Painful memories

[theeye]

I received my annual renewal notice for Channel 13 (NY's PBS station). Along with the request for money came a set of those ubiquitous personalized return labels. And on those labels was a picture of ... yes, the twin towers.

There's going to be a lot of this. It will create a lot of painful memories for a lot of people. And a lot of companies are going to incur a lot of expense reprinting all sorts of material in an attempt to avoid those associations.

The trickle-down effects of these events are just barely beginning...

[taurusmoon]

Among other things, my company publishes maps of the NY metro area. Every single product we have that includes Manhattan is now inaccurate.

We just went to press with a reprint of the laminated version of our flagship atlas. Guess what's on the cover? The regular paper version was scheduled to go on press this week and was pulled. The Director of Cartography is having a very difficult time finding an appropriate cover photo that does not show the NY skyline. What they're going to do about the interior map pages remains to be considered.

It's painful enough to deal with this. Having to make business decisions based on the situation is torturous.

Sara

[theeye]

Sara -

Tell your Director to look for a tight shot of the Empire State Building. Or perhaps the Statue of Liberty.

It boggles the mind to think of the many and myriad ways that this horrible event will affect companies and people in and out of NY. I hope that NY maps are only a small portion of your business.

[drmomentum[$]]

The moviemakers who are working on the new Spider-Man film are having to go in and remove the towers digitally.

It won't be too big a deal to do that in this day and age, and the landmarks didn't feature heavily in the film. They've already pulled posters and a trailer that had him spinning a huge web between the buildings to catch some bank theives in their helicopter.

-JP

[AmyLEnsor]

I guess I can see how photos of them might open up wounds that are trying to heal, but I think it is sad we have to remove every reference to them. They existed and NYers were proud of them. Many people around the country have been in them. I can see how it would make sense to use another image on the Atlas, but the Spider Man movie was created while the towers were still standing. I guess it's no big deal since they didn't feature in the movie--it was more of an interesting visual. Still, the movie isn't going to be rewritten and filmed to include some sort of reference to the fact that the twin towers were and are no more. I just don't like the idea that we have to pretend they never existed. We'll never get to see them again, and now I find myself wanting to see photos of the NY skyline and the WTC in the pre-event days.

[afropuff]

Originally posted by AmyLEnsor
I guess I can see how photos of them might open up wounds that are trying to heal, but I think it is sad we have to remove every reference to them. They existed and NYers were proud of them. Many people around the country have been in them. I can see how it would make sense to use another image on the Atlas, but the Spider Man movie was created while the towers were still standing. I guess it's no big deal since they didn't feature in the movie--it was more of an interesting visual. Still, the movie isn't going to be rewritten and filmed to include some sort of reference to the fact that the twin towers were and are no more. I just don't like the idea that we have to pretend they never existed. We'll never get to see them again, and now I find myself wanting to see photos of the NY skyline and the WTC in the pre-event days.

Yeah, I agree. I like seeing the old skyline ... this new one, complete with an ominous cloud of gray dust ... it's just too much. If I had a choice between seeing reminders of WTC and seeing the new skyline, I'll pick the good ol' WTC any day. There's still a twinge of pain there, but I don't want to forget ... because then the [insert bad language here] who did this will win. They can kiss my ... they didn't win ... that's why I don't want the reminders to go away just yet.

[kurt_messick]

I often fall asleep with the television on. I awoke a week ago or so to some old rerun sitcoms; the one ending was Barney Miller. As the credit ran, there was the view of lower Manhattan, WTC towers and all. So many films and television shows have shots of NYC that will include those towers.

I'd actually be in favour of rebuilding them. When a bomb destroyed the House of Commons during WWII, there were debates about how to rebuild it. Winston Churchill, among others, argued strongly for reconstruction exactly as it was before. No stronger signal would be sent, they argued. I'm not sure if those are completely convincing arguments, but certainly something to think about.

[theworm[$]]

I'd actually be in favour of rebuilding them.

When I first heard the question posed of rebuilding, my initial reaction was that we can't. Just as I was expressing that thought, my husband blurted out "we must". The more I think about it, the more I think that we should. Those towers were great symbols, and I can't imagine New York without them. What better "living memorial" can we build to those who perished?

[kurt_messick]

I think about it this way -- if the Statue of Liberty had been destroyed, we'd rebuild it. If the Capitol had been destroyed, we'd rebuild it. If the White House had been destroyed, we'd rebuild it.

