The attacks of 9/11 rattled the nation. They forever changed the course of history.. only a few years ago bones were discovered on top of a New York City rooftop dating back to the horror of that day. When people said 9/11 would change us forever they weren’t kidding.
And the little stories–those side events and truly personal accounts of the horror–are still being told. The attacks and our mental responses to them are still being unpackaged on a nearly daily basis.
This anniversary, I want to focus on one side story of a photo and how it seemingly ruined the life of the individual who took it.
Valencia McClatchey heard an explosion outside of her house in Indian Lake on September 11, 2001. Being that she was watching 9/11 coverage, she grabbed her camera just in case and ended up taking an historical photo that showcased the death of peace on 9/11. The photo was of a gray cloud of debris and death that shot up from the ground where Flight 93 crashed that day. The plume of smoke rising gave equal rise to the dramatic horror that the nation would see play out on live TV over the coming months–quite frankly the coming years. Her picture was the ultimate destruction of the sense of innocence that the decade of Seinfeld and Bill Clinton’s sex scandals produced. What was ended with that pale cloud rising into the heavens. We saw the nation attacks in big cities.
But when a rural Pennsylvania town is also touched by terror, all safety and innocence in itself is lost…
McClatchey gave her photo to the FBI after the terror attack. She also began giving out the picture to news organizations and television stations who asked to use it. She named her photo ‘The end of Serenity.’
The photo also immediately was sent around the young internet as the first 9/11 conspiracy theory that news cycle. Clearly, some argued, it should an explosion in mid-dair proving the plane was shot down instead of heroic passengers taking over and crashing it into the Pennsylvania ground.
And as a result, just as the result of public attention to the Sandy Hook families after the Newtown shooting, Valencia McClatchey’s life fell into disarray. People online accused her of simply profiteering from the terror attack. They said she was apart of the conspiracy to hide the truth of the event.. People argued that the mushroom cloud was too small and in the wrong position.
According to the NEW YORK TIMES in 2007–already 11 years ago!–this is a part of what occurred:
In numerous online postings, critics have ripped apart every element of the photo, and Mrs. McClatchey’s life. They accuse her of faking the photo, of profiteering from it and of being part of a conspiracy to cover up the fact that Flight 93 was shot down by the government.
They claim the mushroom cloud is from an ordnance blast, not a jet crashing; the cloud is the wrong color for burning jet fuel; the cloud is too small and in the wrong position.
They’ve posted her personal e-mail, phone numbers and street address online. One Canadian “9/11 debunker” surreptitiously taped a phone conversation with her, quizzing her about the photo, and then uploaded it to his Web site.
“It’s just gotten so bad, I’m just fed up with it,” Mrs. McClatchey said. “This thing has become too much of a distraction in my life. I have a husband and a new business to deal with, too.”
The F.B.I., the Smithsonian Institution — which used the photo in an exhibition on Sept. 11 — and the National Park Service’s Flight 93 National Memorial — which has used the photo in pamphlets — all consider the photo legitimate.
“We have no reason to doubt it,” said Bill Crowley, an agent who is a spokesman for the Pittsburgh F.B.I. office, which oversaw evidence collection in Shanksville.
The price of sudden fame..
The result of the national misfortune.
Greene County PA, namely Shanksville, is a quaint little town that few beyond the county ever heard of until September 11, 2001.
The Herald STANDARD reported this on the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11
Shanksville was immediately thrust into the world spotlight and the community responded. The fire department became a hub of activity and the community opened their hearts and homes to the victims’ families and the people who came and paid their respects to the hallowed ground that held the remains of the 40 brave men and women of Flight 93.
The people of Shanksville and surrounding communities became the caretakers of that sacred space, where people came to write messages or leave flowers at the makeshift memorial created from a chain link fence placed near the crash site by the Somerset County coroner.
Fifteen years later, a beautiful memorial and visitors center has been erected by the National Park Service (NPS), marking the site where Flight 93 crashed, transforming the once strip mining area to a breathtaking national memorial.
A price of that attention is plenty to pay for people mired in the middle. Such as Mrs. McClatchey.. and back to her title The End of Serenity.
She received federal copyright protection for the photo in January 2002, according to a lawsuit she filed against the Associated Press in 2005. A judge refused to throw the case out and it headed for trial in 2007. She contended the story and photo were distributed as separate items to AP’s 2,000 Photo-Stream member news organizations without her permission. She later learned it was being used on AOL’s home page. AP contends its use of the photo was proper and was done with McClatchey’s consent. You can see the court history of her filing and result of the case here .. the case settled in 2007.
And remember? Remember when people used AOL???…
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There is something perfect about the ‘End of Serenity’ photo taken by Valencia McClatchey..
9/11 was the end of a period of serenity for the nation.. And for the world. And also the end of her own personal serenity as well.
I recall my own personal ended of serenity stories from that time frame, most I will keep personal. The evident one that I experienced with friends was at the Bloomsburg Fair in 2001. The fair was held just immediately after the attacks. The night we were there featured a patriotic display of fireworks. I noticed the mixed emotions in the crowd.. some were enthusiastic and chanting American slogans. Others were sad. And a few, peppered throughout the mixed bag of American flag shirts and hats, were people who were a bit scared at what an over zealous patriotic display could do to the world…
So many events in a chain happened on that date because of other chains of events that precipitated that fateful date. I just wrote an article about Hurricane Erin that loomed off of the East Coast the days before 9/11. If that would have hit, none of these events would have even occurred on that date..
Yes, serenity ended that day.
In more ways that one, and certainly in more ways than we can even contend with so many years beyond…
