>Live! From New York, it's . . .
>
>Safe and alive - and as freaked as Jay.
>
>My son saw the 2nd tower collapse "live" too. I saw it on TV. I've seen 1, 2
>and 7 (now) fall too . I can't let go of the obsessive following of this.
>Tragedy turned into spectacle/news - that still remains tragedy and
>dangerous tragedy/spectacle/news at that.
>
>My dentist is in the Empire State Building and that has been closed
>since 9AM today and remains indefinitely closed. The Graduate Center
>(across the street) remains open - no classes, but people couldn't get
>home after they came to work - so the university functioned more like a
>shelter (perhaps for the first time). Manhattan is, and has really
>become, an island. For a while bridges, tunnels, airports and subways
>were closed. The only thing working was the Ferry that took people to
>New Jersey - perhaps against their will (sorry folks - a regional and
>parochial joke).
>
>At the risk of sounding political in times like these - I think that
>this disaster has rushed into the void that US foreign policy has
>created.
dear joe and others.....
there is another void that we in the educational community can help fill,
or at least help lead the call for. how many americans, myself included,
were unaware of the fact that the taliban was engaged in civil conflict in
afghanistan? we here in america have no sense that we are members of the
world community, and so we are world illiterate.
world citizenship literacy certainly makes sense at least at the college
level. but the best means may be our 24 hour news services. i cannot
really fault abc or nbc or cbs news for giving us headlines about mostly
domestic stuff, since they only have 30 minutes a day. but why can't cnn
and fox news spend, say, ten minutes a day highlighting one country? tell
americans if the govt is friend or foe, where it is, their culture, and if
they are foes, why they are upset with the usa. if i were a multinational
company, i would buy that advertising space in a heartbeat.
one more note -- talked to my kindergarten teacher/girlfriend last night
about her kids. i asked her if her kids were upset -- she was prepared to
talk to them about being loved and being safe -- but they were totally calm
and relaxed. they did talk about the tv show they saw the previous night,
where a plane hit a building, and they thought it looked pretty cool. jan
said that she just left the matter there, because she saw no sense in
telling them that it was real. she is prepared to deal with matters if and
when they catch on, however....
gary shank
shank@duq.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Oct 10 2001 - 15:49:13 PDT