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Tuesday's tragedy



On behalf of the Society of American Archivists, its officers and staff, and
its membership I want to express my profound condolences and deepest
sympathies to the families and friends of all those affected, directly and
indirectly, by Tuesday's horrific and tragic events in New York, Washington,
D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  With an organization as large as SAA
and with membership concentrations particularly high in the Washington and
New York areas, it is almost dreadfully certain that some among us have been
wounded grievously and our thoughts and prayers are certainly with them.

As unbearable as the tragic personal losses that so many have suffered might
be, we also recognize that the assault our nation has endured goes beyond
the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and hijacked airplanes.  What we have
witnessed is nothing less than a frontal attack on the very underpinnings of
human civilization.  As archivists we understand that we serve a vital role
as gatekeepers to the history of that civilization; the documents within our
respective repositories give us the perspective with which to see that
humanity has undergone many such assaults in the past and to assess and
judge these actions in their full context.  It is an eerie irony  that
virtually the only thing that has survived the mass destruction of the World
Trade Center is paper--much of it singed and dusty, but intact nonetheless.
The streets of lower Manhattan along with the graveyards of Trinity and
Grace Churches lie several feet deep in memos, letters, resumes, accounting
records, reports and other papers that were at the core of the business of
early Tuesday morning and that would have eventually found their way to our
repositories.  As unable as I am to make sense of the larger tragic events,
I am equally at a loss to draw any significance from this phenomenon that
wouldn't somehow trivialize the enormous personal and social losses that so
many have suffered.  Nonetheless, for me they serve as a silent and solemn
reminder of the importance of our role in maintaining the evidentiary
continuity of our civilization and cultures so that we might always learn
and always remember.

Steven Hensen



****************************************************************
Steven L. Hensen
President, Society of American Archivists
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Duke University
Box 90185
Durham, NC 27708-0185
919.660.5826 Fax 919.660.5934
hensen@duke.edu
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu
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