28 20 70360 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story "Towards a More Perfect Union" "Contempt of Court: Why is the Bush Administration so desperately opposed to the new International Criminal Court?" As we approach the first anniversary date of September 11, we can expect a tsunami of American media hype about how America has changed since 9-11, 2001. Unfortunately, though, we can expect far less attention to be paid to how much America's relationship with Europe has changed since September 12, 2001. On September 12, the European member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization showed their sympathy and solidarity with America by invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty, and declaring that the attack on America was an attack on every country in the NATO alliance. By invoking the treaty, Europe's governments declared their willingness to fight alongside America in the coming struggle. Eleven months later, the alliance between the U.S and Europe seems vastly weaker than it did on September 12. And though there are many points of disagreement between the U.S. and Europe, ranging from Kyoto to steel tariffs to capital punishment, the single most divisive disagreement involves the new International Criminal Court. To see the extraordinary change in the U.S.-European relationship since September 12, consider the story which appeared in the August 26, 2002 edition of the New York Times. ""U.S. Issues Warning to Europeans in Dispute over New Court"" describes how the United States is trying to pressure European nations into signing bilateral agreements with the U.S. which would legally constrain European governments from charging Americans before the new International Criminal Court with the commission of war crimes within their own borders. In other words, the Bush Administration fears that America's closest allies will accuse it of committing war crimes within Europe. Bush's insistence on treating Europe as if it were an enemy may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 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 tp50.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story Since 9/11 Like all Americans, the events of 9/11 will be seared in my memory forever. The gaping wounds left at ground zero, the Pentagon and the smoldering woods in Pennsylvania have left us changed forever and have served to open a window to our nation's collective soul. Individually, Americans reacted with uncommon valor and characteristic generosity towards the immediate victims and their families. In the immediate aftermath, we re-learned the lesson of national unity in the face of evil, as the ubiquitous American flags flying over the land testified to our resolve and patriotism. In the past year of grief and resolution, some of us, and indeed some in our government, have lost sight of the basic liberties and rights that are inexorably woven into the fabric of our flag. Vengeance, the raw human emotions of revenge, anger and fear have substituted for justice. The courage of the firefighters, police and soldiers has been dishonored by a Bush administration domestic agenda driven by fear. Unlimited detention and secret hearings for immigrants, the TIPS program, where neighbors are encouraged to spy on neighbors, the exposure of private e-mail and library records to the FBI; with every self imposed dent in the bell of liberty, the sound of freedom rings a little less true. The ancient Greek poet Aeschylus wrote: ""Pain which we cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our sleep, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God"". We need wisdom from our leaders now more than ever. The ultimate future victory over Al-Queda depends on our resolve to stand courageously against evil with our constitutional principles intact, not hidden away in a cave of fear, or trampled in the dust on a ranch somewhere in Texas. 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 tp39.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story Toward a more perfect Union... In this past year of debate and healing, there have been a lot of questions that have been asked and others trying to be answered. Though, no one could possibly understand, nor make any sense of what happened on that fateful day, it seems that the only thing left is to pick up the pieces of our lives and try to heal and go on. Do not let Osama Bin Laden win. One question that I have had to answer to people seeking counsel is why should we allow the Muslims to reside in our country after this horrible attack. I tell them, because we are America, and freedom means everything to our people. Freedom not only for us but for all people who seek refuge from their oppressed Governments and individual societies. The one thought that has not been brought up by many people is the fact that a lot of the Muslim people came here so that their daughters and wives would be safe from the impending rule of the AlQuaida. Do they have to endure the injustice of their countries because we do not wish to have Muslims in our country due to some kind of threat to our country and people? We must remember that this war is not against the Muslim faith, it is against Osama Bin Laden. We took a stance to tell the people of Afghanistan that the degradation, and living conditions that they imposed upon the females of their country was not only wrong, it was inexcusable. A good majority of these people fled to protect their family members, and now we wish to ship them out of our country because we were attacked by the same men who attacked them in their own country? That would truly not be fair. We open our borders to people with such problems so that they may live a decent life, with the freedom of practicing their religion without the fear of retaliation, and the unbearable laws that their own country had imposed upon them. Instead of persecuting these people, shouldn't we accept them with arms wide open as our fore fathers had intended. Unless this country is open to all, to give the worlds people a place to live without fear of persecution, then we are truly the America that was intended. Lets not make this a war of religion. It is a war of a man who insisted on attacking us on our own homefront, but let us not forget that he made life unbearable in Afghanistan for their own people. Let us not punish a people because of the wrong doings of thier own goverment. After all that is why the fled their countries and sought out the freedom that we promised. And we should promise that freedom to all. 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 tp210.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. 2003-03-10 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story """Towards a More Perfect Union"""," What did WE see when WE opened our eyes? What have WE learned? Can WE salvage anything? Wait -- who are WE? Are WE the government that reacted to violence with a show of technically superior, but no less barbaric and indiscriminate, violence? Are WE the dear friend, who denies that WE are about to embark on another war of commercial conquest? Are WE the cab drivers who honk to the fasting demonstrators outside the U.N., the Arabic and Indian and Paki cabbies, in sympathy with the plight of the Iraqi people? ( WE can't be the demonstrators; there are less of them than the cabbies.) Are WE the newspaper readers, glancing nervously at page 1 before jumping to the movie or sports pages? Are WE the pilgrims to Ground Zero who lay roses for American strangers, while cursing at strangers on the highway? Are WE those who dread the idea of walking a mile in someone else's 2nd hand shoes? Are WE the families of 9/11's victims, who understand the devastation of pointless murder, and wish it on no one? Are WE the national press, the eminent social critics that even Jefferson loathed for their effectiveness, now turned to a gang of armchair Atillas, lusting for foreign blood, never having known what it is like to live day to day with no hope because the future is written and the only way to even attempt to unwrite it is to blow oneself to bits in a supermarket filled with the ""enemy""? Are WE the people who built an atomic bomb in 2 years, but seem utterly incapable of building an engine that does not run on fossil fuels? If all the oil in the world dried up tomorrow, would WE Yankee ingenuity types need even 6 months to come up w/a substitute? Are WE still WE the People? 