The Man With the 9/11 Tattoo

[teach1st]

The New Yorker, 8/6

There is, one should say, nothing wrong with 9/11 tattoos, broadly defined. Many New York firemen have them, for example; some are in memory of a colleague or friend who died, or are tributes to a skyline that was beautiful and shouldn’t be forgotten—proper gestures and letters of love, written on the body, not hate mail. Wade Page’s corpse is in the hands of authorities, and they will, in addition to going through his apartment and whatever computer he had, be reading what he wrote on himself. His motives and passions aren’t completely clear yet, though they are getting a lot clearer. But there is also something tragic about the misappropriation of the legacy of September 11th—and all of the acts that it has been invoked to justify. If innocent people in a temple, preparing a community meal, see a man with a 9/11 tattoo and are frightened by it, then perhaps there has been a broader, national failure to live up to our commitment to honor those victims. We should talk about and respond to September 11th in such a way that the sight of a man with a 9/11 tattoo would make anyone feel safe, not threatened. We haven’t yet.

Read more

[Wait Wut]

1. "If innocent people in a temple, preparing a community meal,...

...see a man with a 9/11 tattoo and are frightened by it, then perhaps there has been a broader, national failure to live up to our commitment to honor those victims."

Powerful message. Brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you for sharing, teach1st.

Kick now, rec later.

[teach1st]

2. Tear in my eye, too

I shed a tear or two at that sentence, too, Wait Wut.

[obxhead]

3. Within hours on 9/11/01

many in this nation began shitting on the togetherness 9/11 created. Our Government corrupted it completely within days.

Today it has about as much meaning as the fading yellow ribbon magnets that were made in China, maybe even less.