Virtually everyone who visits the WTC site reports the same effect: they are astonished by the scale of the devastation, utterly beyond from what they have seen in photos and on TV. Then they take pictures, and guess what: they are no different from anyone else's pictures. Pictures show a tiny window into the scene; but you have to be there in 360 degree reality to get the full impact. John seems to have experienced the same thing. His memories are overlayed onto the photos, making them for him part of a larger reality. But to a viewer, they are no different from what we have seen from the other news media. They just show broken metal. You can get the same thing at the local junkyard.
Yes, Incognito is correct. But what you need for experiencing the real thing is this little bag of rainbows which Guiliani and Pataki and Bush hand out to special visitors. I grabbed a bunch of these grandiloquenizers from Red Cross which freely dispenses them to the cadaver bits mongerers. The NY Times reports today how hard it is to get on the WTC site if you are not a celebrity, a friend of the Mayor or Governor, or a source of funds to rebuild the profanely sacred site. Not even the press can break the embargo, unless a press celeb. The terrorism nuttiness extends to the American Institute of Architects who, the Times reports today, is issuing a warning to its members not to disclose building information. I don't belong to that fruitcake-cartel which is about as courageous as City and State and Federal officials when it comes to guarding its nearly worthless information. AIA does only what it takes to get its members jobs. I tried to do volunteer work for the local AIA chapter surveying buildings around WTC, but later learned that its program is open only to members seeking paid work at the disaster. I was at the WTC site following a volunteer inspection of a local terrified office renter who called the AIA for assistance and was given a list of expensive architects whose fees have jumped, and told no volunteers available. Word of mouth got me. And I got to the WTC for excellent payment.
John was busy playing war tourist, and as any journalist who has covered a conflict will tell you, war tourists are some of the lower forms of life one can encounter. Think pornographer with a flack jacket. John shouldn't have been walking inside the crime scene. The cops treated him better than they should have. JDII
John seems to have experienced the same thing. His memories are overlayed onto the photos, making them for him part of a larger reality. But to a viewer, they are no different from what we have seen from the other news media. They just show broken metal. You can get the same thing at the local junkyard.
"Insert the usual disclaimer here." Key ID: 0x8EF048F5 4093 Bit DH/DSS Fingerprint: CC8F 8D2C E1A3 6555 7438 B456 D00E A83C 8EF0 48F5
,----[ On Thu, Oct 04, at 12:51PM, John Doe Number Two wrote: ]-------------- | John was busy playing war tourist, and as any journalist who has covered a | conflict will tell you, war tourists are some of the lower forms of life one | can encounter. John was playing someone who was in the area and was mesmerized by the destruction. | Think pornographer with a flack jacket. By and by, not what John seems to have been doing, I dont see John going out of his way to get pictures in a war zone. I do see John going into the area, because he was told he couldnt and he saw a clear oportunity to go in with little hassle (as far as going in goes) on his part) | John shouldn't have been walking inside the crime scene. The cops treated | him better than they should have. The "Cops"(tm) should have actually done their job and guarded the "crime scene" effectively, that they failed to do so is not John's problem. Arresting him for picture taking, when it is not a crime in the book is a tad preposterous in my book, have they arrested any of the people who took pictures and sold them to CNN? I think not... How about the amateur camera men who sold their tapes to the networks and even got to go on TV as talk show guests? And how about destroying the pictures? Hey, if he was going to be arrested, why destroy the evidence of the crime? If the arrest was truly legitimate, wouldnt it make sense to simply keep the memory card as "evidence" ? It was simple harrassment, they know the photo ban wont stand a try at court... --Gabe PS- this is the "shit, I wasnt there anyway, so my opinions are just that" line -- "It's not brave, if you're not scared."
Now we shouldn't overvalorized those working the crime scene. This is not a war site by any stretch, it's a disaster site and nobody is getting shot at or threatened by hundreds of officers and military standing around with their thumbs up. The spin on this racket does remind of war mongerers, so that is much is true, but the pornography is by the pols and mongerers. There are hard workers on the site, doing dirty dangerous work, but not most of the squeaky cleans, saluting one another, discussing when to take a break, swapping tales of pussy and liquor, angling for the attention of any camera in sight, kissing superiors' asses. The site is way over staffed and equipped, with much of the staff and stuff unused, again like a war where only a tiny majority ever risk shit. War stories are pornographic lies no matter who tells them, and the best lies are told by police and the military. Hats off to the few hard workers I saw at WTC, a big Bronx cheer to the 90% on the site who were there for racking up points and lurid tales to tell the rubes on- and off-site. Speaking from one jerk's experience, the officers and soldiers seemed relieved to have me to deal with. Not much, but better than hosting the gaggle of celebrities who look through them until the photo crew are set up, then profuse thanks, then lights out and off to the limo. I think the reason Smokey deleted my photos is because I took no pix of the spic and span uniformed idlers. Shit, I heard a group of cops discussing what kind of groovy hardhat to wear, what kind of flags to costume in. Paratroopers halting a cute female officer, raining her with a bevy of different salutes until she rushed away red-faced. Even so, I thanked every officer I dealt with for their sacrifices. No bullshit, having been a soldier the terror comes in a instant, and waiting for years doing nothing doesn't make it less so. Waiting for hell to break is what these folks do for a living. And I appreciate that protection. It is easy for me not to insult them in the NYC daily economic war zone. Still, I don't want them insulting me, telling me what a piece of shit I am. Think about it, Joe, what you hiding.
On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, John Doe Number Two wrote:
John was busy playing war tourist, and as any journalist who has covered a conflict will tell you, war tourists are some of the lower forms of life one can encounter.
How the fuck do you know what John's motives were?
Think pornographer with a flack jacket.
I've seen lots of broken hardware, not bodies. Cryptome is not stileproject.com nor rotten.com.
John shouldn't have been walking inside the crime scene. The cops treated him better than they should have.
Crime scene yakyak blahblah. Labels are ach so convenient.
On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, John Doe Number Two wrote:
John was busy playing war tourist, and as any journalist who has covered a conflict will tell you, war tourists are some of the lower forms of life one can encounter.
Think pornographer with a flack jacket.
John shouldn't have been walking inside the crime scene. The cops treated him better than they should have.
JDII
Please don't feed the trolls... -- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org If Governments really want us to behave like civilized human beings, they should give serious consideration towards setting a better example: Ruling by force, rather than consensus; the unrestrained application of unjust laws (which the victim-populations were never allowed input on in the first place); the State policy of justice only for the rich and elected; the intentional abuse and occassionally destruction of entire populations merely to distract an already apathetic and numb electorate... This type of demogoguery must surely wipe out the fascist United States as surely as it wiped out the fascist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The views expressed here are mine, and NOT those of my employers, associates, or others. Besides, if it *were* the opinion of all of those people, I doubt there would be a problem to bitch about in the first place... --------------------------------------------------------------------
participants (7)
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Eugene Leitl -
Gabriel Rocha -
Incognito Innominatus -
John Doe Number Two -
John Young -
measl＠mfn.org -
Sandy Sandfort