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 tp64.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. 2003-02-28 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story Something about the spirit of worldwide cooperative effort initiated by the Bush administration in the days following 9/11 seemed too good to be true. The heady notion of again being an active participant in world discussion, rather than a dictator shouting orders or petulant child taking his ball and going home, was simply not meant to be. The Bush administration, prior to the events of 9/11, had done their level best to estrange virtually every allied government on the globe with sweeping moves designed with a unilateral agenda in mind. Allies cringed at our repugnant stance and complete turnabout on a litany of subjects; the environmental concerns of Kyoto fell to corporate greed, nuclear testing treaties fell to expedience along with ABM agreements and others. We were headed swiftly toward a growing alienation from those we call friends. In just a few moments of an otherwise ordinary day, everything changed, including attitudes toward our nation. The world mourned with us and banded together to show their support and sympathy for our mutual pain. Nations lined up alongside us to assist in eradicating the villains who could as easily perpetrate such terror anywhere. For a few precious moments, the U.S. was again the partner, the friend we claim to be. Recently, it has become evident that we have all but squandered this universal good will by returning to our past unilateral ways. Our leaderships incessant bullying regarding an all too sought after Iraq invasion, not to mention our embarrassing antics toward the International Court, have left a bad taste in the mouths of nations who were proud to stand with us. Perhaps our unilateral agenda deserves to remain in the closed history of our selfish past before it crushes the hope of future progress and most importantly future peace. 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 tp97.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. 2003-02-28 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story "Toward A More Perfect Union", "In the wake of 9/11, many commentators spoke of a revival of patriotism. This certainly did happen, but patriotism is a dangerous virtue that must be constantly diagnosed for the rot of arrogant nationalism. To have substantial ethical value, patriotism should be a desire to create something in a polity that is fine and exportable, rather than simply a blind allegiance to a flag and to narrow self-interest. Since 9/11, those who have directed the development of American foreign policy have patriotically exported violence, simplistic rhetoric, and hypocritical support for principles and regimes that are decidedly un-American. The United States has become an eagle of talons without the eagles vaunted sight. We lash out at supposed enemies without looking at consequences; we use our strength not to elevate, but to tear apart. Any dissenters who question this policy are labeled cowards or traitors. While the current American administrations scorn for peace and democratic ideals is not surprising, it is interesting how little neo-conservative hawks understand enlightened self-interest. Even Machiavelli knew that for the powerful to thrive, they must take care not to be hated by the weak. We have a foreign policy whose morality is so bound up with the punishment of perceived evil that it ignores the fragile centers of nobility and courage in the world. Arab democracy advocates, Latin Americans who believe in justice for the poor, and even Americans who try to force the United States to hold to its ideals have few friends in American public life. When our rhetoric of freedom collides with our cynical policies, friends and enemies alike take note. Wise pragmatists should fear the hatred such hypocrisy engenders. On the other hand, American idealists should regret that the United States is withering as a symbol of hope, justice, and democracy. 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 tp41.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story "Lesson from 9/11" In attempting to gain wisdom from the horrible events of last fall, itmight be instructive to remember what happened on September 11th. On that day, reckless terrorists decided to take into their own hands the fate and affairs of a democratically-elected government and an innocent peace-loving population. They decided to swoop in, brutally destroying national landmarks, sending over 3,000 people to their graves, and leaving many survivors to grieve in unimaginable torture in the days and months following, not knowing what became of their loved ones. Many people around the world, despite their own troubles, expressed shock and sympathy with the victims of this terrible tragedy. In the areas the attackers came from, there was jubilation; their newspapers and radio stations and the secret memos between conspirators expressed the twisted hope that ""a swiftly deteriorating economy will touch off a wave of violence leading to a military coup."" All this while the survivors sat in disbelief that anyone would come so far to disrupt their new president's term with such violence and hatred. But, of course, we should all know by now that is exactly what happened on September 11th, 1973ówhen the United States government cruelly overthrew Salvador Allende of Chile and brought the dictator Pinochet into power and started his monstrous reign of terror. Those responsible, the CIA, Nixon, Kissinger, the multinational corporation ITT, have never been brought to justice and, in fact, 29 years later, our pundits and politicians still turn to them today for counsel on how to carry out world affairs. While it is just and good to mourn the deaths of those in New York and Washington last September, it is crucial that we admit that our government and our military, at the behest of greedy millionaires and corrupt, unscrupulous corporations have committed far more numerous and constant crimes against humanity all over the globe, including here at home. And they are gearing up for another huge invasion in the next few weeks. If there is a lesson from 9/11, it may be as old as the need to live together in cooperation and peace. It may be "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." 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 tp12.