I’ve posted before about the events of 9/11/2001, my experience(s) of it, and how my undergraduate studies emphasized another 11 September, in 1973 in Chile. It seems every year when this day rolls around I’m in a situation with new people and we all share the “where were you stories.” It’s a ritual, a bonding…… Continue reading Talk About Memory
Category: 21st century
My Oldest Friend
My oldest friend, by which I mean the friend I have known the longest, leaves the country today. She is off on her first posting as an employee of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and over the next twenty or thirty years she will get to live in all sorts of interesting places.…… Continue reading My Oldest Friend
What you save
I declared my undergraduate major in History on the first day of classes of my sophomore year of college, September 2001. A handful of days later, what might have been an ordinary Tuesday became a historic event. I knew it was going to be what children in the next generation would ask me about, saying…… Continue reading What you save
Living with Hurricanes at the Louisiana State Museum
Last month I was in New Orleans for a joyful family occasion, and I had the chance to see a new exhibit at the Presbytere building of the Louisiana State Museum titled Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond. I was intrigued by the exhibit to see how a museum in the heart of an affected…… Continue reading Living with Hurricanes at the Louisiana State Museum
Organizing the revolution
My alarm clock wakes me with the voices of the BBC World Service every weekday morning. These past few days, the news has been full of the tumult in Egypt, Tunis, and elsewhere in their region. This morning I heard that the Egyptian government had shut down the phone and internet networks; a reporter or…… Continue reading Organizing the revolution
11 September
This day had a huge impact on my undergraduate life. 2001 was the beginning of my sophomore year of college, in New York State, only about 2 hours by train from New York City. My parents and sister were in northern Virginia. When I finally understood the scale of what had happened, I knew it…… Continue reading 11 September
My Grandfather
My paternal grandfather died on Saturday. He turned 87 at the beginning of this month. I’m doing my best not to focus on the loss, on the fact that (more than likely) whoever I marry will never have met my wonderful grandfather, and think instead about what time I did have with him. After all,…… Continue reading My Grandfather
Citizenship and National Identity
This morning on NPR I heard a story about the push for immigration reform, and a rally in Washington to happen this weekend. Senator Russell Pearce of Arizona, who apparently opposes reform, said of the pro-reform marchers “They’re as treasonous and as un-American as anyone I know.” The quote came on the heels of a…… Continue reading Citizenship and National Identity