 9-11 that I began to make politics a part of my daily life.

Perhaps because I have made the study of memory a part of my life as well, I am even more drawn to stories such as those that follow this introduction. Each of these reports suggest a bold, blatant - and, what is worse, initially uncontested -- erasure of one of most traumatic events in American history, 9-11. Such stories merit serious attention, and demand an explanation, regardless of one's political ideology.

Let's begin with the more recent story. Yesterday, on the TV program Good Morning America (see video below), former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed, in conversation with George Stephanopoulos, that "we had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama."



According to an article in the Boston Herald, Giuliani later told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he misspoke. Stephanopoulos, a former political adviser under President Clinton and a veteran television news analyst, was later raked across the coals for failing to press Giuliani further. A report that appeared yesterday in the New York Times, however, focused less on the absurdity of Giuliani's claim, and more on "Stephanopoulos's red face."

I find Giuliani's statement less troubling for what he says, and more for what he doesn't. Just a few posts ago, I spoke about the construction of amnesia in the film The Headless Woman. In the television appearance, Rudy Giuliani actively engages in a revision of 9-11. In fact, it might be better to call this "revision" a non-vision. Spanish historians have argued, in recent analyses of revisionist movements in Spain, for a more suitable term; I agree that "revisionism" is a misnomer, for most revisionists do not seek to "re-vise" or "re-view" the past, but to erase an existing narrative and replace it with an earlier one, or to forge a new tale entirely by appropriating and manipulating existing narratives.

In the video clip, Giuliani -- significantly, for better or worse still the "face" of 9-11 for many Americans (he is still often referred to as "America's mayor") -- omits the naming of 9-11 entirely, opting instead to reference the fatal shooting rampage at Ford Hood (Texas) in November. Here, Giuliani counts on putting fear back in operation: under Obama, we are not safe, under Bush, we were. Giuliani's statement suggests, thanks to what he does not say, that 9-11 did not happen while George W. Bush was president. Giuliani, criticized by many on both the left and right for appropriating 9-11 for personal political gain, has here determined that 9-11 is "that which shall remain nameless." Giuliani's spokeswoman tried to patch over the mess by issuing a statement that the former mayor was "clearly talking post-9/11 with regard to Islamic terrorist attacks on our soil." If that is the case, how do we explain the utter absence of 9-11 from the discussion?

One might say that perhaps we are taking the idea of "amnesia" or forgetting of 9-11 too far with regard to the Good Morning America video. And yet. . .just a few months ago, we witnessed an even more abhorrent statement, also issued in the wake of the Ft. Hood attacks, by former Bush White House spokesperson Dana Perino.

In an appearance on Fox News, Dana Perino stated: "We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term."




Although Giuliani and Perino are Republicans, people in all political parties in this country ought to be deeply disturbed by their remarks, which are historically, factually incorrect statements! George Stephanopoulos, and the Fox reporters interviewing Perino, ought to be held accountable as well for allowing their interviews to proceed after their interviewees made such ludicrous statements. Yes, it is critical to make clear that 9-11 did happen under George W. Bush -- Stephanopoulos, the Fox anchors, and whoever else involved had an obligation to assert that information, publicly, at the moment -- not in a statement issued after the fact. By refusing to acknowledge 9-11, and by establishing the idea that domestic attacks "did not happen" under the previous president, Giuliani and Perino effectively wipe clean the slate of the past. They almost seem to be readying the landscape for a re-writing of 9-11, a time in which they might claim, as Mary Matalin does below, that 9-11 was "inherited" from the previous (read: Clinton) administration:



There are many, many other troubling stories about the re-construction of 9-11 in our current political environment. I would like to end with this quote from Marc Howard Ross, in the book Understanding September 11. Ross's chapter, titled "The Political Psychology of Competing Narratives: September 11 and Beyond," reminds us that we must not only look at what a narrative says but what it doesn't say:

Narratives can be analyzed in several ways. Of great significance to an analysis is what a narrative includes and excludes. Often opposing parties' narratives do not directly contradict each other. Rather, opponents draw on distinct metaphors, emphasize different actions, cite clashing motivations, and communicate opposing affect to such an extent that it is sometimes hard for a naive observer to recognize that the narratives protagonists offer are often describing the same conflict. On the surface level, narratives are stories about the unfolding of events. At a deeper level, they reveal something about the motivations and reactions of the parties. . .(304).