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story One Year Later: Still Sleeping Wake up America! We've been misunderstood Again. Time to get up now So as to not be missed When our leaders call roll In that class called ""Patriotism 101"". C'mon now, They'll help you study. There isn't much to know or understand or question. It's all reflex, Recitation, Regurgitation. Did you already forget ""Citizenship 101""? Let's review: Vote. Consume. Class dismissed. No homework tonight. Wake up America! Just for a little while. This is a democracy Isn't it? You have to participate now. Fly that flag, Say that pledge, Weep as the sad country song drones on in the background at the office. You are getting on with your life. Aren't you? That's what ""they"" hate, after all. Keep buying! Keep selling! You can watch the official version Commercial free On your break. Who are they? Why do they hate us? How inquisitive, but... That's a class for more advanced citizens. ""Freedom 101"" I think it's called. Wake up America! It's time to retaliate. You can stay in bed if you'll be more comfortable. Answer that phone! The pollster general needs to verify your support, needs to ratify the decision already made. Never mind the protestors chanting in the background. The C's in a flood of A's and B's. Can't they see you're trying to participate! Shut the window! They might disturb your sleep. Nightmares come. ""Warfare 101"" but, No! There is no border?! no army?! no front!? Just an idea. Just men. Just Women. Just CHILDREN! Allies become enemies. Poverty becomes strength. Famine becomes a weapon. Dissent becomes appeasement. The slow fire that was anger, fed by bombs, and hunger, and ""collateral damage"", grows to an inferno. Soon to leap the fire line Again. **** Wake up America! C'mon, Wake up! They recognize the flag. They've seen it before. On the bombs They recognize the Eagle. It's landed before On their backs. Dollars from your pocket. Can't you hear the knocking at your door? Guilt by association With the ""greatest democracy on Earth."" They see ""Old Glory"" on your porch. United we Stand They won't stop to burn it. Wake up! They see the dollars in your wallet on the nightstand. Theft is not their aim. Wake up! You should feel their pain An eye for an eye, Like the Christian traditition teaches in ""Religion 101"" They were innocent too, once upon a time, Before eagles and flags Wake up! You are responsible. Wake up! Will you seek justice? Wake up! The alarm is sounding Do you hear? 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 tp52.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story WAR WITH IRAQ WOULD SPELL DISASTER FOR U.S. The drumbeats of war are sounding in the White House. Despite opposition within the Republican ranks, Bush is determined to wage a preemptive invasion of Iraq. Striking U.S. Moreover, there is no legitimate justification for attacking Iraq. The recently leaked Pentagon plan projects the need for 250,000 troops. Thousands of American soldiers would be killed, which is precisely what ex-President George H.W. Bush sought to avoid when he stopped short of Baghdad in 1991. In March, the Arab League unanimously declared an attack on Iraq would be considered an attack against all Arab states. The killing of Iraqis would result in even more virulent anti-American sentiment in the Arab world. If Iraq responded by attacking Israel, a world war pitting all Arab states against Israel and its supporters might well erupt. Moreover, an invasion of Iraq could have a devastating effect on the U.S. economy. Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest supplier of oil, could lead the OPEC countries in an oil embargo, and the price of oil could rise sharply, causing a recession. The CIA and FBI have been unable to link Iraq to the September 11 attacks. The alleged motivation for an invasion of Iraq is to destroy its weapons of mass destruction. However, Scott Ritter, an ex-Marine and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq has said the Iraqis never succeeded in weaponizing their chemical and biological agents. Nor has Iraq developed nuclear capabilities. In spite of U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, which calls for the creation of a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone throughout the Middle East, the United States ignores Israels stockpile of nuclear weapons. Invading Iraq would also violate international law. Under the U.N. Charter and Security Council Resolution 687, only the Council is empowered to authorize the use of force in Iraq. The U.S. should seek to achieve peace in Israel, not make war on Iraq. 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 tp173.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. 2003-03-03 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story The Editors; September 11th, 2001 spawned many changes. From the cushion of the past 20 years, we can see how that day's events rippled through the United States, and then the rest of the world. Almost imediately following the terrorist attacks, the US abdicated its role as leader of the free world. America slipped, surprisingly quickly, into a sad despotic shadow of its former self. Now, in 2021, it is hard to believe that the US was once a stalwart defender of the rule of law. Or that it was governed by popularly elected leaders dedicated (more or less) to defending the ideals of their constitutional forefathers. No longer. After 9/11/01 the now vilified Bush Adminstration set about constricting individual freedoms of American citizens under the guise of strengthening national security. The Bush definition of ""national security"" quickly expanded from denying legal rights and illegally imprisoning suspected terrorists to a wide range of oppressive actions. Most Americans were told to accept these actions as neccessary for victory in the War on Terrorism. And most Americans did. Mass consolidation of media outlets helped stifle the occasional outcry. Well paid pundits mocked dissenters, while government agencies developed strategies for punishing those who weren't ""on board"" with the Adminstration's programs. Americans learned to obey their leaders' orders unquestioningly. At the same time, the public was forced to shoulder more of the debt burden of the nation themselves, as corporate and business interests were relieved of their tax responsibility in the name of ""competitiveness"". America became unrecognizable in a few short years. And 20 years later, the world has become a safer, cleaner, happier place. Cause and effect? 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 tp56.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story "Toward A More Perfect Union"," Why I Hate America 12/13/01 I¡¯ve been asking myself why I hate America, why the anger rises up when I hear words about America¡¯s triumph over terrorism. Why am I so perverse when America is doing so much good and is being successful in making the world a better place? When the news media and solemn politicians say that we must stand united, bless America and support it¦Ðs wars, why do I feel just the opposite. Why do I feel unpatriotic, cynical and disgusted with this country. Perhaps there is something to be learned here. Perhaps, if I, as a USA citizen, born, raised and educated here, prospered here, can discern this antipathy, it might give some indication why much of the rest of the world feels that way and that Pres. Bush and the American public seem to have no idea about. First of all, what is America? I am not referring to the geographical entity of the USA which is quite beautiful outside the ruined cities, debased countryside and vast stretches of wasteland. There is much beauty here in the forests, shores, mountains, lakes and rivers, plains -- the physical nature of America is not what I am talking about. I am not talking about ¡Ýthe American people¡Ü directly which obviously at 280,000,000 is quite diverse and multifaceted. I am also not talking directly about ¡Ýwhat America stands for¡Ü as far as history, principles and values which are variable and diverse from the most admirable to the most loathsome. However, I am speaking about the American people and what America stands for indirectly in that I am speaking about the American attitude. If one can believe the mass media, civic and religious leaders and politicians, the over riding attitude that Americans have about America is that it is the best place in the world, with superior citizens, leadership and morality. In and of itself, this arrogance, bragging and smugness would