<nettime> digesting the WTC [metzger, solomon]

["nettime's_inspector" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

"rebecca metzger" <rmetzger@ncac.org>
     Turning September 11 into Souvenirs -- Business As Usual?
"A. Solomon" <anita.solomon@verizon.net>
     Voices Unite for Memorial

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From: "rebecca metzger" <rmetzger@ncac.org>
Subject: Turning September 11 into Souvenirs -- Business As Usual?
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 16:12:52 -0500

Dear Friends,

Please join this week's discussion at: http://www.ncac.org/discus

Turning September 11 into Souvenirs -- Business As Usual?


It is no surprise that pictures of the World Trade Center towers in 
their former glory were hawked everywhere in the wake of September 11. 
Now there are pictures documenting the event, "souvenirs" to be made 
from the rubble (proceeds to go to a noble cause), and little replicas 
of the damaged towers. If the countless photographs taken of the scene 
of the disaster were, possibly, a way of coming to terms with the 
incomprehensibility of the event, then are the sales of related objects 
its ultimate integration into life, that is, business as usual in the 
United States?

For more on this subject, see:

New York Times, "To Some, A Scarred Model Represents a Fresh Attack" by 
Denny Lee (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/27/nyregion/27FIGU.html)

Chronicle Review, "The Day Time Stopped" by Marianne Hirsch 
(http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i20/20b01101.htm)
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http://www.ncac.org/projects/art_now/main.html -- The National Coalition 
Against Censorship's Art Now project registers artistic responses to the 
events of September 11 and their aftermath and hosts a conversation on 
the ethical, political and historical aspects of creative expression in 
times of crisis.

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From: "A. Solomon" <anita.solomon@verizon.net>
Subject: Voices Unite for Memorial
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 11:11:14 -0500

I am sending this email with the hopes that you will support our mission 
to keep the former WTC site memorialized, and not to rebuild, commercially 
on it.

Should you decide to support this mission, please print this and post so 
that others may respond.

 * * *

While so many of us are still trying to cope with the events of September
11th, plans for commercial rebuilding on the former WTC site are being
decided by NY officials.

My mission is to see that the NY City Planning Committee hears, and acts on
our opposing views.

Please read my Commentary.


Voices Unite for Memorial - Commentary by Anita Solomon

The concept of commercial rebuilding at the former WTC site is a 
dishonorable act to our Nation, and needs to be acknowledged.

To place another money making entity at the WTC site is to desecrate the 
very grounds that became the end of life's journey for so many innocent 
people.

People need to realize that only a few hundred victims have been recovered
and returned to the families, and given proper burial.  For those families,
there is closure. More than 1,800 victims have yet to be recovered, and may
never be.  The right to a proper burial for these victims was violated
insidiously.

What do these families do? When do they get to have closure? What do you 
tell a child when they ask "Why did they put buildings on Mommys' 
(Daddys') grave?"  And how do you respond to a parent that pleaded not 
to put a building on their child's only gravesite?

Moreover, let us not forget that many of these people were from other
nations, and their remains may never be recovered and returned to their
homeland.  Suffice it to say, that proper interment, according to their
cultural doctrines, both in the US and abroad, cannot be satisfied.

In a real sense, the former WTC site is now a Cemetery of the World.
Let them rest with dignity and in peace.

How do you think we will look to the rest of the world if we just build 
over what is now proclaimed as the most poignant, historical site in the 
Nation?  We cannot and should not attempt to bury American History.

The idea of rebuilding to show the terrorists they have not won is nothing
more than our EGO talking.  It is time for us to put aside that EGO and
start thinking with our hearts, about the long term psychological impact of
September 11 on the families, friends, and co-workers of those lost, as
well as the survivors, and the rest of the Nation.  The rebuilding of the
former WTC site would only show the terrorists that we (so-called
"infidels") have more love for money and power than we do for moral values,
human life, and the freedom America stands for.  Let us prove to them how
wrong they are.  Let's not see this site as  "prize" real estate for
mercantilism, but as a place of homage to the Nations' loss, and through
that loss, came the resurrection of the American Spirit.

If we are to prioritize and capitalize on the rebuilding where such a 
contemptuous act took place, then what it is that we are flying our flag 
so proudly for?

As for the loss of the financial enterprise, there is plenty of 
commercial space available elsewhere in Manhattan for the economic 
re-stabilization of the city.

If you are interested in seeing that a Memorial be placed at Ground 
Zero, without commercialized edifice, please go to:

http://www.petitiononline.com/911wtc/petition.html

This petition has been endorsed by people from all around the US and 
abroad.  Many are survivors of the September 11 attack.
This petition will be hand delivered to Mayor Bloomberg's office, 
Governor Pataki's office, and John Whitehead of the Lower Manhattan 
Redevelopment Corp for the former WTC site.
Plans to deliver the petition will be March 11, exactly 6 months to the 
day.

Thank you,

A. Solomon - 2002
mailto:anita.solomon@verizon.net

Petition can be accessed through:
WTC Petition for Memorial
http://www.petitiononline.com/911wtc/petition.html
A Tribute In Honor http://www.geocicites.com/quivive247/index.html

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