The mask of Ira Hayes

This is another image (left) I have shared with classes on occasion, mostly due to its iconic status in U.S. collective memory and the way it was later re-staged during 9-11 (below).

This article just appeared today on one of the men behind the Iwo Jima photo, who was featured in the recent film Flags of Our Fathers. The Ira Hayes story is a tragic reminder of the ways in which politics and politicians can manipulate the image of the "war hero" while disregarding the human being behind that image of patriotism and loyalty.

Iwo Jima flag raiser's body 'was never sent to rest'

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

When Ira Hayes was alive, his image was captured in one of the most famous war photographs ever taken — the World War II image of U.S. military personnel raising the flag over Iwo Jima.

Last month, 54 years since his death, his family learned that another image of Hayes, a face mask, had been cast in plaster while he lay in a Phoenix mortuary. The mask of Hayes, a Pima Indian from Bapchule, Ariz., was made without the family's knowledge and ended up on display at the Gilbert Ortega Museum Gallery of Scottsdale.

"In Pima culture, when you pass on, everything you own is supposed to go with you," says Sharon Cook, a Hayes family member. "They say because of this, Ira's body was never sent to rest."

Kenneth Hayes, 78, received his brother's mask in November from the gallery. Hours later, relatives returned it to the Gila River Indian Reservation where Ira Hayes was born and died, according to Larry Cook, Hayes' grand-nephew.

The mask was broken to bits and buried near the graves of his parents, Sharon Cook says.

The discovery of the mask adds one more chapter to the odyssey of Hayes, who has been depicted in books, films (including Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers) and music.

Amid the final battles of World War II, Cpl. Ira Hamilton Hayes, four other Marines and a Navy corpsman were captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal as they raised the Stars and Stripes.

The 1945 picture, which came to symbolize American courage and patriotism, transformed a troubled Indian kid into an unwilling national celebrity. Hayes was one of only 27 of the company of 250 to survive the battle on Mount Suribachi, according to historical reports.

President Harry Truman declared Hayes a hero and ordered him back to the states to join a tour raising money through the sale of war bonds.

According to S.D. Nelson, who wrote, Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story, the 23-year-old corporal considered his fallen comrades the true heroes. After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Nelson wrote, Hayes returned to his home in the poverty-stricken Gila River Indian Community, seeking solitude — and often turning to alcohol. Hayes died of exposure in 1955 at the age of 32 after getting into a drunken fight during a poker game. His body was found lying in a creek, Larry Cook said.

Gilbert Ortega Jr., the gallery president, says the history of the mask can be found in a one-page document written in 1986 by Shirley Nelson of Yuma: A Phoenix artist named Hortense Johnson went to the funeral parlor and made a cast of Hayes' face. It was her intent to make a bust of Ira.

After Johnson's death, her husband gave the mask to Nelson and her mother. "My mom and I were the only people who knew what it was, so he gave it to us," she says.

In the early 1980s, artist Robert Yellowhair expressed an interest in making a sculpture of Hayes. Nelson says she gave the mask to Yellowhair.

Yellowhair never created the sculpture and in 1995 gave the mask to Gilbert Ortega Sr., owner of Native American art and jewelry stores.

"My dad always prided himself on the mask," Ortega Jr. says. "There's no way to put a value on something like that."

Larry Cook and his great uncle, Kenneth approached Ortega Jr. about donating the mask to Ira's descendants. "I believe it still has the spirit in there, and that's what led the family here," Ortega Jr. says.

Wagner reports for the Arizona Republic