I read the blog "1 dead in attic" by Chris Rose. it wasnt really about what was going on as the hurricane was happening, but more as it was over and people were getting back to their life. i think this is a blog that maybe would relate to a lot of readers, in a way he says, his wife questions his decisions to go looking for something, but he doesnt know what. He should stay in the safe part of town but something is drawing him to the other side. Most of us know what thats like, when someone tells us dont, you want to even more.
as he gets farther along he says "I drive around and try to figure out those Byzantine markings and symbols that the cops and the National Guard spray-painted on all the houses around here, cryptic communications that tell the story of who or what was or wasn't inside the house when the floodwater rose to the ceiling. In some cases, there's no interpretation needed. There's one I pass on St. Roch Avenue in the 8th Ward at least once a week. It says: "1 dead in attic."
"It's spray-painted there on the front of the house and it probably will remain spray-painted there for weeks, months, maybe years, a perpetual reminder of the untimely passing of a citizen, a resident, a New Orleanian."
this is just the kind of thing that these people had to live with seeing everyday, as if they didn't go through enough. They have to now drive by these homes and see spray-painted across a house "1 dead in attic". that is terrible.
He then says, and i have to agree, that there should have been some other kind of coding so that people wouldnt have to be reminded of this everyday.
Then he comes up with some other good points that really make you think... "I wonder who eventually came and took 1 Dead in Attic away. Who knows? Hell, with the way things run around here -- I wonder if anyone has come to take 1 Dead in Attic away. And who claimed him or her? Who grieved over 1 Dead in Attic and who buried 1 Dead in Attic? " It at least makes me think, this would just be awful. How long did this person stay in this attic? who found them? why were they in the attic? why didn't they leave? who actually left them there?? just so many questions...
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
I Saw It All. Then I Saw Nothing.
I read, I Saw It All. Then I Saw Nothing. By Daniel Henninger. I think the last sentence in his opening paragraph is very catching, and very much the title of the piece. "I have, in the past several hours, looked into lower Manhattan, and each time, where the World Trade Center stood, there is absolutely nothing." He talks about working across from these buildings for so many years, and then just in one day, something like this to happen, and then they are just goe forever, and just a memory.
"There is no benefit in being able to watch two 108-story office buildings fall to the ground after two airliners have been forced to fly into them. It all seems very compelling now, and when you are in this business and you are on the scene, it is your job to provide an account. So this is just such an account, because there is something about us that demands that we provide this detail for the record." He knows he has to do his just by writing a stoy, but he is also letting the public know that this isnt the kind of story he wants to write. it is almost like he knew everyone that was there was going to be writing about what happend as well, but he knew he had a job to do as all of this was taking place, so he was catching every detail as it happend.
"As I walked north along the West Side Highway, empty now but for a torrent of police cars and fire engines from distant New York suburbs, racing southward to help, I kept turning around and turning around to look, and look again. I kept looking up at the sky, above the famous old Woolworth Building, where the World Trade Center stood, its two side-by-side towers, so high against the sky. I always saw the same thing, which was nothing." Again at the end, he pulls in the title, of how there is nothing left, how something so strong was brought down so quick and easy.
i think this was a good article, probably a lot like many written around this time. you could feel in placs how scared he must have been, but in others it made you stop and think, how much time did all of this take. and the whole time was he thinking this is going to make a good story? or am i going to make it home? or how is my family? he doesn't mention anything except his colleague from work, getting caught and getting some help. it just makes me think about some of the things he was thinking about when he was writing his article.
"There is no benefit in being able to watch two 108-story office buildings fall to the ground after two airliners have been forced to fly into them. It all seems very compelling now, and when you are in this business and you are on the scene, it is your job to provide an account. So this is just such an account, because there is something about us that demands that we provide this detail for the record." He knows he has to do his just by writing a stoy, but he is also letting the public know that this isnt the kind of story he wants to write. it is almost like he knew everyone that was there was going to be writing about what happend as well, but he knew he had a job to do as all of this was taking place, so he was catching every detail as it happend.
"As I walked north along the West Side Highway, empty now but for a torrent of police cars and fire engines from distant New York suburbs, racing southward to help, I kept turning around and turning around to look, and look again. I kept looking up at the sky, above the famous old Woolworth Building, where the World Trade Center stood, its two side-by-side towers, so high against the sky. I always saw the same thing, which was nothing." Again at the end, he pulls in the title, of how there is nothing left, how something so strong was brought down so quick and easy.
i think this was a good article, probably a lot like many written around this time. you could feel in placs how scared he must have been, but in others it made you stop and think, how much time did all of this take. and the whole time was he thinking this is going to make a good story? or am i going to make it home? or how is my family? he doesn't mention anything except his colleague from work, getting caught and getting some help. it just makes me think about some of the things he was thinking about when he was writing his article.
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