I am back from a short family related trip to Virginia of which I may have some pictures later. Yesterday, I sat in doctor’s office waiting room with my father and sister as video of General Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, played on several overhead TV screens. Fish swam aimlessly in a tank. I drove to Washington, zipped by the Pentagon along I95, ducked beneath the Mall, and easily found–somehow–the Union Station garage entrance where I returned my rental car. I then rode the Acela Express back too New York. Businessmen tapped on their laptops. I did to, working on a short bio for my upcoming Civil War exhibition. A man behind me chatted on his cell phone about a White House briefing he attended.

Deutschebank building, Cedar Street (4×5 film)

Today is September 11th, and there’s talk about moving on beyond the tragedy of six years ago. Last week, more finished plans for the new buildings around ground zero were released, but just a few weeks ago, two firefighters died after being trapped in a fire in the black shrouded remnant of the Deutschebank building. It’s hard to move on when fireman are still dying at ground zero and soldiers are dying in a war precipitated by 9/11, however falsely linked. I am all for moving forward, and in many ways the city already has, but September 11th will remain an open wound until the war is over, the scar of ground zero is healed, and the dead properly remembered.