9-11-02.

With all due respect to the families and friends who lost loved ones in the horrible attacks one year ago, I think there’s enough 9-11 memorializing out there at the moment without my further contributing. So I’ll confine my links to my post that day, W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939” (which I still think beautifully encapsulates both the despair of Ground Zero and the hope of Union Square one year ago), and the changes to your legal rights since then. (Last link via Genehack.) Let us hope that 9-11 stands alone with December 7 as a day that will live in infamy, and not as a prelude of darker hours to come.

The Complicated American.

What the World Thinks of America, from Gary Kamiya of Salon (premium). A fascinating read.

Memorial Politics.

Speaking to the families of 9-11 victims, Governor Pataki declares that nothing will be built on the site of the former WTC. While obviously some kind of memorial on the premises would be appropriate, I don’t agree with Pataki at all on this one. NYC doesn’t need another park…the city should stay true to its organic nature and rebuild on the (extremely valuable) space, particularly if you consider the fact that the WTC project tore up several blocks of historic Dutch Manhattan back in 1973.