The World Trade Center towers have been lifted to a sphere of symbolism beyond what they had last week. They were buildings I thought (in all honesty) fairly nondescript -- okay, so they're tall, I used to think. I've been up in them, and yes it was a remarkable trip -- the outside observation deck, the restaurants (Windows on the World and Cedar in the Sky), but I reacted against what I considered the 'bareness' of the overall design. I won't think on these buildings in that way again.

As I was trying to find out more about the buildings themselves so I could speak intelligently about what they were, I found many interesting facts and photographs. I have a particular favourite, and if I can figure out how to add an image here, I shall (the buttons won't work for me )

[jgibson2[$]]

I read an article somewhere online this weekend -- sorry, can't remember exactly where -- apparently many of the construction workers who are helping sift through the rubble for survivors, evidence, and eventually the bodies of those who died are the very men who built those towers. If not them, then their sons and grandsons. The article made it clear that many of those men expect to rebuild those towers. I wasn't sure until I read the article. I think that theworm's husband is right. We must.

As for opening wounds that are trying to heal, that's a time-honored technique for contaminated wounds. Some are so deep and so dirty that they simply cannot be permitted to close without being fully cleaned and so they must be opened again and again until the poison has been drained. Perhaps this is one of those wounds.

[jo.com]

I was perusing my own webpages and realized that on the page where I have links to things like epinions and mypoints I had a pic of a dollar bill and superimposed in the background were the Towers. Needless to say I deleted the pic!

[vania]

My bedroom is decorated with framed black and white photography. My biggest one-- a poster-- is the Manhattan skyline.

So it was quite eerie for me on Tuesday night: I was lying on my bed transfixed by the television, in shock, along with most of the country. Right in front of me, over the TV, those shadowy twin towers in that poster. And on the TV screen, nothing but a cloud of dust....

Very surreal.

vania

[nicholmere]

I found this interesting article on CNN. It includes comments from people involved in the building of the WTC, and their thoughts on whether the towers should be rebuilt or not.

Debate begins on rebuilding towers

[emeleel]

Not being a NY'er myself, I'm torn. I'm all for "not letting them beat us down" and showing the bad guys what's what, but...

...I can't imagine building office buildings for commercial use on top of what will eventually amount to a mass grave for 4000+ people.

I don't want to be gross or insensitive here, but realistically, how much are they really going to recover out of the rubble? I can't imagine knowing that a spot of ground was my loved one's final resting place and that people were just walking around on it, conducting business and whatnot.

I would vote for creating a park there, with a wall-type memorial with the names of the dead inscribed.

[afropuff]

Originally posted by emeleel
I don't want to be gross or insensitive here, but realistically, how much are they really going to recover out of the rubble? I can't imagine knowing that a spot of ground was my loved one's final resting place and that people were just walking around on it, conducting business and whatnot.

I would vote for creating a park there, with a wall-type memorial with the names of the dead inscribed.

If this had happened anywhere else, the likelihood that a park would be built would be high. However, a park in the middle of prime NY real estate would never get off the ground. Those behind the NY real estate market would never let that happen.

I know the argument sounds crass, but there it is. I don't totally agree with it, but that's it.

It doesn't really matter at this point -- this debate -- because rebuilding such a tower would take years ... I've heard estimates of 6+ years. I heard it will take a year just to clear out the rubble. Such a tremendous undertaking ...

[AmyLEnsor]

Originally posted by emeleel
I would vote for creating a park there, with a wall-type memorial with the names of the dead inscribed.

I was reading the new issue of Time and it was addressing the issue of what and when to rebuild. They did bring up the fact that after WW2 it was seen as important to rebuild all the iconic structures that had been destroyed. The article also makes the point that the WTC complex occupied a very expensive piece of real estate and there are tens of thousands of workers who will need the office space, so the reality is that something may eventually need to be built there that can serve a dual purpose both as a memorial and as office space.

[realtraveller]

Something like 20% of the rental space in the financial district was lost when the towers collapsed. Perhaps some sort of memorial on the plaza when the towers are rebuilt. The rebuiders have to sensitive to the fact that the old towers became a tomb for some and a crematorium for others.

Pearl Harbor is still in use as a navy base with a very moving memorial. Traffic still runs through Dealey Plaza with a museum in the Texas School Book Depository. Gettysburg and Antietim can be maintained as historic sites alone because they are in rural areas.

The towers have to be rebuilt. Assuming that businesses would want to rent in them again. Would their employees be constantly reminded of the attack? Would they feel vulnerable to another attack? But that's a different question.

[realtraveller]

And we're forgetting the Pentagon which alone lost more people than the OKC bombing. It will have to be rebuilt the way it was.