5 May
But speaking to reporters in Rome earlier Thursday, Clinton said she doesn’t know what was happening during that now-forever memorialized moment, and added her reaction in particular might not be all that it seems.
“I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs,” she said of the reason why her hand was over her mouth “So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever.”
”Clinton on the “Situation Room Photo” here.
The photograph of course, and the gesture she happened to be making when the photograph was taken, has meaning because we give it meaning. (I don’t have the philosophy to back that claim up, but I think you may agree.) It isn’t about her coughing and if Obama told use he was frowning at that moment because he’s remembered he left the milk out we wouldn’t care or wouldn’t believe him. What we believe is that this photograph is one of the essential records in our recent cultural history. I hope it is a mile marker: we can stop being “Post-9/11” and perhaps we’ll move on to something less destructive and fraught. I hope we can look forward from punishing those who have hurt us and who wish to harm and become a culture that is more concerned with human achievement and with building more than rebuilding.
