Monday, May 2, 2011
While this blog is primarily posts concerning graphic design and color, I feel the need to express my thoughts about what happened yesterday. Last night, I was focused, eyes glued into many layers of aftereffects when my phone rang. It was my mother. She told me that Osama Bin Laden was dead. The first thing I did was to tell all of my friends sitting around me what had happened. Like me, they were deep into projects and did not know either. I stopped everything, pulled up tabs with CNN, Facebook, Twitter and NYTines and found my self lost in tweets, news feeds and news stories for at least 45 minutes.
I think the reason for surfing between these sites was that I did not know how to feel. My first thoughts were an odd sense place since I now live in Manhattan as a graduate student and when 9/11 happened I was in my second month of living in a new city as a college freshman in St. Louis.
I guess the main reason for this post is that I feel uneasy about the reaction in Washington D.C. (and I read something similar is happening at ground zero, but I have yet to see video or photos) I am currently watching the BBC and they and playing b-roll of people “celebrating” outside of the White House. To me, the fact that US Forces killed a known terrorist is not necessarily an excuse to scream and cheer and party. On the contrary, right now seems like a time for reverence and contemplation.
I’ll end with two things… I just walked home from the studio and on the walk I heard someone chant “USA” from a passing car which weirded me out as did the sight of an American flag that had appeared in one of the windows in my apartment building.