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A Special Message from SAA's President
In response to the tragic events of Tuesday, September 11, 2001
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.
Steve Hensen,
SAA President
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