2min chapter

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Don't Forget to Remember

99% Invisible

CHAPTER

Deciphering the Complexities of 9-11 Memorials

Exploring the design and significance of 9-11 memorials, including the complexities of creating a memorial and what should be remembered.

00:00
Speaker 10
Looming
Speaker 1
above us is what I suppose could pass for generic public art, except you just know instantly what those steel beams are, where they came from. We're standing in the Napa 9-11 memorial garden. One
Speaker 4
thing I think is really interesting is that the way they vertically align them, it puts you in a position of like craning your neck upwards to look, and a lot of the 9-11 memorials do this. They put you in the position of like a witness on the day.
Speaker 1
For the next half hour or so, I get a crash course in commemoration. The way subtle aesthetic or wording decisions can tip the way you think about an event, which in turn can tip bigger things, how the country does or doesn't heal from that event, or how it goes on to respond to that event. At one point, Sarah comes across an inscription on the memorial.
Speaker 4
And it's described as a place of reflection meant to inspire us to continue to express this courage, caring, and compassion our world experienced that day.
Speaker 8
That word,
Speaker 4
our world, really pops out to me because that's definitely not including the right, the perpetuakers of this attack, or anyone who sympathizes with that. And so there's kind of a...
Speaker 1
This is the close reading mind you want if you're going to create a memorial of your own. Because grief, memory, commemoration, these are basic and straight forward concepts only until you give them even a moment's thought. Let's say you want a memorialized September 11th. Step one is deciding what exactly you want future generations to remember. The 2,977 people who were killed that day? Yes, of course. But then you have to decide what you want to remember about them exactly. And what about the broader significance of 9-11? Shouldn't that be part of what we reflect on?
Speaker 2
And broader significance for whom? And how do you capture the horror of that day
Speaker 1
without say,
Speaker 2
slipping into support for the foreign policy that grew out of it?
Speaker 1
And by the way, how long are we supposed to remember things in the first place? Should we have memorials to the Babylonian revolt? Those were real people too, according to my research.

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