Two Note: Click any image here for a clear, large version. All images will open into a new window. To continue, just close the new window. Smaller monitors may require some scrolling to view the whole image. 256 color systems may display posterized colors in skies and other places -- use thousands or millions of colors if possible. All full-sized images are larger than usual jpegs (>10", ca. 100 megs each), as no smaller size can do justice to this event, one which will loom as the lowest nadir of perfidious human evil. To quote FDR from 60 years ago, this truly is "a day which will live in infamy."
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3- Union Square Scroll
Long Roll of Messages
Some would draw faces and flowers and objects which seemed to belong with the words. Several messages were artistically calligraphic and ornate. You could find examples written in Old English, Italic Scripts, some in childlike scrawls, and a large portion in other languages. I saw: Chinese, Hindi, Greek, Cyrillic, and those sharing our Roman Font: French, German, Spanish, Italian... They all could be found here, in one place or another.
A Message to Civilization
Some of the days I visited, the rolls were unfurled down the center of each path. Other days the strips hugged one edge of the walking space. Older scrolls were hung on temporary wire fences to either side of each path, perhaps placed there to discourage too many feet from trampling the plush grasses that make up most of the park's several blocks.
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You'll note the woman to the right above is holding a small bottle of water. Some generous and thoughtful neighbors had decided to help those who spent many hours in the park by bringing many boxes of bottled waters, handing them out near each entrance to the grounds. So many folks just chipped in and provided the supplies for many of the shrines. Groups got together to assemble unified arrangements of many kinds.
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4- More Union Square
A Shrine of Flowers
Many of these improvised shrines were placed along the paths and its intersections and cul de sacs here and there. But there were larger groupings on the grasses, like this one seen above. Other creative people built elaborate arrangements, like US flags made up entirely of flowers, or models of the twin towers with attached signs. Most of the messages were of Peace and Hope. Constantly you read the plea not to go off halfcocked in a bombing spree; not to think violence could bring about peace. Echoing Ghandi's pithy observation, a couple of signs reminded us: "An eye for an eye makes the world blind."
A Message From Friends in Natick
New York City is but one of many large cities in the USA, in the World. We often feel the links with other cities other places, being that we are a city mostly of emigrants (although I know many who were born here, of course). In spirit it is our good fortune to connect with friends and empathy from all around our small planet, especially in these days of Globalization in all of its shades of meaning. I've been through Natick MA many times, stayed there a few times, too, and smiled when I saw this section of mounted scroll above. The sincerity and spirit of the message is touchingly heartfelt. Thank you, Natick!
A Message from Airline Employees
Another set of signs which made me smile can be seen here. Some members of several airlines had decided to lend their encouragement during this disillusioning time. They had been thinking about the flight staff of each of the four flights whose lives were cut short. There is something about the human condition which can refuse to allow any crisis or impediment to crush our inner spirit. Heroes are filled with it. Anyone who eschews easy cynicism, to push on regardless, even foolishly, is filled with it, and we call it optimism or courage. It embraces life and the living, and can lead, with luck and love, to moments of wisdom and nobility.
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Wendy Carlos, Aftermath
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