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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! September 9, 2005 9/11 - The Art of DenialBy GreyhawkSeveral 9/11 family groups are actively opposing an effort to build an "International Freedom Center" on the site of the World Trade Center. We've been proud to support their efforts here over the past few months. If you'd like to see a small part of what has motivated these thousands of families whose loved ones were murdered four years ago this week, take note of how the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is commemorating 9/11 - an "art" exhibit opening today in New York: September 9, 2005 -- A 9/11-themed art exhibit at Cooper Union has bombed with families of terror attack victims, who say its vitriol against President Bush, seeming mockery of war hero Pat Tillman and other anti-American images denigrate the memory of their loved ones.Sounds like the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council could shorten it's name to "Lower Culture". Don't worry though, the folks responsible for this disgrace are going to consult with 9/11 families before they take over the site of the World Trade Center: The controversial Freedom Center proposed for the World Trade Center has named a seven-member advisory panel of September 11 victims' family members.Sounds promising - until you check what the 9/11 family groups have to say: The alliance consisting of fifteen major September 11 family groups firmly rejects the plan announced yesterday by the International Freedom Center (IFC) to form a 9/11 family advisory panel headed by Paula Grant Berry. The plan, naming Ms. Berry and six other individuals to advise the center about content and programming, is aimed at creating the false impression that an unrelated cultural institution built with public and private funds slated for a memorial to the victims of 9/11 is acceptable to 9/11 family groups. It is not. If you need background reading on this situation, try our earlier entries on this topic: 911... Never Forget...it's all America's fault A final note on this 9/11 weekend's "art" show: The displays proved a dud in another way ? investigators from the NYPD's arson and explosives unit visited the Cooper Union show and an accompanying exhibit at the South Street Seaport Museum to make sure two artworks resembling bombs were really fakes. 4 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Should we thank people who bring us bad news?
Yes, if they're people like the Greyhawks and John Byrnes who tell us what the Left plans for Ground Zero and urge action to stop it.
I don't want to say too much more tonight because I want to pull my thoughts together.
I'll think tonight and say something tomorrow, with a link to your first-rate and very important post.
Thanks for helping sound the alarm.
Americans better get together and oppose this newest Leftist effort to demean America or the next thing we know they'll be tearing down the Statue of Liberty.
John
www.johnincarolina.com
Hello folks. I appreciate you feel regarding how 9/11 is being 'remembered'. Take a look at what I've done about it. This memorial video contains no burning buildings, no rubble, no explosions, no speeches, no screeches, no Bin Laden, no bodies. Just a remembrance of some people whose lives were cut short through no fault of their own, with poignant candid snapshots from their lives, and music.
http://mistersnitch.blogspot.com/2005/09/our-after-911-site-is-online.html
Thank you.
I am not sure that I would blame "the left". There are obviously some individuals with a different attitude. Are we sure that they are all "left". Are we sure we know what "left" is? I totally agree that this memorial should be about what happened that day and who died or lost loved ones. I especially think it should be dedicated to the heroes that gave their lives. I love the art work of the fireman passing off the flag to the soldier. But, I think that we always have those individuals that contribute to save animals rather than humans, or to save art fairs over other events, etc. I am not sure that their political persuasion is what is driving them. They are looking at this as an opportunity to push some point that is apparently important to them. I just don't think that the other catastrophes in history are relevant to what we should be remembering of 9-11. I still have the tape of an episode of "Third Watch" where every policeman and fireman that gave his or her life is listed at the end of the program. These are the ones that should be immortalized in the memorial, as well as the many unsung heroes like Rick.
Nice mural. I'm curious as to how you got the picture. It is painted inside a warehouse on the FOB I'm stationed at.