not seem so hateful except for two reasons: it is based on falsehood and deception and it is based on the deprivation and diminution of people in places that are not the USA. Arrogance and bragging are not in themselves major hateful qualities but when they are coupled with cruelty, hypocrisy, cheating and savagery, they become almost unbearable. It is the glaring contradiction of the ¡Ýgreatness of America¡Ü with the depredations and barbarity of America that leads one into despising the country in which one was born. Perhaps this is what many foreigners see -- the lie, the ugly lie that is so infuriating. Perhaps they see the democracy that elects venal fools, the media that controls the citizens minds, the arrogance of the rich, the degradation of the poor, the racial hatred, the religious intolerance, the debased environment -- all the wonderful and great things that God has bestowed upon his favorite people. Perhaps many people in the world see, as I do, the evil hand of America that allows the cruelest, most repressive of regimes to survive if it serves the purposes of America while destroying others what do not benefit America -- look to the recent history of Central and South America, Asia or Africa, if you do not know what I am referring to because the catalog of hideous American intervention is very long. And what is one to think of the slaughter of innocent civilians, the looting of natural resources, the exploitation of labor, the insults and humiliations that countries that are not America or it¦Ðs chosen friends have to endure in the face of taunting arrogance of the superiority of American democracy, freedom, morality, wealth and intelligence. And, in deed, there is great wealth except those who are not so fortunate to share in it¡¯s distribution and there are clever people who have made clever discoveries and devices; that cannot be disputed. There is also this ¡Ýkind of¡Ü democracy and freedom to be ignored and assumption that the FBI won¡¯t come calling -- you can carry your placard, write letters to the editor, sign petitions -- all for nothing. And what of this American morality, this American compassion -- I don¡¯t see it in the bombing, in the amassing of wealth at the expense of the disadvantaged, in the suffering around the world, for the new found interest in the liberation of women of Afghanistan. I guess that is what it is that is so infuriating: the sham, the fraud -- the country is full of hatred, violence and madness -- watch television or read your daily newspaper if you don¡¯t think so. And I guess that only adds to the anger: Americans will watch television or read their newspapers and magazines and see greatness and goodness while I see deception, misery, insanity, viciousness. Am I the only one. And let¡¯s talk about culture, the culture of America. The mass culture, the culture that is enjoyed by the overwhelming numbers of Americans is of the worst degraded quality imaginable. In popular music, art (television and movies), cuisine, style, literature we find the trashiest, lowest and most depraved being the most popular. So this is what we have: the fantasy of the superiority of America against the reality of miserable America and the fantasy of the goodness of America against the reality of an aggressive, brutal, murderous America. Is it no wonder the country is awash in mind numbing drugs of the illegal and legal variety? Is it possible that a country can look into the vacuous face of George W. Bush and see greatness and goodness. What kind of a country kills thousands in Afghanistan but admits to nothing, that looks the other way. What kind of a country takes advantage of a national tragedy to take away citizen¡¯s rights, give more money to the rich, spread fear throughout the land and at the same time engage in the most boastful and self satisfied rhetoric. That¡¯s what I see: lies, hatred, savagery, stupidity -- maybe that is what some other people also see but apparently they don¡¯t live in America. 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 tp229.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. 2003-03-10 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story Lesson Learned submission: On 9/11 the nation and the world witnessed a reprehensible and violent act. Americans suffered a profound loss of life, safety and an innocent view of the world. The grieving process of a nation began. Grief, which follows loss, was portrayed with dignity and compassion. Then war was declared. New stations carried banners of ""WAR ALERT,"" or ""WAR ON TERRORISM,"" that accompanied continued updates on the numbers of deaths and the government's response. Fear of further attacks, fear of anthrax, and anger were feelings most often expressed. America's fear and anger were feelings that were justified, and exploited, to get revenge and embark upon the course of war. What was not allowed to happen was the lesson of the natural unfolding of the grieving process. The lesson of the ability of the human spirit to accommodate loss, pain and eventually experience healing. Daily reminders of fear and hate has prohibited that process. This process is badly needed so the view of the world is not one of victims and perpetrators. A necessary lesson needed is dialogue, and other than violent means to bring peace to a world that will not survive otherwise. 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 tp45.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story 3,000 miles away from Ground Zero, I sat in the eerie silence that accompanied grounded airplanes. As my own foundation of trust came crumbling down, I questioned the morality of human beings. When I received an e-mail response from my friend, Maureen, my bitterness and grief grew. Yes, she replied, her husband, Simon, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. Yes, he was at work when the first plane hit. Yes, he was among the "missing." I could no longer control my pessimism. I lay awake at night, sure that a backfiring car was a bomb that had just blown up the cafe across the street. I was afraid to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge for fear that terrorists were lurking in the fog. I glared at my neighbors who spoke in foreign tongues. When I finally reached Maureen, she had just put the last of her 3 young children to bed. Her voice had the nasal congestion sound that comes with too much crying. "You wouldnt believe it," Maureen said between sniffles. "The kindness of people is overwhelming. Theres a lady that I always see walking her dog past my house. Shes left a basket filled with food every single day for the last week. My co-workers went downtown and plastered pictures of Simon all over the place. They had a vigil on my street for the kids and me. People are sending me money from everywhere." I was amazed. Who would have thought that Maureen would be the one to lift my spirits? But in the depths of her own Ground Zero, Maureen had recognized something Id too quickly forgotten: in spite of everything, there is incredible kindness in the world. 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 tp66.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. 