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I'm just surprised the assholes weren't dancing with joy. 
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Not surprising.
I was at the end of a 3.5 moth solo backpacking and paddling trip. I met my buddy in Adirondack park for a week of paddling to end it and it was during this, that we were on Alger island as we were attacked that day. We were unaware until later that afternoon when we arrived at camp. A nice island with an adirondack shelter we would call home for the evening. It was when he took out his little world band portable radio did we learn why nobody was playing any music. It was all talk of what happened not 200 miles to our south. We lept into our kayaks and headed for a town called Inlet NY and ran up the dock after tying off our kayaks. We ran into the first place we saw open, a very clean and well kept little diner. We ran up to the counter to ask what was going on. The guy behind the counter (owner) said "Hi guys! Would you like to see a menu?" He had three TV's all reviewing the days events of course and we looked into those TV's and asked, "What happened?" "Oh, some nutjobs flew some planes into the Trade Center. Will you be ordering anything?" I looked around and saw that not even one of the tables had anyone watching the news. It was like nobody cared. Worse yet, We didn't feel like continuing the trip and headed home. It was three days after when I arrived home in the Poconos of PA, where tons of Metropolitan NY and NJ had all decided to move (and bring all their crime) to and ruin our mountain home. Every single one of them. Every one....was selling T-shirts and hats out of the trunks of their cars. Memorial T's and hats with NYPD or NYFD on them. I wanted to tear heads off.
So no....the pic does not even phase me in the least. More people than you will ever know could care less that the event ever took place. That I am 100% sure. |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/culturebox/2006/09/its_me_in_that_911_photo.html?wpisrc=obinsite
This morning, Slate received an e-mail from Walter Sipser, a Brooklyn artist who is the man on the far right of the photo. (How do we know? Sipser has confirmed his identity in several ways, most persuasively with current pictures of himself. Click here to see a blowup of the man in the photo next to pictures of Sipser taken today.) Here is what Sipser wrote: Advertisement A snapshot can make mourners attending a funeral look like they're having a party. Thomas Hoepker took a photograph of my girlfriend and me sitting and talking with strangers against the backdrop of the smoking ruin of the World Trade Center on September 11th. Earlier, she and I had watched the buildings collapse from my rooftop in Brooklyn and had made our way down to the waterfront. The Williamsburg Bridge was filled with hundreds of people, covered in dust, helping one another make their way onto the street. It was clear that people who ordinarily would not have spoken two words to each other were suddenly bound together, which I suppose must be a fairly common occurrence in the aftermath of a catastrophe. We were in a profound state of shock and disbelief, like everyone else we encountered that day. Thomas Hoepker did not ask permission to photograph us nor did he make any attempt to ascertain our state of mind before concluding five years later that, "It's possible they lost people and cared, but they were not stirred by it." Had Hoepker walked fifty feet over to introduce himself he would have discovered a bunch of New Yorkers in the middle of an animated discussion about what had just happened. He instead chose to publish the photograph that allowed him to draw the conclusions he wished to draw, conclusions that also led Frank Rich to write, "The young people in Mr. Hoepker's photo aren't necessarily callous. They're just American." A more honest conclusion might start by acknowledging just how easily a photograph can be manipulated, especially in the advancement of one's own biases or in the service of one's own career. Still, it was nice being described as a young person. I was forty at the time the photograph was taken. Addendum: On Wednesday evening, Slate received an e-mail from Chris Schiavo, who is the woman second from the right in the photo. (She titled her message: "From the contortionist sunbather.") Schiavo, who was Sipser's girlfriend at the time, has confirmed her identity with current photographs of herself. Schiavo writes: I am one of the "disaffected sunbathing youth" in the photo. I think Walter Sipser and your readers have already voiced most of what should be considered when looking at this photo in conjunction with the New York Times article. I am also a professional photographer and did not touch a camera that day. Why? For many reasons including a now-obvious one: This somewhat cynical expression of an assumed reality printed in the New York Times proves a good reason. (Shame on Mr. Rich and Mr. Hoepker—one should never assume.) But most of all to keep both hands free, just in case there was actually something I could do to alter this day or affect a life, to experience every nanosecond in every molecule of my body, rather than place a lens between myself and the moment. (Sounds pretty "callous," huh?) I also have a strict policy of never taking a photograph of a person without their permission or knowledge of my intent. I am a third-generation native New Yorker, who knows and loves every square inch of this city, as did her ancestors before her. My mother and father are both architects and artists who have contributed much to the landscape of this city and my knowledge of the buildings that are my hometown and my childhood friends. (Ironically, my mother even worked for Minoru Yamasaki, the World Trade Center architect.) The point being, it was genetically impossible for me to be unaffected by this event. |
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What this guy said -
"Read the replies of two of the people being photographed: they were as much in shock and mourning (if not more so) than the rest of the nation. Tragedy does not mean than we can't find some comfort in being with other people. What should they have done, beat their heads into bloody pulps against the pavement? Turned agorophobic, as did one friend of mine whose friend perished in the Pentagon? Or shot themselves in depair," or this Lady- "On what basis do you assume that they are "indifferent" especially since you can't determine what they are talking about. Because they are not demonstrably hysterical or seemingly aghast do you infer from that their relative "callousness". Beyond that, you seem to them associate this "indifference" to "Americaness"? Really? Then were those who did show what you assume to be the appropriate affect were they displaying "unAmericaness"? This commentary says a lot about your preconceptions and indifference to evidence and propensity to generalize than about anything those folks are doing on the bridge, imo." But no I am sure that pic of that one second shows that they were heartless. 
Wait , I see they are younger and look like they are part of the 99% Good grief, too funny |
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I watched the rubble burn from the rooftop of a Hoboken apartment building with three friends who escaped lower Manhattan that day. We were drinking, angry, sad, and in shock. If someone had taken a photo of us at just the right moment it could have been perceived as a celebration. It most certainly was not. What a shitty article, I'm glad two of the folks got their two cents in... Everyone I ran into in the few months after the attacks, friend or stranger, was affected seriously by those attacks.
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