Saic Speaks Out continued
As I've been struggling to deal with the events of September 11, I've been reading a lot of poetry this week, both sacred and secular. The two poems, "Otherwise" by Jane Kenyon and "Dirge without music" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, seemed to express so articulately some of the strongest emotional reactions I was experiencing. First, the sense of personalization of this disaster, the sense that it could have happened to any of us, and the horrible realization of how easily our ordinariness can be torn away from us. And second, the sense of terrible grief and disbelief, that something seeming so absolutely wrong and evil can occur.
Both of these poems were published in the wonderful collection, Americans' Favorite Poems, which came out in 2000. Its publication was the final stage of the Favorite Poem Project Robert Pinsky started when he was poet laureate of the United States.
-Lynn Bruner
SAIC Counseling Services
Nine forty-five a.m. Tuesday, September 11 I went to Bank One to research whether it was more economical to open an account here in Chicago or to simply continue paying $1.50 each time I withdraw money from my Merrill Lynch account. In retrospect, I could say I noticed something odd on the street. There did seem to be more people on their cell phones than usual. I could say there was terror on the street, but that would be hindsight. I walked into Bank One, past a security guard and then past several tall, overweight executive types who were standing in the entry-way and I searched about for the "new accounts" sign. I noticed the men looking at me in a strange way that I only understood after the fact. Those were the same looks I got on the street in San Francisco at 5:10 p.m. on October 17, 1989. It's the earthquake look.
Back in my 7 West Madison dorm room, suddenly great irony hits me. Chicago has been evacuated and the sounds I hear are the bulldozer-beeping-back-up-horn, the rumble of crumbling concrete being thrown into a dumpster and a jackhammer. We are waiting to be bombed and the demolition continues next door.
In "new accounts" the lady tried to help me but told me the bank may close. I asked why. She said, "Where have you been?" She explained that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been hit. The bank was closed and people on the streets were streaming out of Chicago. I went to the Farmers' Market. Whatever we worry about is not what happens. And I need to continue to plan for the future.
-Anna Saski
student
This is a note of encouragement to everyone affected by the tragedy of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, and especially those who may have personally known a victim of such violence. I am praying for your comfort. In times like these we truly need a savior. Yes, it is true, tough times don't last but tough people do. We should never stoop so low as to allow anyone to control the way we will react to their evil deeds. I am so proud to see the unconditional love and support of Americans during this crisis with no regards to the silly bias we know exists and has been a scar on this nation's character. BE ENCOURAGED, together with God's grace we will all come out of this healed from such a terrible wound to our spirits and better and not just bitter.
Love and Prayers,
-Dan M. White, Jr.
undergraduate student
What follows is a letter I wrote to my family in Pennsylvania a few days after the attacks of September 11. I wrote it to explain why I was not asking for revenge, despite the fact I lost an artistic colleague in the fall of the World Trade Center.
Dear Sholette Family,
This last week has been chilling to everyone - no matter where they live. As someone whose adult life unfolded in New York City I want to say I am proud to be part of it. My apartment is several miles north of "ground zero." You may also recall that 100th street is where the fireman's monument is located. Each October the department meets to play the pipes and mourn the year's dead. I can not even imagine what that event will be like next month with so many selfless city workers gone in under an hour's time.
As the days pass here in Chicago, as winter is already felt here, the memory of what occurred does not pass. I try to visualize my city without the towers (as inelegant as they always seemed to me,) always there, jutting up from the southern tip of the island. And it is an island made of people and cultures whose customs are as varied as snowflakes. It is a place of passion as well as frustration where the most simple tasks, from getting to work on time, to seeing a movie, to picking up some groceries can be a serious challenge for the mind and body. It is also a city generous with its compensation, from the variety of foods, books, and art available, to the crusty but candid attitude of its citizens.
In the past it has been loved and hated by Americans. Now that appears to have changed. Just as President Kennedy said to West Germans facing the Berlin Blockade "Ich bin ein Berliner," today, in the wake of Tuesday's horrors, one can say we are all New Yorkers. And indeed, the extraordinary resilience and compassion of New York's citizens broadcast over television offers a view of what is beneath our tough exterior.
And yes, every bit as much as you, I want to see those who were involved in the attack brought to justice. I believe that the violent targeting of citizens by individuals or nations is a crime. That is in fact my understanding of the word TERRORISM: acts of violence consciously carried out against non-combatants. I wholly support international actions that will bring about justice. I am however, opposed to (even while I feel an instinct for) calls of revenge. One reason is because I am against terrorism, and revenge can so easily become that - the targeting of civilians and the innocent. Another reason has to do with New York itself, and my "second set" of roots in that island on the Hudson. It is a place that has opened my eyes to how the rest of the world looks and lives.
Since leaving my childhood home in Pennsylvania I have learned to respect the culture of all those represented in New York City. From the English, German, Africans and later Irish and Italians, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans that followed them. It is this diversity that makes it the amazing place it is. That includes still more recent immigrants such as Afghanis and other North Africans as well as people from the Middle East. Together these different people, along with the brave firemen and police, the rescue workers and of course the victims, make up the New York that you and the nation now identify with.
At the same time I am aware of how so many people, especially in Africa and Asia, especially in between Europe and the former USSR, were simply left out of the economic boom we all enjoyed (to one degree or another) these past ten years. Many live in refugee camps, in dire poverty or, as in Afghanistan, under regimes that are so extreme that one can only label them barbaric. And what we must come to terms with is our own complicity in this mess. While the Soviets sought to control Afghanistan, we armed and gave logistical support to the Mujaheddin, the forerunners of the Taliban. The enemy of our enemy is our friend the saying goes. But if these desperate acts of horror have some logic, it is partially explained (not justified mind you, but explained) by our nation's involvement in that part of the world.
I love all of you very much. I hope that the months and years ahead will bring a swift and just resolution to what has happened with
a minimum of bloodshed on every side. I will be there for the good fight in any way I can. I will not however condone attacks on people of color or Islamic Americans, the suspension of our civil rights, and I will not support vengeful, indiscriminate warfare against innocent civilians. I consider these to be acts of terrorism. I also know that New York will rebuild and while I do not know if I will live there again, I do know that that city will always live with me, with all of us, wherever we are.
-Gregory
Postscript to the artistic and activist art community of SAIC:
It is not only fair, but it is necessary to ask what our leaders mean by expressions such as "this is the new face of war" or calls for a unified "war on terrorism." What exactly will the inventory for these battles consist of? Will it list the unethical corrupt individuals and governments whose "assistance" will no doubt be sanctified by such a war? And where does that leave us, those citizens just as outraged by Tuesday's madness, but not willing to wrap ourselves in the stars and stripes and demand an eye for an eye: those of us not completely paralyzed by what Studs Terkel calls National Alzheimer's Disease, the cultural workers not entirely integrated into the global economy? Yes, bring those who did this to justice, but let us continue to identify with the millions cut out of the new world order, in maquiladora shops, refugee camps, and prisons. To those of us who have devised ways of getting around and past the spectacle of mainstream media and disinformation, are we ready for what is to come? Because the task of deciphering the language of the new, 21st Century war machine may be uniquely our unsavory burden.
-Gregory Sholette
Arts Administration Deptartment, SAIC
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