Short Reflection on 9/11, A New Project(s Perhaps)

This morning on twitter I replied to a 9/11 related memory with a short memory of mine own. I said "@llanerrr I was in 5th grade and we saw the smoke and thought it was rain clouds, we didn't want to watch Matilda or 101 Dalmatians again." I didn't think that that short synopsis of that day for me could be confusing, because of course it made sense to me. But of course it did lead to confusion and I had to explain that Matilda, 101 Dalmatians, Goerge and the Giant Peach and other associated movies were the movies of choice when we denied recess due to weather. By the 5th grade, most of us had seen all those movies from beginning to end about 50 times at least, so the thought of having another recess taken away from us by mother nature was a little hard to bare.

Retelling the emotions that class 5-308 felt in the moment when we first saw the smoke makes me want to know what other's reactions were. As we approach the 10 year mark I am seriously considering starting a project to catalog the reactions of ordinary people, and not just Americans but internationals too. I think 9/11 was an event that everyone can remember where they were and what they were doing as if it were yesterday. I know that I'm one of them.

Onto a little more of a cheerful subject. I am an avid reader of a blog called the Sartorialist: thesartorialist.blogspot.com if you're interested. There people in the fashion world take pictures of everyday people that they feel have good or quirky fashion sense. I'm not one for fashion, but I do appreciate the pictures they take and the care with which they do so. In that same vein then I have started a little pet project called The University List : theulist.blogspot.com if you are so inclined again. Following the same model of the Sartorialist, I, and hopefully YOU and some friends of mine at other colleges and universities, take pictures of my fellow F&Mers and then I describe in a few sentences why I did so. Hopefully I can get this grow to other campuses around the country (and the world) but for now I'm content to go it alone...but I won't be for long :)

I write this post from the Innovation Zone in the basement of the Harris Government Center on the campus of Franklin and Marshall College.

 

 

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The Little Mosque That Could and The Mayor Who Said It Should

So the mosque near Ground Zero is set to be built, and I couldn't be happier to hear that. I normally don't like wading into political battles but this is more than about politics, this is about healing and understanding. I lost someone I knew quite well on 9/11...in fact I saw her the night before and was too consumed with the headache I had at the time to say good night to her, and that makes me pause when 9/11 rolls around every year. Those extremists took 3000 lives because of a misconstrued and perverted notion of the religion they practiced. So when those who practice the mainstream and true version of that same religion are willing to open up share it with others, let's not shut them out because other practitioners wronged us, let's do our best to embrace their efforts and take a little time to learn something in the process.

And that is why I applaud Mayor Bloomberg. "Hizzoner" stood up and proclaimed that now is the time for moving forward, for building towards peace together. Here's an excerpt of his words I gleaned from this article http://gawker.com/5603633/lets-give-michael-bloomberg-a-hand?skyline=true&s=i : 

"The attack was an act of war, and our first responders defended not only our city, but our country and our constitution. We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked...it is my hope that the mosque will help to bring our city even closer together, and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of 9/11 were in any ways consistent with Islam...Political controversies come and go, but our values and our traditions endure, and there is no neighborhood in this city that is off-limits to God's love and mercy..."

I invite you to read the article, in it you'll find the entire excerpt that they pulled from his speech and a link to where you can find the speech in its entirety. 

I write this post from the futon in my apartment as the sun sets lower in the sky and my Beirut (the artist) playlist plays from my pc.

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