In Memoriam

Hogs and Flags, originally uploaded by efroymson.

I spent this weekend in NYC. I was at the World Trade Center Sunday Afternoon. It is a deeply strange place now, a big fenced off concrete plaza. Huge flags on the surrounding office buildings, and flowers stuck in the fences seem to be the only reminders of what happened there four years ago. As I looked around, I heard a huge roar. Usually loud pipes of motorcycles irritate me, but for some reason on 9/11 it came through as "the sound of freedom". An appropriate response to the outrage, a message that we will not be cowed, that we still have and cherish our freedom. I took a number of photographs of the motorcyles, many with American Flags on them. A second level of meaning came through from a conversation I had with a NYC motorcyle patrolman. It seems a number of the police and firemen who gave their lives four years ago were devoted Harley riders. So the ride was both a celebration of freedom and a memorial.

These bikes reminded me a bit of riderless horses.