This project has taken on a life of its own over the past 3 months; I hardly envisioned traveling to Syracuse for Remembrance Week as I laid the foundations of “Remembering Karen” in July and early August, nor could I have foreseen the wealth of information I’d uncover over the past few weeks.
The result of this is a gradual but perceptible shift of focus from my own experience to those of Karen herself as I try to expand her role in the story. I now foresee a larger, more formal project developing out of the foundations laid through this site and blog—perhaps a work of creative non-fiction or an article. I always envisioned writing a book about Pan Am 103, but the scope of the research and travel involved, as well as the barrier of time, make the latter project unlikely.
All of this puts me in an unfamiliar place, and perhaps it’s time to take stock of the challenges ahead. This site was originally cathartic in nature: it’s no exaggeration for me to say that I am a closed person by nature, yet there was something almost liberating as page after page flowed in August. The resulting product was (and remains) perhaps inevitably a bit self-indulgent, and this is part of the reason that I’d like to integrate more of Karen’s story into this and future projects.
This is where the challenge lies. My previous research has invariably been academic in nature; academic writing (generally) requires the researcher to bring a dispassionate eye—and a great deal of tenacity—to the subject matter. My curiosity lends itself well to tenacity, but this site deals with a tragedy of stunning proportions, a tragedy that reverberates even today, nearly 25 years later. I am not engaged in this research as a dispassionate scholar either. This project truly represents something new for me, just as my poetry was in 1989. Both were inspired by the same event and individual.
This is where the “ethics of care” come into place. If newly posted material can elicit powerful feelings within me, someone without a direct relationship with anyone on Pan Am 103, I can only imagine the enduring nature of the emotions held by those who lost those they loved on the plane; I have a duty to treat this matter in a sensitive and honest fashion. To that end, I’ve constructed a series of narratives, primarily my own, out of a series of journal entries, memories, newspaper articles, and websites. I’ve generally used a few additional resources as ways of adding a layer of nuance to the chapter set in the fall of 1988.
The reality is that I’ve also withheld a fair amount of material from “Two Lives” and “Karen Lee Hunt.” I’ve encountered nothing incriminating in nature—quite the contrary, my research has only increased my estimation of Karen. However, I believe that I have an obligation to omit details that I perceive to be too personal. This site is an effort not only to chronicle what was perhaps the foundational event of my early adulthood, but also as a way of celebrating the life and adding to the legacy of a young woman and her family. I would be remiss if I were to violate their trust, just as I would be remiss to present this site as a source of objective information.
The accounts of Karen’s life before December 21st, 1988 as well as the aftermath of the Lockerbie Bombing are drawn from a number of newspaper articles, books, and television programs: all material readily available through a library or Google search. This will remain my policy as I develop this project. I remain committed to protecting the privacy of those involved in this story even as I try to expand the scope and depth of the narrative.
