The Last Column

 In the massive space of Foundation Hall in the 911 Memorial Museum stands the final, thirty-six foot column of the World Trade Center. The Column is covered head to toe in the most colorful, thoughtful mementos, memorial inscriptions, and missing posters. In bright red/orange and yellow letters reads “FDNY 343”, “E214” and “L111” in memory of the 343 Firefighters belonging to different ladders and engines all over NYC that lost their lives. In blue reads “PAPD 37” and “NYPD 23” for the 37 Port Authority Officers of New Jersey and 23 Police Officers from different precincts of New York that passed away on this day too. In addition, countless names of the innocent people that passed away are written in bold sharpie or craved into the column. Badges hang high in a room filled with colorless space where this column stands as the main focus, standing tall, beautifully decorated with meaningful inscriptions from loved ones and millions of Americans whom will never forget this day. The inscriptions are evidence of a difference within the people of New York; all belonging to different socioeconomic classes; the rich, the middle class and the poor,  were all effected by this major tragedy. The heroes were those belonging to the middle class, holding the blue collar positions in the work front. These uniformed city workers that perform countless hours of manual labor daily were working closely in and out of the rubble and deathly conditions. President at the Time, George W. Bush, and Mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani stayed in close contact with their people to provide protection and confidence that the situation was under control. This was truly a time where everyone rich or poor set aside their negative generalized assumptions of one another and their pride to unite as citizens of New York State. Maria Peralta, employee of Jane Kahan Gallery on the East Side during the time of 911 said, “Walking down the street even weeks after this horrible incident, people would be stopped at a street light and just say “Hey, how are you doing?”  The communities – everyone was so united.”

In the 911 Memorial the Last Column is described to “… encourage reflection on the foundations of resilience, hope, and community with which we might build our  collective future.” (911memorial.org)  In other words it is used to inspire community and unity. The museum was created to honor the lives of the 3,000 people killed in the terrorists attack of September 11th, 2001 and to educate all those that visit of the terrible incident New York and America was able to surpass. 

In connection to themes related to Class and American Culture, this event and exhibit embodies communication and rationality, some ideas that characters in The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon or The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath do not. Not only was this a time to set aside the prejudgement and the need to conform to societal expectations but especially to communicate with one another, which shows that if done correctly the community can have a strong impact. In this time of crisis their was not a concern for the prior social divide that existed between the economic classes. The country as a whole became concerned for their safety, therefore everyone was willing to work harder to see results.