2003-02-28 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story FROM THE UNITED NATIONS TO THE BUCKET LINE I'm a science fiction geek, and shows like ""Farscape,"" ""The Outer Limits,"" and ""The (recently canceled) Invisible Man"" on the Science Fiction Channel are high on my list of eccentric pleasures. But one Science Fiction Channel show I do not watch is ""Crossing Over With John Edward."" Mr. Edward is a ""medium"" who claims he can ""talk to the dead"" - and that claim is heavily advertised. As I gazed out the window on a drizzly super shuttle ride from JFK to midtown Manhattan very late on the night of September 10th, 2001, it seemed that Mr. Edward's piercing gaze adorned the side of every bus shelter, along with the show's tag line: ""What if you could talk to a lost loved one just one more time?"" It was a sentence I imagine haunted a great many New Yorkers during the subsequent 24 hours. I had flown into New York from LAX to attend the UN's annual non-governmental organizations conference. It was the first time in my career I had been invited to speak at the UN, and I was going to discuss emerging proposals for an all-volunteer UN Rapid Deployment Force - to put a stop to genocide when national governments are unwilling to risk their own forces to do so. But with both jet lag and a long super shuttle voyage (I was the last of seven stops), I didn't finally get to bed in my hotel until about 3 AM. So I slept through the attack. My wife Kitty Felde is host of ""Talk of the City"" every weekday at 1PM on KPCC 89.3 FM, Southern California Public Radio. Kitty called me about 10:30 AM, told me the news, and then put me right to work - dispatching me to be the station's eyes and ears on the streets of New York. I headed south on 2nd Avenue. The cross streets between 2nd and 1st Avenues were all blocked off - securing the United Nations building as tightly as possible. Busses or dump trucks, loaded with sand, simply sat parked in front of most of the 2nd Avenue intersections. Officer Andrews at the corner of 46th and 2nd was extraordinarily helpful - patiently answering inquiries from one citizen after another. ""Can I get past this truck to park in my own garage?"" (No.) ""Is the Triboro Bridge open?"" (No.) ""Is there anywhere I can get gas?"" (You might try the Texaco about 20 blocks south Ö if they'll let you go down that far.) Soon I had my first choked-up moment. Inexpensive, greasy little Italian restaurant, bright white neon lights inside, surrounded by pricier establishments dark and locked up tight. But here the owner had put up a big handwritten sign. ""We refuse to give in to terrorism. We are open for business. God Bless America."" Many people I talked to expressed their mourning not just for the people inside the buildings, but also for the buildings themselves. I'm hardly your quintessential bicoastal Angeleno - this was my first trip to New York in over three years. But I've been there often enough to know that prior to 9/11/01, many New Yorkers cynically dismissed the Twin Towers as ""boring,"" ""too tall,"" ""a blot on the skyline."" But not today. ""Our beautiful landmarks are gone,"" said one woman, tears streaming. ""I've lost two dear friends,"" said another. Many people stood motionless, looking up -- at American fighter planes streaking overhead. Few things conveyed a changed world as vividly as U.S. Air Force jets engaged in high alert air defense of Manhattan Island. As I spoke to one man he paused, waiting for the aircraft's noise to subside, then looked at me and said: ""Sort of like locking the barn door after the horse is stolen, huh?"" He was angry. He wanted to talk politics. He reminded me that the unchallenged US Air Force had conducted massive air operations over Yugoslavia two years ago without suffering a single casualty. But the same US Air Force had failed utterly to defend American air space a few hours earlier. ""Terrorists be warned,"" he said, ""you take out two 110-story buildings and the headquarters of the most powerful military force in the world, and we'll be ready and waiting for you. After that."" From everywhere the smoke column was present - big, gray, dynamic, constantly churning out new ruin, a great rising column of spark and ash. I arrived as far south as I could go before they were stopping everyone - the corner of Broadway and Houston. Lined up there was a column of perhaps 30 or 40 empty dump trucks, all blue with ""NYCHA"" in big white letters. The New York City Housing Authority - a more elaborate operation than anything we possess in Los Angeles. Cops moved sawhorses from the center of Broadway, and the column moved slowly south into the dust, the smoke, and the debris, toward the scene of the great crime. I headed over to the Jacob Javits Convention Center, which had been designated as the major staging area for rescue workers and supplies. The Salvation Army appeared to be handling much of the coordination. I was quickly put to work unloading trucks and vans laden with work gloves, flashlights, boots, shovels, buckets, goggles, hot food, ""javaboxes"" of hot coffee. Even here, a good 50 blocks north of where the fires still raged, there was a haze in the air, and most of the volunteers wore cheap shapeless white dust masks that came 25 to a box. Every 15 minutes or so we would see a flatbed truck proceed slowly north on the Westside Highway, carrying a gray ash-covered vehicle, smashed beyond recognition. I spent virtually all my time during the next several days simultaneously volunteering and making periodic payphone calls to talk with Kitty live on the air at KPCC. I told some of the other volunteers that I was visiting from Los Angeles. Everyone reacted to this with intense gratitude, like I was doing them some great favor, as if 9/11 was something that had happened to their community, not mine. They were astonished when I told them that the lines to give blood in LA were even longer than the lines in New York. Rumors were rampant among the hundreds of volunteers. The USAF had actually shot down four other hijacked airliners on Tuesday. Another had crashed into the space needle in Seattle. JFK Airport had reopened on Wednesday, then immediately closed - four men had shown up for a Los Angeles-bound flight carrying box cutters, ""ready to do the same thing all over again."" At news of this the next guy over in the hauling chain looked at me, and said so all could hear: ""Hey California, if I were you, I'd drive back home."" Thursday morning the UN conducted a rump session of its conference -- condensing three days into three hours. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's wife Nane opened the proceedings. One of the speakers was a young woman named Katarina Nestorovic, there to talk about her efforts with the ""Balkan Youth Union."" I immediately recalled that some 10,000 souls were similarly slaughtered in a single day by the forces of hate - on July 11, 1995, at a place called Srebrenica. She bravely began to discuss their work with young people traumatized by a decade of horrors in the former Yugoslavia. But after a moment she began to stammer. She could not go on. And then she said: ""I'm here to talk about my work with Balkan youth, but I must say something about what happened here two days ago. And the only words that I can find are these: I know how you feel. I know how you feel."" Perhaps after 9/11, I said to Kitty and her KPCC listeners later that afternoon, we can say to Katarina Nestorovic -- and the millions of people around the world who have been victimized by some of the unspeakable atrocities of the post-Cold War world -- we know how you feel. We know how you feel. Thursday afternoon, on my way back over to the Javits Center, I walked by an FDNY firehouse between Third and Lex. The big garage door was open. Someone had made a big poster, with about a dozen firefighter photos on it, and the words: ""We're keeping the light on for you, fellas."" There were several dozen people milling around outside, speaking in hushed tones. I started chatting with one firefighter, perhaps 30, who told me his name was Fred Zavilskas. And Fred was having a tough time. He had a wife and two young kids. So did his colleague Rob Parra - whose photo appeared on the poster. Fred and Rob had traded shifts a few days earlier so Rob could play in a softball game. That meant Rob was covering Fred's shift when he headed down to the World Trade Center fire on the morning of September 11th. Now