 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
VOLUME 2 - WINTER 2002 - NUMBER 2 - PAGE 3 THOUGHTS ON 9/11 AND THE BUCKLAND/GONSENHAUSER PROPERTYBy Monica Gilligan
The ghastly attacks of September 11, 2001 have given us cause to reflect on the trials of daily living in powerful historic times. Here is a reflection from this member on the everyday inspiration to be found in one of the mundane activities of an inner-ring suburb of a small American city. Like any of a small and hardy band of average citizens who have a civic axe to grind, I attended a regular meeting of the Town Board in September. My goal, stated to Historic Brighton’s president, Leo Dodd, was to remind the Board, during open mike, and while the Town Attorney was present, that there are some advantages to taking good care of the historic Buckland/Gonsenhauser property entrusted to the Town. I hoped also to emphasize that we needed roofing, doors, and locks, not encouraging words, to button up the property against vandals and winter. The meeting started with a tribute to the fallen of September 11. Supervisor Sandy Frankel introduced a Marine color guard and in they marched with a reverence for our colors that sent me into deep meditation. We sang the national anthem, and I felt I was hearing it with a different emphasis, especially, the words, “… our flag was still there.” A vision of the firemen raising that flag in the ruins came to my inner eye. Behind the color guard marched members of the Brighton Police Department, including a canine officer; the Fire Department; and the Ambulance Corps. Tributes to the police officers, firefighters, and emergency rescue workers who gave their lives to save victims of the collapsing towers were scheduled. As fate would have it, we were confronted with the unscheduled: real life. Richard Wersinger of the ambulance corps got paged, just as the police were about to speak. He signaled his crew; the firefighters checked their pagers, as did the police. Suddenly, they rushed for their equipment and rigs. Someone was having an attack in the Public Library. 911 had been called. Our teams raced out to help this unknown person. It seemed then that nothing anyone could have said would have paid finer tribute to the fallen heroes of the tragic 9.11. Some persons have sworn to destroy America. They think they can do this by picking out centers of commerce or military activity to bomb. They are, among their other defects, completely incapable of finding America. They will never find it because they do not grasp the concept. America was at the Brighton Town Hall that night, and at every town meeting in the state that month, and at all the meetings in every state, sitting on thousands of folding chairs. America was listening politely to neighbors go on about whether we need a stop sign at Cobb Terrace, or a new storm drain somewhere else, or better mutual aid to the West Brighton fire station, or a lock on the back door of one of our oldest brick houses. It was in the speech of the lady who introduced herself as “a vocal minority” and got a small, knowing round of applause. It was in the library—a direct descendant of the libraries created by Benjamin Franklin— as the volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians rushed over to help fight a heart attack, or a stroke, or just a dizzy spell maybe. It was in the police who stayed to reassure the librarians and patrons, many with small children picking out books, that everything would be fine. It was in the broadcast of the full meeting to the people who watch it on public access TV, and in the minutes taken and entered into the public record. America was in the upcoming election, sure to be held without the need of armed “observers” and with the no-fuss yielding of office by the losers to the winners. America is Brighton, and every other town and city, hamlet and crossroads where there are Americans. No one can bomb it or terrorize it out of existence. America is our tradition of talking things over, hearing each other out; it’s taking turns, yielding the floor, going by the rules—even when we disagree. It’s voting to tax ourselves to help strangers in need, just because they are our fellow human beings. America isn’t what we build or what we have; America is what we do together every day. Oh, and I have it on very good authority that the assurances of the board were true and that they put some effort into getting the little old house ready for winter. Well, good for Brighton. Good for America. THE AMATEUR ARCHIVISTBy Monica Gilligan
Many of us keep memorabilia. In recent troubled times, we may feel a responsibility to bear witness to our country’s suffering and triumphs, its grief, and its heroes. Still, the material can be bulky. After it hits a certain critical mass, we may start asking what we can do with it. Perhaps it should be preserved, but we would like history that can be viewed now. Newspapers and magazines can be made to serve both functions. Newspapers are various shades when they arrive at the newsstand. Newspaper clippings will yellow and decay quite rapidly. They can be photocopied successfully onto acid-free paper and made into album pages. A color copy gives the truest picture of the original. If the amateur archivist does not mind the small print, whole newspaper pages can be reduced to the 8.5”x 11” size that fits most readily available acid free paper sheet protectors. It is best to use less precious material to practice reducing a page, or combining clippings. Make two or more copies at the same time on a digital copier. This plan gives a back up and exposes the historic material to the light and heat of the machine only once. If the archivist has a dry, dark spot such as an upstairs closet on an inside wall, there are special acidfree boxes into which whole newspapers can be placed. These boxes are available from catalogues such as Light Impressions, and locally at Lumiere on Monroe Avenue. Also, Mylar sleeves suitable for whole pages of newspapers of various sizes are available through the same sources. Mylar does not readily interact with the unstable paper on which news is printed. Magazines, such as Time and Newsweek, are often printed in colored inks on slick or clay-coated papers. Covers and pages from these magazines inserted into ordinary sheet protectors will stand up to a good deal of handling, compared to original newspapers. Their smallish size may cause them to rattle around in the sheet protector and tip out. If only one side of a page contains the text or image, it can be adhered with acid-free glue to a plain, acid-free, buffered sheet and put into the sleeve with another treated this way. There is a great variety of outlets for acid-free paper in this area. Recently, Target had a 25% rag-content, acid-free, buffered white, suitable for resumes, on sale. Art, craft, scrapbook, office supply, and big box discount stores all carry this kind. We can use the home or office scanner to reproduce both newspaper and magazine pages, as well as images of ribbons, medals, brochures, religious bulletins, internet communications and the like. The originals can be archived in those safe boxes and the copies put in sheet protectors to make a memorial album. Simultaneously, a copy can be put on a disk, or sent to the hard disk for later transfer, without harming the original. If you have not yet started to use your computer for archiving, stay tuned for a discussion of which printers have the most light-fast inks. (Hint: the word Epson will come up often.) |
HOME | LECTURE SERIES | NEWSLETTER | BUCKLAND FARMS | MEMBERSHIP | CONTACT US |