9.19.2004
means to an end
Left the house just now, ostensibly to deposit some mail, but actually because the groove in the sofa is starting to remind me of this afternoon, which reminds me of yesterday afternoon, which reminds me of October 16 of last year, which reminds me of Exley, which reminds me of October 27 of the year before, which reminds me of another time I realized that the cosmos don't care about justice (it's a long story...).
THE FIRST OF MANY SUCH CONVERSATIONS IN SEPTEMBER, AND MAYBE FOR A FEW WEEKS IN OCTOBER
Trudged down Massachusetts Avenue and spied Casey, who I hadn't seen in a while.
H: Hey man!
C: Sucks about the Red Sox.
H: How are you doing? How is the band?
C: At least the Patriots won.
H: Yeah I want to check you guys out some time.
C: And even the Patriots didn't play well.
H: Sigh.
***
Importanter things...
Eddie Adams died today. There are plenty of present-day images - or more importantly, threats of images - that remind us why Adams may have been so troubled by his own legacy. Images have played a pivotal role in how people perceive Iraq (Abu-Ghraib), the election (a younger, feistier, medal-chucking John Kerry) and 'Homeland Security.' (one of the strange consequences of homeland paranoia is the sudden concern over sensitive photography involving subways, major thoroughfares, air, etc.) Adams is best remembered for his photo of the South Vietnamese General Loan executing a captured Viet Cong prisoner, and the soon-ubiquitous image, like "murder at Kent State" and "girl and napalm," helped shape public sentiment about the Vietnam War. The only problem was that it often drifted about free from its context - the VC prisoner had just murdered eight people and in Vietnam the general was considered a hero. This wasn't just another example of subhumanity abroad, the cheapness of life over there, the madness our boys were up against and the forfeiture of 'hearts and minds,' since they couldn't possibly have any if they just walked around shooting each other in the street; this was a rash and supremely human act that would be denied its sad complexities by prejudiced, eager misreadings. Upon Loan's death, Adams, who occasionally admitted to regretting the photo, remarked, "The guy was a hero. America should be crying."
As Adams explained many years later, "The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?"
THE FIRST OF MANY SUCH CONVERSATIONS IN SEPTEMBER, AND MAYBE FOR A FEW WEEKS IN OCTOBER
Trudged down Massachusetts Avenue and spied Casey, who I hadn't seen in a while.
H: Hey man!
C: Sucks about the Red Sox.
H: How are you doing? How is the band?
C: At least the Patriots won.
H: Yeah I want to check you guys out some time.
C: And even the Patriots didn't play well.
H: Sigh.
***
Importanter things...
Eddie Adams died today. There are plenty of present-day images - or more importantly, threats of images - that remind us why Adams may have been so troubled by his own legacy. Images have played a pivotal role in how people perceive Iraq (Abu-Ghraib), the election (a younger, feistier, medal-chucking John Kerry) and 'Homeland Security.' (one of the strange consequences of homeland paranoia is the sudden concern over sensitive photography involving subways, major thoroughfares, air, etc.) Adams is best remembered for his photo of the South Vietnamese General Loan executing a captured Viet Cong prisoner, and the soon-ubiquitous image, like "murder at Kent State" and "girl and napalm," helped shape public sentiment about the Vietnam War. The only problem was that it often drifted about free from its context - the VC prisoner had just murdered eight people and in Vietnam the general was considered a hero. This wasn't just another example of subhumanity abroad, the cheapness of life over there, the madness our boys were up against and the forfeiture of 'hearts and minds,' since they couldn't possibly have any if they just walked around shooting each other in the street; this was a rash and supremely human act that would be denied its sad complexities by prejudiced, eager misreadings. Upon Loan's death, Adams, who occasionally admitted to regretting the photo, remarked, "The guy was a hero. America should be crying."
As Adams explained many years later, "The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?"
