Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: i wondered if you would be interested in the poem below which i wrote about 9/11 and which is currently on the museum of the city of new york website. thank you. The Days Since In Union Square a shrine appears and then another til the place attracts reporters who report its volunteers' hard work and grace. A fireman with a haunted look sits on the bench, his eyes rimmed red. A woman asks him, "Coffee? Bagel?" Without a word he shakes his head. Around, a wall of Wanted posters, "wanted" in that other sense. The Missing. All so very young. The pictures stay up on the fence for weeks. For who will tear them down? Who'd commit that sacrilege? And yet one night somebody does when hope takes its last breath. It was in retrospect a far-fetched dream that anybody would be found and nursed to health when a million tons of stuff had crumbled to the ground. A firetruck, not red but beige with dust in which someone has written, "God bless the New York Fire Depart- ment." Someone else has drawn a heart. Across the street, the rectory where Father Mychal combed his hair (they said at his memorial) and raced downtown, to die in prayer. T-shirts needed, dogfood, boots. AOL provides a list, all obsolete. They're overwhelmed downtown. The chance is sorely missed by millions who want to help out and be part of this aweful thing. For nothing matters next to this. God Bless America they sing at services all over town, at meetings of the PTA, at school, in concert on T.V. they sing from sea to shining sea. The weeks go on and still the fire burns. At Fulton Street the smell still greets whoever's on the train and says, "Ascend and witness Hell." Upstairs the crowd stands quietly and takes it in. The tired cops sigh, "All right, move it. That's enough," to tourists snapping photo ops. For foreigners are less appalled, they, never having known it when. Its metal's bent like willow branches. The church clock's stopped at five to ten. WTC, those letters, now a code for grief and fear... When I was studying music they stood for the Well-Tempered Clavier. A few blocks down at Trinity the ancient graveyard's buried, itself, in dust. Another poignant sign: Its clock is stopped at five to nine. Home is no relief. Indeed it fuels the burning energy that drives us to consume more facts. Here life is centered on T.V: The people falling upside-down... A man says he stayed in the room by clinging to the doorknob which saved him from the fierce vacuum. A man and woman holding hands fall - Lovers? Strangers? Who cares now? willing, finally, to greet Death just to get out of the heat. The cast of characters comes on: Rumsfeld, grim, tight-lipped, thank God. Powell and Fleischer jauntier as they joust with the press. It's odd how recent enemies are saviors, Giuliani, for example. Former wits are reverent towards our formerly witless President. No one ridicules him now. Indeed, he's less ridiculous. If he said "Pakistanians" now, no one would make such a fuss. He gears us up for what's in store. This is a whole new kind of war. The women: Paula Zahn, Queen Noor. At one A.M. her time, Amanpour, reporting from Islamabad in khaki, like a Sabra, say. "She has a son, you know." "She does? But where is she from, anyway?" "Eat dinner out! Go spend your money!" they tell us. "See a play; a game! Don't let the bastards get you down!" And don't buy Middle Eastern honey. "Be careful of suspicious mail! Don't touch it, move it! Leave the room! It could contain an anthrax powder. Call 911!" You can't assume the world's a friendly place these days. Despite the work of CIA, the FBI's half million tips, we're speeding to Apocalypse. New Yorkers soon are introduced to war and its accoutrements: Gas masks, filters, body suits, an omnipresent vigilance. We acquire expertise in germs and chemicals right quick: Sarin, hemorrhagic virus. Meanwhile, a little Arabic: A money system based on trust that leaves no trace, the East's hawala. Schools that feed while they instill a willingness to die for Allah. We're not so loved as we had thought. The world prepares for years of war as oppressed people rise protesting, "We won't take it anymore!" In China the disaster footage is seen as just another thriller, interspliced with scenes from films found on the shelf next to Godzilla. In Pakistan the angry mob protests American arrogance. From Malaysia to Nigeria many think we've had our recompense. Especially the Taliban who escort foreign journalists to show them what the angry mob'll avenge: the mile miss outside Kabul. Monday, P.M., to the doctor. After all, life must go on. "Oh by the way, could I have Cipro?" The doctor, adamantly con, however, thinks I am in error to give in to those guys whose aim is not just to destroy and kill but also to instill in us, terror. The city's quieter, subdued. " Where did everybody go? Will we be quarantined? Cut off? Do they know something we don't know? To leave New York, ah! There's the rub. And yet the first thing's to survive. But if we move to Canada I really have to learn to drive. I walk down to the river's edge. A child places a bouquet at a shrine outside the park where I used to take my son to play. A picture rests against the fence to show the viewer where the World Trade Center stood before that day when we all lost our innocence. Poem by Jenna Orkin Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9388.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-07-25 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 146.96.207.50 Annotation Annotations to this item. da