Post September 11: Memorializing and Hopefully Learning

Reviews the book, New York After 9/11 edited by Susan Opotow and Zachary Baron Shemtob (2018). Both the sense of community and hostility to the enemy or, unfortunately, Muslims in general, are apparent in Opotow and Shemtob’s collection of articles. Their intended audience is those who “care about cities and their resilience,” are interested in the history of New York City, and also for scholars and practitioners of disaster preparedness. Within the introductory chapter is a very good overview of the diverse, multidisciplinary chapters of the book, presenting economic, social, and health impacts of 9/11 and the clashing interests after 9/11. From the Lenape Indian and African-American communities that are there no longer to the 9/11 Museum and corporations who are, we read a brief history of displaced communities and struggles between political and wealthy commercial interests versus local populations and distinct groups wishing to commemorate the site of the 9/11 tragedy. What are the lessons learned? The same ones we have learned and relearned and relearned and to which we still do not attend. It is the poor and the disenfranchised, among them the immigrants and the minorities, those without a voice or little voice, those who live within prejudice, the very young and the old, the frail and the infirm, women more so than men, who are most negatively impacted by . . . you name it . . . floods, storms, war, climate change, disasters of most any sort (Robinson, 2018) and in this case by 9/11. Not by the act itself; that was almost democratic, killing the very wealthy financiers, their secretaries, and the waiters and busboys who served them. But in the aftermath, it was again the usual vulnerable who reappeared as the main victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)