is a blog about design, technology and culture written by Khoi Vinh, and has been more or less continuously published since December 2000 in New York City. Khoi is currently Principal Designer at Adobe. Previously, Khoi was co-founder and CEO of Mixel (acquired in 2013), Design Director of The New York Times Online, and co-founder of the design studio Behavior, LLC. He is the author of “How They Got There: Interviews with Digital Designers About Their Careers”and “Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design,” and was named one of Fast Company’s “fifty most influential designers in America.” Khoi lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
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I’m right there with you. You’re not alone.
Having just come through the other side of complete despair brought on by our own election here in Australia (despair has turned to the dull ache of fear for the future), the US election has turned out to be the knockout blow. I’m moving to Mars. At least in New York you’re among like-minded people… perhaps you should secede?
I’m with you. I’ll give myself sometime to be feel let down and disapointed, and then it’s off again to fight the good fight–and next time win.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Cheers,
Kevin
I’m with ya man, and so is the entire creative community. Know any artists or designers who are Republican? Me neither.
What a depressing day… I also think it’s ironic that New York, the city that was the true victim of the 9/11 attacks, overwhelmingly voted against Bush (no surprise there). Same with LA, Chicago, DC…. all the places where major attacks are most likely to occur in the future.
In other words, the people who are truly at the most risk for homeland security dont want GW’s brand of “help” or “protection”!
My whole company is with you — all of us are quite lackluster.
Ward, you make a great point. Someone might counter that by saying the state of Virginia, which suffered the attack on the Pentagon, went for Bush. But I bet Northern Virginia, where the Pentagon is located, went primarily for Kerry. And Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 went down on Sep 11, also went for Kerry. So all three areas that were most directly impacted by the events of 9/11 rejected Bush. The White House and the BC04 campaign were just incredibly successful in scaring the shit out of all the other states who didn’t get attacked, that’s all.
The palpable sense of hope that could be felt in my office yesterday morning was replaced by en even stronger sense of dread. Some people couldn’t take it and broke down in tears. Let’s take some solace in the fact that almost half of this country feels as bad as we do.
We are not alone. (And we know we’re right and they’re wrong.)
This notion of a “true” victim that Ward writes about, and which Khoi acknowledges, calling it a “great point”, is not just pathetic, but surely offensive to the tens of thousands of surviving family members scattered throughout the United States and, indeed, the entire world.
Judging by the comments to this post so far, one might be inclined to agree with Mike’s announcement about the “entire creative community”. I’d like to offer Mike a simple piece of advice: speak for yourself.
Actually, if you look at the county maps for precinct voting percentage on CNN.com, you will notice that the locations for the terrorist attacks, including the both the departure and desitination of the flights, voted for Kerry.
You will also remember that family members of 9/11 overwhelmingly disapproved of President Bush’s lackluster support (if not original outright disdain) for the 9/11 investigation, and under-oath questioning (which he did not do, and only met if Cheney was available, and no notes were allowed to be taken – nice that our president is above the law).
So I’d argue that it is overwhelmingly arrogant on your part Raphy to speak for the tens of thousands 9/11 family survivors. In your own words, speak for yourself next time.
Whoever is true victim is secondary — the fact that ‘ground zero’ voters overwhelmingly picked Kerry as their leader does raise some interesting questions. These people who live and work in locations who were directly affected by terrorist attacks, I would argue, have a stronger sense of realism and fear for terrorism — and they chose factual information, not optimistic salesmanship.
Mike, Just because you personally don’t know any conservative-minded or Republican designers/creatives, don’t assume they don’t exist. This election was a wake up call for the liberal Democrats. Big Idea = Many people in the US don’t fully share their values and opinions. I personally don’t think the nation is as polarized as the media is reporting. It’s probably something more in the middle and people had different movtives for voting for (IMHO) two very lack-luster presidental candidates. I’m super encouraged that people paid attention to the debates and the presidential campaign as a whole for a change. It was great to see so many people in the US awaking from their apathy. I’m not excited about Bush being elected for a second term, but I am optimistic that Americans can pull together to make this a better place to live for all of us. Let’s not forget there are still many people who risk their lives — sometimes dying in the process — just to have a chance to live here. Peace out! :.)
My comment above has nothing to do with politics or political candidates, and only to do with Ward’s description of the “true” victims of 9/11. It had nothing to do with the political leanings of surviving family members, what they think of George Bush, John Kerry, or even the 9/11 commission. In no way am I speaking for the victims of 9/11. If that is how I came across, it wasn’t my intent. I am, however, making an assumption that the wives, husbands, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and parents of a 9/11 victim would take offense to Ward’s notion of “true” victimhood, especially in light of the fact that a great many of them do not live in New York City.
Furthermore, that New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., etc… voted primarily for Kerry is by no means a surprise, as large cities tend to vote Democratic. Had 9/11 not occurred, I’d wager those cities would have voted the same way.
So, if my above argument renders me “overwhelmingly arrogant”, I’ll wear the label with pride.
And finally, looking pretty hot in that photo, Brady.
I think Brady responded well to Raphy’s comment. I was just observing the interesting fact that most of the “at risk” cities voted Kerry. Red states seem to believe that Bush makes them safer. I believe I am actually LESS safe because of Bush’s “War on Terror.” But, of course the “people have spoken” as Bush puts it, and apparently we support him. Shouldnt he instead say “54% of the people have spoken?” or “46% of the people want me out of office?”
Now I thought we were having an intelligient debate until that last comment Raphy – I don’t see how comments like that fit into the base of the conversation, nor improves the credibility. Regardless, I’ll pass that information on to my girlfriend later on.
I would agree that these major cities would have voted democratic had 9/11 never happened… but that’s not the point, it did happen. The point is that these cities, who bear the weight of ground zero more personally than any other civil location in the united states, still chose democratic even after Bush and the republican parties bid to leverage 9/11 and terrorism as their main platform.
I think whoever is a ‘true’ victim can be argued back and forth all night, and it seems we are just getting into a semantic volley about it. I wouldn’t say that there are true or false victims in this opinion, but that there are victims of terrorism who have had to deal with more realistic consequences than many of the other americans who went to the polls — and those voters were primarily in locations that voted blue. For those workers who walk by the empty foundations of the World Trade Center buildings everyday to work, and have walked the same route before 2001 – it’s amazing to hear that they put their faith in Kerry after all the media hype the Republican party has alloted in these three years. You can’t deny that such a though alone doesn’t make you wonder what value is in the presidents statements and promises.
Well put, Brady.