god knows I'm not a counselor or a minister or any kind of a guru. But it just came to me what I had to say to this man. It's really the only time that week I feel I said anything spiritually worthwhile. ""Fred,"" I said, ""you've got to do three things to get yourself out of this quagmire. One, you've got to go see Rob Parra's widow - if she does indeed turn out to be a widow - and you've got to make sure she knows about the traded shifts. Two, you've got to tell her that her family, and your family, are now one family. And three, you've got to promise her that you're going to do twice as much good in the world as you were previously intending to do. You've got to do all the good that you were gonna do. And you've got to do all the good that Rob Parra was gonna do."" Thursday night back at the Javits Center, as midnight approached, we were hit quite suddenly by a savage wind and rain. We'd already tied huge tarps to trucks and lampposts overhead, but now stood holding them above our heads to keep them from blowing away. Rain streamed down my sleeve. It was 63 hours since the attack. ""Happy is the bride whom the sun shines upon,"" said my mother's friend Ruth Murphy at her funeral on a torrential June day in Chicago in 1979, ""and happy are the dead whom the rain falls upon."" I'm a lifelong Catholic, and on Sunday I went to Edward Cardinal Egan's mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. But it was standing room only outside in the street, with audio speakers set up all around. I spoke with three pretty female flight attendants, in uniform, who were clearly still focused on what had happened aboard those aircraft five days earlier. ""Don't worry,"" I told them, pointing my finger in their faces, ""it's never going to happen again. We have to believe that all of this, somehow, is going to lead to better and brighter days. We have to live our lives in the hope that the worst part of the 21st Century is already behind us."" In my scholarship and peace advocacy work I talk about cultivating an ethic of global citizenship, about broadening our national patriotism toward a planetary patriotism, about pledging our allegiance to humanity. The core notion underlying the UN Rapid Deployment Force proposal - the one I was in New York to speak about - is that citizens ought to be able, if they wish, to do something larger than ""serve their country."" Citizens ought to be able to volunteer to serve humanity. But I won't soon forget the scene outside as Cardinal Egan's mass came to an end. I stood on the corner of 51st and 5th, in a tightly packed crowd. St. Patrick's Cathedral was to my left, Radio City Music Hall to my right. The Empire State Building - the tallest building in New York City - loomed 18 blocks to the south. Immediately behind that, the enduring smoke column from Ground Zero churned powerfully upward. And 5000 people in the street, most openly sobbing, sang together: ""America, America, god shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good, with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea."" Among the volunteers at the Javits Center much of the conversation centered on how to get ourselves down to ""the site"" (no one, here at least, was yet referring to it as ""Ground Zero""). The ""criteria"" for deciding who got on the busses that headed down every few hours was amorphous, ill defined, and inconstant. Many of the gatekeepers seemed self-appointed, holding only the authority granted to them by bright orange vests they had somehow procured. But virtually everyone at the Javits Center wanted to figure out how to get on those busses and get themselves down there. Including me. I'm a little bit ashamed, even still, of just how intensely I held this desire. I told myself that I'd be writing and speaking about 9/11 for many years to come, that my scholarship and peace advocacy could only be enhanced by firsthand experience. I told myself that I could well serve the KPCC listeners by calling Kitty from the pile itself. But the truth was more primal than that. It was a big, monumental, historic event Ö and I really wanted to participate in it. It was, I felt certain, a horrific, cataclysmic, apocalyptic spectacle Ö and I really wanted to see it. By Saturday morning the bus-boarding decisionmaking process seemed to have firmed up a bit. They were only taking welders and ironworkers by then - and requiring both tools and union cards to prove it. This didn't seem to hold out much hope for a desk dwelling academic who bears almost no resemblance to ""The Rock."" But I gave it a shot. I told the orange-vested woman that I'd been in both London and Jerusalem when bombs had gone off (albeit many miles from me). I explained that I'd received extensive first-aid training - and showed her the little CPR certification card I carry in my wallet. I talked, with only a little hyperbole, about the rubble-clearing activities after the Los Angeles earthquake of 1994 - ""the greatest natural disaster,"" I emphasized helpfully, though not quite sure I could confirm it was true, ""in American history."" ""All right, all right,"" she said finally, ground down, ""pipe down and get on."" The bus full of welders, ironworkers, and me arrived shortly before noon - exactly 99 hours since the first plane hit the first tower. Gear was distributed, and we were directed to walk slowly and carefully through the shattered but still-standing World Financial Center building, trodding through water and ubiquitous gray concrete dust. And then we climbed through a broken doorway, and there it was, as big as Dodger Stadium, the twisted and grotesque site of a political mass murder. I thought about my 104-year-old grandmother, who entered comptometer school at this very Church Street location after graduating from high school in 1915. Years later she had gone to work in the North Tower on the day it opened in 1972, and remained there until her retirement in 1980. (She revealed then to her employer that she had lied about her age, and was not as he thought 73, but 83.) I looked up at the elegant Woolworth Building - the tallest building in New York before the Empire State Building was built - and thought about my parents, both dead, who had met there almost exactly 50 years earlier. Now I had packed mostly suits for this trip, not rugged work gear. But I had brought along a pair of Bermuda shorts, a couple of T-shirts, casual hiking shoes, and a long pair of knee socks which make me look a bit like an 18th-century Swiss yodeler. And that's what I was wearing now, along with kneepads, gloves, goggles, and a heavy-duty respirator mask (nothing like the cheap things we'd been wearing at the Javits Center). I moved in between two sturdy-looking fellows with sharp Brooklyn accents. One was wearing firefighter boots, rubber pants, fire helmet, and a tight FDNY polo shirt. Another -- an unlit cigar in his mouth - wore a weathered police helmet that said ""NYPD Arson and Explosion Squad."" They looked me over. I hesitated. Finally FDNY says: ""You know, there's not a lotta guys who could pull off an outfit like that."" I got in the bucket line. It took me awhile to figure out the point to the operation. The bucket lines actually existed in pairs - one passing 20-30 pound loaded buckets back, and another passing empty buckets forward. ""Hey, check out Ladder 15 over there,"" joked one firefighter. ""They got the whole truck hauling empties."" Had there been no people in the Twin Towers, the authorities presumably could have cleared the whole thing away with steam shovels and bulldozers in a couple of weeks. But we, of course, were searching slowly and carefully for bodies, body parts, and on this day still very much for living survivors. Everything underneath us was sharp and jagged - at one point it took me a good 15 minutes just to get my