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President George W. Bush's Remarks At Ground Zero September 14, 2001
On September 14, 2001, George W. Bush, the president at the time, gave a speech at ground zero to the support crew and disaster relief helpers. The president mentions unity and spiritual support for the people who lost their lives. He reaches out to the people at a common level. While screaming to the workers with a bullhorn, he embraces a firefighter and selflessly speaks of rebounding. Towards the end of the speech the crowd shouts patriotic chants like “USA! USA! USA!”. The people seemed to have hope and belief in their strong and powerful country. President Bush incites patriotism by not only appealing to the everyday worker, but also putting forth a practical and hopeful agenda for the future. The bullhorn, the way I see it, has a deeper meaning than just a device to amplify his voice. Mr. Bush needed to make it clear that he was speaking to the world, especially the middle east, the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world. He says “he sees you”, figuratively meaning he will not forget about his precious and important Americans. The people have went through a traumatic loss, the last thing they want to hear is a wimpy, bogus attempt at making them feel better.
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Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts
A big part of the aftermath of 9/11 were the rumors. The novel, “Debunking 9/11 Myths”, exposes a large portion of the fake news and falsehoods of the media. Subsequent to the event, many people jumped to conclusions and immediately started coming up with ideas to make it seems less and less realistic. Reagan and Dunbar, the authors, put forth data, statistics, and facts to prove myths erroneous. What the public thinks on a certain topic plays a critical role in the reception of an event. The novel makes almost all of the myths seem impossible. However, with the few that appeared possible, the authors admitted to them being harder to debunk. This book hit a large demographic and flew off the bookshelves of many bookstores, showing the amount of interest the world had in knowing the truth and only the truth. The world became confused from all of the false allegations and didn't know what to believe. The novel brought those who had concern to closure.
popularmechanics.com -
Toby Keith - Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)
Toby Keith’s song’s original purpose was to be sung only to the troops as a morale boost. He then got such a great reaction by the listeners that a Commandant of the Marines, James L. Jones, basically “demanded” him to record and release the song. It only took Keith 20 minutes of his time to write this song and he says the ease of writing could be attributed to the 9/11 attacks and the death of his father a few months before. The lyrics of the song create an uplifting tone that makes it seem almost like a poem. It is apparent in our society how impactful music can be in times of need. We can see this in the eras of the Vietnam war, WWII, and the Cold War. Perhaps it is a way for artists to incite positivity and peace when violence and aggression become the norm. Toby Keith had just gone through a loss on a personal level, being that his father passed away in a car accident. 911 was a loss to everyone and became a permanent dent in our hearts, one that may never heal.
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9/11: The Photographers' Stories
The American Photography Magazine posted this album of pictures to show the destruction of that sunny morning. However, there is more information on what the photographers were going through at the time of capturing the photo. There are 12 different photographers that were willing to speak to APM about their experience at ground zero. Some were professional; others were novice. All photos were taken at various locations, with varying camera-types. The majority of the photographs were captured within or around the Manhattan area. The magazine gives the public their stories and ways of execution. Photography has an extensive impact on society, especially in times of crisis. The American Photo Mag felt the inclination to publicly display the horrifying reality of the time. Our culture had completely shifted in regards to morale and overall mood of the people. This had an immense impact on the population and these pictures are a way to visually represent the rest of the world the crumbling spirit of many Americans.
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Opinion: How 9/11 Permanently Changed Us
The subtitle of this opinion article caught my eye because of its truthfulness. It says, “Bigger transformation - a growing climate of mistrust”. After reading this one could conclude that the piece would delve into how a person in NYC might feel post 9/11. Survivors lost their friends, however their connections with the other survivors had become stronger. In the article it states quite a bit of statistics on how there is an increasingly high amount of people who are less willing to go out to a highly populated area due to concerns about terrorism. Walter Shapiro explains the change that has passed by us over the past 17 years, and how it may never go back to how it was before. He uses an analogy to help get his point across and it is that the government has built a metaphorical moat around themselves, isolating themselves from their people. Many people feel this way because of the little action that has been done to improve the conditions of the fear of terrorism in the United States.
rollcall.com -
Aftershocks
The New York magazine published this article to inform the public on how the tragic event impacted the culture of the city. It not only hits on the physical damage, but the emotional damage. There is mentioning of how the people have made everything to be meaningful to make up for the loss. The NY mag added this to their publication to give the raw reality of what was going on at the time. “Aftershocks” delves into the deeper impact the attack had on the people of New York. There is explanation of how everyone is trying to be overly-nice to compensate for the city’s traumatic loss. Also, the fact Homans, the author of the article, brings up how the media is handling the situation gives a totally different perspective on the scenario. He explains how the posting of a video by CNN only made the condition of the people more and more dismal. It is in time of crisis where we sometimes try a little too hard to compensate for the lost hope, making it even harder to cope with grief.
nymag.com
