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International15 FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015 NYC activists fined For Snowden bust NEW YORK: Two activists who put a bust of Edward Snowden on a Revolutionary War memorial were ticketed and got their confis- cated sculpture back Wednesday, saying they felt the episode had sparked conversation about freedom. Jeff Greenspan and Andrew Tider had tried to stay anonymous after the 4-foot-tall, 100-pound likeness of the exiled National Security Agency secret- leaker briefly appeared last month on a monument in a Brooklyn park. But after the summonses made their names public record, they told The Associated Press they’d spent a year planning their unauthorized artistic statement, enlisted a sculptor to craft it and aimed to place Snowden’s disclosures of government surveil- lance in the context of revolutionary values of liberty. “The ideal that Snowden seemed to be fighting for with his actions seemed to be in line with the ideals the revolutionaries, who might also have been called traitors, were fighting for,” Tider said by phone. Police noted last month that the statue was erected without permission. Greenspan and Tider were issued summonses for being in a park after hours, a noncriminal violation. Snowden is living in exile in Russia after divulging the confidential US govern- ment collection of phone records, among other intelligence gath- ering. So New Yorkers awoke to something of a mystery when a fiberglass-reinforced cement rendering of his face materialized STANFORD: Mourners arrive at a memorial service for SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg, Tuesday, May 5, 2015. — AP early April 6 in Fort Greene Park, on a monument that honors American captives who died on British prison ships during the Revolutionary War. Parks officials quickly ordered the bust Funerals may be the last removed. Alternative views frontier for Social Media Greenspan and Tider realized that linking a war monument with an image of a man who disclosed American secrets might be seen as disrespectful, but they said they didn’t intend it to be. Los Funerals are a time of heightened awareness, not twitting Angeles-based sculptor Doyle Trankina designed the piece to echo the memorial’s proportions, and they chose an adhesive NEW YORK: Taya Dunn Johnson has been living large online for address, he said. that wouldn’t damage the memorial, they said. They said they years, embracing Facebook, Twitter and other social streams to fre- His funeral home in North Augusta includes this etiquette sug- wanted to provide an alternative view of Snowden, whom they quently share her most mundane and intimate moments. Her hus- gestion on its website just in case: “Don’t infringe on the family’s feel the media have vilified. band - her high school sweetheart and an IT specialist - was an right to privacy. In today’s world of social media and technology, it “We felt that was shortchanging the public because it wasn’t offline kind of guy, though he was surrounded by post-happy is essential to remember that these tools are a way of showing sup- giving the public an opportunity to make up its own mind about loved ones, colleagues and friends and had no problem with that. port and care for the family who is experiencing grief. The use of its level of comfort with this level of surveillance,” Greenspan Then he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 37 and his wife technology and social media to post anything which may violate said. Their lawyer, Ronald Kuby, called the sculpture’s return a found herself entrenched in what just might be the last frontier for the family’s right to privacy or ability to properly grieve must be reflection of the city’s “commitment to the arts, even those that privacy, his funeral. avoided.” are unusual and offbeat.” The activists, both New Yorkers who “I held two services and had to ask several people not to take work in creative fields, said they were considering seeking per- photos of his casket,” said Johnson, a 38-year-old administrative Livestreams of cemeteries mission to exhibit the piece legally through a temporary art-in- assistant who lives in Baltimore with her 6-year-old son. “The idea Sometimes the violators are the most grief stricken. A Facebook parks program. In the meantime, the Postmasters gallery has said of it disturbed me. Days later, I noticed several people had user once posted a photo of himself at the cemetery with his moth- it wants to display the statute at a show opening today. Its ‘checked-in’ from the funeral home on a couple of platforms.” er’s casket behind him. Another put up a photo of her mother’s will theme: “Anonymity, no longer an option.” — AP Actively using social media as she did when tragedy struck in in a status update about her role as executor of the estate. Posting 2012, and as she still does, Johnson understands why Facebook is one thing, Posey said, but web tech can be valuable to the exec Sheryl Sandberg asked mourners, tech powerhouses includ- bereaved. His funeral home and others around the country offer ed, to stay off social media from her husband David Goldberg’s livestreams of funerals and memorials as a way for far-flung loved memorial service Tuesday. “It’s a slippery slope,” Johnson said. “We ones to be connected. He sets up 30 to 40 webcasts a year, includ- share everything from our new car to our meal to our new dress. ing one from the funeral of a grandmother so her two grandsons Somehow those things have become interchangeable with serving in the military in Iraq could be virtually present. death.” “Bringing a casserole to the house is a great thing but if you can’t, these things can be just as meaningful. Not everybody can New tech medicine attend but leaving a message on a memorial site, for example, can Ann Bacciaglia, a customer support worker for a large corpora- still help and have an impact,” Posey said. Molly Kaplan has looked tion in Ottawa, was also an avid social media user when her hus- deeply into social media and mourning. She wrote her master’s band of 18 years died suddenly of an undiagnosed brain cyst in thesis on the subject, delving into how grief is expressed online. “I 2011. He was 44. Like Johnson’s husband, he had no interest in think that social media platforms provide a great opportunity for social streams, which didn’t keep Bacciaglia from announcing his anyone to express condolences, especially if they don’t feel com- death on Twitter. It never occurred to her to ask their loved ones to fortable doing so otherwise. However, the implications are worth refrain from pulling out their phones at his funeral. None did. In the considering. What this study showed me was that sometimes we year after his death, she publicly blogged about her grief and are engaging in these behaviors in a way that pushes us further leaned even more heavily on her online followers and friends for from confronting mortality and allowing ourselves to feel the dis- support. Other young widows reached out, and helping them comfort of thinking about death and grief,” said Kaplan, who lives through their losses was her best medicine. in Syracuse, New York. “Social media just wasn’t something my husband saw the point Offline, fiddling with phones at funerals is a big issue, said Lesly of, but it’s a huge part of how I grieved and continues to be very Devereaux, an ordained minister, grief counselor and writer of important to me,” Bacciaglia said. Offline or on Facebook, crass is devotional books in Piscataway, New Jersey. While officiating, she crass when it comes to funerals and memorial services, said David has rarely needed to head off casket selfies or unauthorized tweet- Ryan Polgar, a lawyer and former college professor in West ing, but phones pose a problem. Hartford, Connecticut, who blogs about tech and ethics. “Would “I’ve had to say, ‘Put your phones away.’ Phones rings, people you want to see Google Glass at a funeral? Nothing can replace that are texting, people are just not being focused on what they’re there human connection,” he said. “There are certain times for a height- for,” she said. “But social media does have its place in reaching out ened awareness, a need to stay in the moment, and a funeral is one for support.” The 47-year-old Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, of them.” died Friday when he slipped on a treadmill and struck his head Walker Posey, a funeral director in South Carolina and a while on a family vacation in Mexico, according to officials there. spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, said tech While Sandberg asked mourners not to post live from his memorial, NEW YORK: Photo shows an installation of a bust of the for- definitely has its place in the mourning process but selfies from she took to Facebook soon after to offer thanks for an outpouring mer National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in cemeteries aren’t among them. Unfortunate use of social media, of support. It was a long post - shared more than 18,000 times in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park. — AP however, is not something most funeral directors routinely need to just hours. — AP .

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