footing. A couple of times an FDNY captain came over and made us shift the entire bucket line, because the rubble beneath our feet was getting too hot for our safety. Eventually I had to pee. Although I'm sure that before long someone thought to bring in porta-potties, I didn't see any on this day. ""See that doorway over there, guy?"" said an ironworker near me on the line, pointing to a door into the shattered World Financial Center building. ""If I were you, I'd just go in there and find an empty office."" At several points I noticed papers underneath us as we worked. I thought long and hard before even bending down to pick one up. I was there to work, to help, to participate - not to hunt for souvenirs. But they were just laying there in the mud and the dust, people were walking all over them, they were clearly bound for the dump trucks - and in my view they were historical artifacts. So although to this day I'm still not certain it was the right thing to do, I picked up several and stuffed them into my pockets. ""Gail, I have attached the pages from the register as requested, but not a copy of the EO2 report Ö"" says a fax on Brown and Wood stationery, burned around the edges, and smelling - like everything - of ground up concrete dust. ""Important Message While You Were Out,"" says the pink telephone message form. ""For: Craig, From: Cindy, Re: worker's comp policy - one additional added on due to 3/96 UCT6 Report."" ""Get Met,"" says Snoopy on a singed computer mouse pad, ""It Pays."" I suspect I won't be the only soul, god willing, who pulls these yellowed relics out of a drawer to share with some children on 09/11/51. I spent about 18 hours at the site, from noon Saturday to 6 AM on Sunday, putting in three long bucket line shifts. About halfway through I borrowed a cell phone and talked to Kitty and her KPCC listeners again - about dust, about fire, about life and death. It was at that point I noticed that I had not yet seen a single journalist at the site. No radio reporters carrying microphones. No print reporters carrying note pads. No TV cameras in sight. After midnight I got back in line again. Requests got shouted down from the very front toward the back of the line. ""Torch! Torch. Torch."" 90 seconds later we passed a welder's torch up. ""Gasoline!"" ""Burning Gloves!"" ""Sauzol!"" I had never heard this word before. What could it be? A special kind of diamond drill? An exotic brand of Puerto Rican tequila? Then I heard the word again. ""Saws All!"" - a hard metal saw that apparently can cut through anything. We passed it up. A few minutes went by. ""Saws All Batteries!"" Hey Ö everybody was trying their best. Then a call for something different. ""Dog!"" ""K-9!"" ""Dog!"" The dog and her handler slowly made their way up the mountain of rubble and steel. She was wearing rugged doggie boots, but even still, it was an arduous climb. At two points, they simply came to a dead stop, and the handler lifted the dog up above a massive steel girder, handing her into strong waiting hands. We continued conveying. Then came the next call. ""Bodybag! Bodybag. Bodybag."" I'd never seen one before. It was folded tightly, sort of like a heavy-duty rubber flag. We passed it up. Now there were probably 1000 women and men at the site itself, and 20 or 30 bucket lines such as my own. There were bulldozers, cranes, power tools, lots of noise. Then the next call came. ""Quiet! Quiet. Quiet."" The machinery stopped. The women and men stopped. The noise stopped. And we all stood there silently. And we watched a team of coroners slowly work their way back down the massive pile, carrying the remains of a 33-year old woman who had been minding her own business at 8:45 AM on 9/11/01, who'd had a fabulously fun day of bicycling with her two teenage nieces just two days earlier at the New Jersey shore, who'd had five dates - no, six - with a new guy who worked up on Central Park South and was wondering if she should bring up the ""exclusivity"" question, whose mother had died 5 years earlier and whose father had still not pulled out of his funk, who'd been reading Isaac Asimov's ""Prelude to Foundation"" on the subway an hour earlier and had almost gotten through the entire 7-volume masterpiece, who'd never heard of Osama bin Laden -- let alone her murderer, Mohammed Atta -- and who, if you'd asked her at that moment if there was anyone anywhere on Planet Earth that merited her ""hatred,"" would likely have replied: ""Gee - I dunno. Nobody comes to mind."" 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 tp19.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story ONE NATION...UNDER... . . . Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence has always been the nations most cherished symbol of liberty and a monument to the author. In the Declaration Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of an American people who had won the struggle to be free. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed many times over by Continental philosophers. Thomas Jefferson merely summed it all up for us in the words ""self evident truths."" Jefferson then set forth a list of grievances against the King as he sought to justify before the world the formal breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country . . . Today I pay tribute to Democrat Thomas Jefferson, the nations 3rd president and author of the most beautiful words ever written . . . fraught with a meaning and passion for liberty that have all but been erased by freedom-busting legislation proposed by the swaggering-strutting-illiterate-draft- dodging-war mongering- Jesus -freak-Texan- alcoholic-cowboy , George W. Bush, who aided by his Supreme gang --without firing a shot rode into Washington, D. C. in the year 2001, stealing the presidential election. This civil rights encroacher has tried to reap political gains through the September 11 tragedy that befell Mr. Jefferson's America, gloating in the fact that he had ""hit the big trifecta."" . . . UNTIL WE ARE FREED FROM THOSE WHO HAVE MOCKED OUR CONSTITUTION, ARE LIBERATED FROM ALIGNMENT WITH MURDEROUS NATIONS AND ARE LOOSED FROM EVILS WHO ARE FORCING US TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR LIBERTIES A PERFECT UNION WILL ELUDE US. 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 tp54.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. 2003-02-24 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story "Toward A More Perfect Union", "Watching that structure collapse, knowing people were still inside, was total devastation of spirit. Everyone who saw those images was changed by them. The immediate reactions were honest and humble. Matt Lauer screamed out in horror as the second plane hit, and it was humanity to the core. Where the focus in American society is always on the self, the focus now was entirely on the people directly involved. We sensed the tragedy of others, or were swept up in our own. Humanity stood still that day. Many thought we would grow stronger from the wretched event. It was obvious we had been forever changed. But then the cliches crept in -- our old ways of living life found solid ground as time limped on. ""America Under Attack"" graced cable television screens like a New York Post headline. Chants of ""U-S-A"" filled the dusty World Trade Center grounds behind a President proudly pumping his fist, as though cheering on the Dream Team. And ""God Bless America"" became the rallying cry for all those who believed in the divine superiority of our nation and its people. THAT is when our international friends started to roll their eyes. The rhetoric of our might echoed across the planet, in desperate search of people that cared. Instead of rebounding strong, we came back angry. But we can change that. On behalf of every life taken September 11, we need to grow up and learn from it. We must dig deep, get off our complacent asses, and ask tougher questions. Self-criticism is always difficult, always cleansing. While the world is teetering on madness, only our collective action can right the ship. Ask not what your country has done in your name, ask what you can do in your country's name. 