Oil and the USS Arizona

Article "The Ship that Bleeds"

This week, I've been really interested in how we memorialize things as a nation, taking Pearl Harbor and Ground Zero as my two focal points. The article I found is about the USS Arizona memorial, and the fact that it's leaking oil. Because of the sanctity of the place, it has been more difficult to figure out how to address this issue, even though most are in agreement that oil leaks are not good. I found this article, which was written in late 2001 - the timing is quite interesting, as it was a few months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 - to be full of interesting little nuances. I'm wondering if the author started researching and writing this article before 9/11, or after? The article goes into this a little, but what does it really mean, for one of our most revered sites and symbols of American heartbreak and perseverance to be an environmental hazard? I've looked at this article as a snapshot of a time in which one national tragedy is so fresh in our minds, and tried to see how that information informed how people thought of the memorial of another tragedy. The article, however, didn't seem to make the comparisons, rather it was a special note added by the editors of the publication National Parks who mentioned the connection between Pearl Harbor and September 11th. It makes me think the author wrote the article before September, and it was simply published after. I wonder why she wasn't given the opportunity to revise the piece, or add some comments. The note from the editors is great, because it truly captures what I'm interested in, and that is how we think about our tragedies, and how we choose to frame the memorials. This note talks a lot about America as a world player, and how we as a nation stand united, then and now, against tyranny and terrorism. I believe we, ten years later, see September 11th a bit differently, and would speak of a memorial in different terms, and this is precisely what I find interesting about this article and the addendum by the editors.