The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Do not build it. Not there.
: TakeBacktheMemorial.com reports receiving more than 1,000 signatures from 9/11 family members and 18,000 signatures total in its petition not to build the International Freedom Center and Drawing Center at Ground Zero. Earlier post here.
When I hear the name Pataki I get an uncontrollable anger. The guy is such a misery to the residents of NYC.
Dear Mr. Jarvis,
I was thinking of what to say and this is pretty much the best: Keep Kicking Ass.
Sincerely,
Rev. Hooper
This morning’s NY Times Editorial.
But by bowing to some of the survivors’ growing hostility to any version of 9/11 except their own, Mr. Pataki is doing a disservice to history and to the very idea of freedom.
The survivors are not hostile to interpretations of events, they are hostile to this memorial being used for political commentary cloaked as art. Would the NYT underwrite an exhibit depicting religous intolerance by showing a Koran immersed in a jar of urine? Or, would the NYT editorial board call for a measure of censorship given that this particular vital impulse of artistic expression happens to be imflammatory and insensitive?
Reading that editorial is all the more enraging.
What those lives stand for now is American freedom, in its full implication and all its contradictions.
Really, is that what they stand for? I bet if you ask some of the family members who lost loved ones that day they wouldn’t agree. And what is with this line: “all its contradictions”??
That is what has gone missing in the governor’s remarks, in which he demanded that the cultural organizations promise never to display art that might “denigrate” the victims of 9/11 or America in general. Mr. Pataki has accepted at face value the tenor of the protests at ground zero, which are, frankly, a call for censorship, indeed for censorship in advance – for political oversight of an artistic process that has only begun to evolve.
What, the protests are a call for censorship? No you ignoramus, they are call for keeping out some numbskull’s artist’s interpretation of the politics of the U.S. and in some aspects 9/11. No one is saying you can’t have these idiotic “artistic” works on display, just do it somewhere else.
But it will be the worst of bad beginnings to turn it into a place where only grief is acceptable, where the vital impulses represented by the arts are handcuffed in the name of freedom.
Oh, God forbid the arts should not be allowed a voice at a memorial site for 9/11 victims. What the hell do the arts have to do with 9/11? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Take your IFC and Drawing Center someplace else. Build back this area like it once was, but incorporate a memorial that celebrates the lives lost on the horrible day. I don’t need to see some artist’s rendition of what he feels happened on that day and their interpretation of politics. Not here.
Pataki’s a moron. He should just come out and say this was a bad idea, a terrible mis-judgement and move these centers someplace else.
If they want the International Freedom Center and Drawing Center in the downtown area, stick it on the slice of landfill from the original WTC excavation located north of Stuyvesant High School, near Chambers Street, which is about six blocks north of Ground Zero. That keeps it far enough out of the way as to offend anyone, but maintains its ties to the site by being part of the area west of the WTC constructed out of the tons and tons of debris dug out of the ground 35 years ago to build the Twin Towers.
“Pataki’s a moron. He should just come out and say this was a bad idea, a terrible mis-judgement and move these centers someplace else.”
Hey, what’s a “mis-judgement?”
Oh the horror. I added a hyphen when I should not have. I’m so ashamed. Sorry for the grammatical error Ethan. If I had known the grammar police would be watching I would have paid more attention. Tell you what Mr. Perfect, I’ll run all my posts by you first, and will only post them after you give me your corrections. OK.
Considering your other posts about this topic I can see why you would choose to focus on grammar. Idiot.
Well, you’re the one going around calling people you disagree with “idiots” and “morons.” To accuse me of assuming superiority is just a wee bit absurd. That was my point in highlighting your grammatical error.
Great line of argumentation, though.
I like the take at Kausfiles.
I guess you are now morally superior too, Ethan. Wow, you’re such a better man than I. Keep attacking the messenger though, it always works.
You miss the point. You’re fallible; I’m fallible; it’s not wise to go around calling people we disagree with “idiots” and “morons.” Capice?