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 tp70.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. 2003-02-28 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story What did we see when we opened our eyes? Flags, flags, and more flags. My Iranian friend said she thought that in any other society it would be thought that Americans attached the stars and stripes to everything visible to ward off the devil. Nothing has been seen like it since the emergence of the Coke logo. We have learned from this that in this culture, consciousness is framed by the environment and by the proliferation of the various products around us. The flagging of America has only made it more comfortable to accept and support more and more war on other peoples of the world with little questioning or with little focus. We can salvage, though, something from the reprehensible American response of inflicting violence without regard for finding the true source, even to this day, of the crimes committed on 9/11. Americans can show some respect. One way would be for those so moved to trade in their American car flags for peace flags. This is an idea of mine from August. Nanotechnologist Alan Kay said, ""The only way to predict the future is to make it."" I am prepared to handle the peace trade transactions, and turn in the received flags to families in New York who lost their own on 9/11--but who believe in peace--not war. 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 tp188.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. 2003-03-03 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story ""Toward A More Perfect Union"" Let's call him Doc. He is one of the Little Men. I've known Doc for a bout 20 years. My contacts with him have been fleeting, my conversations with him short, but I know that he sometimes lives on the street when he is losing the battle against his chemical, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual demons. When I saw Doc a week or so after September 11th, 2001, he was on one of his losing streaks. The horrible images of the destruction of the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon were still fresh in my mind. I asked Doc what he thought of it all. He looked at me, cocked his head to one side, thought a moment and said, ""For a motherfucker like me, it was just another day."" We have learned more since 9/11 than I can set down here. I wonder if we have learned anything about Doc, his brothers and sisters, his sons and daughters? Do we know that the Doc's of this great country, worried about finding a job, a place to stay, something to eat, ""ain't feelin'"" our pain and sorrow, our anger and loss, our need for revenge? Does the more perfect union we have attempted to forge in the aftermath of the attacks include Doc, who, like Rudyard Kipling's Tommy Atkins is ""chucked out"" in peacetime, but who is ""Savior of his country when the guns begin to shoot?"" Have we learned that the Little Men count as much as the Big Men--maybe more, since there are so many more of them? I last saw Doc about a month ago. He was sober, happy, healthy and working. A spirit such as his is one which this union will need to live long and prosper. If it rejects him, brands him a loser, can it long stand? 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 tp68.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. 2003-02-28 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story AGENDA INTERRUPTED: Although Joseph J. Ellis, in his best-seller, Founding Brothers , tells us with justifiable pride that the United States is now the oldest enduring Republic in world history, with a set of political institutions and traditions that have stood the test of time , he warns us too, with historical wisdom , that our unrivalled democracy is still a work in progress. The American agenda from the beginning was a heady introduction of the principles of equality and the renunciation of the twin evils of monarchy and religious tyranny. Tom Paine said The only legitimate government, in the end, was self-government . And, Like Voltaire, Jefferson longed for the day when the last king would be strangled with the entrails of the last priest. . It was this historic tradition, Americas revolutionary contribution that burst upon a world of monarchical privilege and religious power, that was attacked on September 11, as religious fascism, the 21st. century version of mediaeval thought, sought to destroy the American agenda of freedom and liberty. From its inception the American experience has been an exuberant expansion of liberty in a nation of diversity. The concept of freedom runs as a unifying thread as each generation fought to maintain and extend individual rights: slavery, state-sponsored racism , civil rights, the rights of women, labors right to organize, religious freedom , the separation of church and state, the struggle against fascism, each held center-stage in its time, and together they represent the ongoing saga of the centrality of freedom started at our nations birth. We have stopped the fascist-religious-terrorists for now. Our challenge now is : Will we be able to do so in the years ahead while continuing our historic American agenda of freedom and liberty? 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 tp166.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. 2003-03-03 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 TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story Crossroad or Crosshairs? Great nations exert great influence on their times. The zeitgeist sweeping the world today is a maelstrom of anger, selfishness, suspicion, militancy, and retribution. Such a zeitgeist breeds rhetoric, not truth, cunning, not compassion, hypocrisy and self-interest, not deep moral intent. On September 11, 2001, the flames of this zeitgeist, which the United States has helped fuel, brought down the greatest towers in the world. Never doubt the power of the zeitgeist. A siren of destruction or a messenger of joy, it infiltrates everything from government policies to childrens dreams. Pointing to our complicity in the zeitgeist does not imply that we deserved September 11. No citizens anywhere deserve slaughter. Nevertheless, now the greatness of the United States faces its most critical test. We can stoke the zeitgeist with our awesome firepower, intensifying a worldview in which the strongest make the rules, vengeance comes before understanding, and only the vanquished are forgiven. A world in which fighting, rather than peaceful initiatives, defines courage. It would disconcert Christ to watch our leaders, who profess such allegiance to Christianity, violate and twist its fundamental precepts. Al-Queda may ultimately prove less of an enemy to America than those Americans who allow themselves to be swept into the updraft of such a zeitgeist. The true quality of our greatnessóour commitment to our might or our commitment to the world--will determine how we choose to effect the zeitgeist. We can fuel a zeitgeist that renders the next Mandela, King or Gandhi irrelevant and impotent, or we can begin to change it. No nation, even the greatest, endures forever, and so what matters most is the legacy we ultimately leave behind. History will judge us long after we can do anything to affect that judgment. There really is only one courageous and noble choice. 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 tp88.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. 2003-02-28