Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Wake Me Up When September Ends


This political statement was particularly interesting to me. I found it along the Corso not far down from the Via di Propaganda (no joke). It is interesting because I am not sure to which eleventh it refers. The first thing that comes to mind is September 11th, but a seven year-old statement of solidarity, despite the sign's commitment to keeping vigil forever, seems unlikely. Also, even within the topic of Al Qaeda attacks, the eleventh comes up more than once. The Madrid train bombings happened on March 11th in 2004. Spain is closer to Italy than the US and seems equally deserving of solidarity in the face of terror. Additionally, the Algerian attacks of last year happened on April 11th. Although I cannot rule out a statement of solidarity concerning September 11th, I am forced to wonder if there is an Italian tragedy that happened on an eleventh that the sign refers to. Ultimately, the fact that the sign is written in English probably means that it does concern 9/11.

Here is the sign its original photographic context. I caught it out of the corner of my eye across the street from where I was walking. It took a couple of tries to take the picture without any traffic or pedestrians in the way.

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