story3.xml

story3.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-01-17

I had driven into the Center for New Media History as the tragedy was unfolding, but I was listening to a tape. A few minutes after I got to work, Katja, a grad assistant at the Center came in with a wild story about an attack on the World Trade Center that I immediately thought was some kind of hoax that she had heard. Moments later, the Center Director, Roy Rosenzweig, came in repeating the story so the three of us turned on all the computers and plugged into various webcasts. Thought web traffic was heavy we received the broadcasts of National Public Radio, the BBC and ABC News.

We were shocked of course. I think we all tried to get some work done, but the stories were so riveting and the images so compelling that this was difficult for all of us to do. I think I must have said "impossible" a hundred times that day.

Two weekends later I drove up to Boston with a friend. We passed the hole in the Pentagon, then passed the empty skyline of Lower Manhattan. At Fenway Park, we watched a ballgame from the left-field stands. We looked out over the bullpen as the pitchers peered over the wall and the flag beyond them flew at half-mast. It was an experience that I will never forget. I will also never forget the 35,000 Bostonians who sang "New York, New York" at the top of their voices during the seventh inning stretch. At once a terribly sad and incredibly hopeful experience.