Just ran into a guy i went with to, and later worked with at, a summer camp like 9, 10, 11 years ago and whom i had not seen in almost five years. Some things about New York don't change, Spetember 11th and housing bubbles and miltarized gentrification be damned.

That said, watching a couple walk up my block today, the man wearing a button-down shirt with the images of the WTC on it, listening to the radio broadcast of the reading of the names of the dead, was jarring, and moving. And then i recognized Giuliani's voice, and all i could think about was how maliciously these fuckers have exploited this grief and tragedy for financial and political gain. Judith Butler urges us to consider what may be made of grief besides a cry for war, and i agree. But i think it's also worth looking specifically at those like Giuliani who have reaped massive profit from our grief, and to include this dynamic when we think about what other kinds of social relations grief might be able to bring about.

EDIT: Grammar corrected, slightly. Sentence still incomprehensible. Also, i may not have heard Giuliani's actual voice, because i'm not certain he was actually there. That i could have imagined his voice says something about the sucess of his branding and the completeness of his wholesale expropriation and exploitation of all that 9/11 is suuposed to signify. (Though i am one of many who feel that there are other possibilities Giuliani immediately forclosed four years ago.)