A different kind of countdown

Over on the right is a small graphic remembering the victims of 9/11/01. Each day until the anniversary, I'll post a cartoon or photo here that is originally from the days and weeks immediately following that day.

At work, I sometimes have to drive past the Pentagon, and I saw firsthand the damage done. I have friends who work at the Pentagon, who were there that tragic day, and fortunately they were physically unharmed.

Following the attacks, a lot of email began to go around with different messages; some inspirational and some patriotic. There were even some attempts at humor, mostly detailing various methods of revenge.

One of my co-workers started printing and hanging these pictures and cartoons on the wall next to his desk. He worked in a rather large open area, and so had plenty of wall space. He continued to hang new pictures, and the wall took on a life of it's own. Many people came down daily to see what new items had been hung up, and people came from other buildings to check the latest.

At about the same time, I started to collect the same email files, but I kept them electronically. Just like the wall, my collection took on a life of it's own, and I gathered political cartoons, video files, photographs, sound files, clip art, text documents, slide shows, and much much more from the internet. I purposely did not include the actual video footage of the aircraft hitting the twin towers. Video clips of that can be found on the internet easily enough for those who wish to see it.

Because of the sheer volume of stuff I was finding, I arbitrarily decided that December 1, 2001 would be the cutoff date for my gathering, and then I put them onto a CD. I burned copies for anyone and everyone at work who wanted them, and kept one for myself. This CD is the source for what I'll be posting.

Posted by Ted at August 29, 2003 09:53 PM | TrackBack