When I read the assignment, my thoughts immediately to the events in NYC on September 11, 2001. I tried thinking of other events that I could write about because I feel like so many people are going to write about it but the only other events I could think of occurred when I was about 6 or 7 years old and I can’t remember much about it. So because I can’t think of anything that really impacted my life, I am writing about the attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001.
The day is September 11, 2001. A seemingly normal, sunny Tuesday morning. It was only a couple of days into the new school year and I was sitting in my 7th grade Science class half paying attention to what my teacher was saying. I was more concerned with catching up with my friends who I haven’t seen since June. I can’t remember almost anything from school that early in the morning but I do know that from the time I heard about the Twin Towers getting hit until the next day, I can remember practically every detail. I had left my science class to use the bathroom and I can’t remember why but I left the floor I was on to go on another one and I saw another teacher that I liked talking to someone saying that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Not really thinking, my first thoughts were it was an accident. At that time, I completely forgot that the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers were the same buildings. I returned to my class and I remember telling my table-mates but I don’t think anyone knew anything about it at the time. I told my teacher but I asked her if she knew anything about it privately to which she didn’t. My school was located on 21st street between 1st and 2nd avenues.
I remember sitting in homeroom listening to the secretary calling students’ names on the loudspeaker as their family members came to pick them up still confused about what was happening in the outside world. I remember being scared because my house is on Saint Marks and it’s not that far so I was worried about my mom taking long. My name was eventually called and I said goodbye to my friends and met my mom and cousin. I remember asking my mom what happened but she didn’t say much since we were in a hurry to get my sister who went to The Museum School. My brother went to elementary school on 11th street so he had already been picked up.
I remember walking from my school to my sister’s and seeing some smoke around and people who I assume had come from downtown and were running home to their families and wearing masks. By the time we got home, it was probably still early morning and I remember that the TV was on the news and they showed footage of the planes crashing into the towers but I can’t remember whether or not they had collapsed at that point. I remember reading the words terrorist and attacks but I had no idea what they meant. I don’t know what I was thinking but I knew it was really bad. I remember seeing Rudy Guiliani, the mayor on television and hearing George Bush talking but I don’t remember much about the news. I remember the footage of the events because it was all over the news. It showed the planes crashing, the fire, the smoke, people jumping to their death because they couldn’t find another way out. It was all so surreal and looked like some kind of “end of the world” movie. One image that stays in my mind was also when I saw a reporter in the area discussing what had happened and all of a sudden behind her, a building collapsed straight down as if it were an accordion that someone was holding sideways and then let go. She told her cameraman to start running and the camera was still rolling so all you saw were people running really fast and the camera moves to the ground. Later, I learned that World Trade Center building 7 had also collapsed at that point.
Ralph Hanson writes in Chapter 1 of his textbook Mass Communication: Living in a Media World that “we assign meanings to objects that otherwise would have had no meaning at all. Take a simple yellow ribbon twisted in a stylized bow. You’ve seen thousands of thse, and most likely you know exactly what they stand for--Support Our Troops. But that hasn’t always been the meaning of the symbol” (29). In a similar fashion, after September 11, 2001, two of the most recognized parts of the New York City skyline were gone because some members of a group called Al-Qaeda felt the need to take action against the U.S. government for their involvement in several things and because these Islamic extremists were brainwashed to believe that attacking us is the way to go.
Shortly after these terrorist attacks occurred, they were linked to Osama bin Laden who quickly became number 1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list with a huge bounty on him calling for his capture “Dead or Alive”. In the article, “What is Culture?” by S. Baran discusses different kinds of media culture and especially when differentiation among groups of people become problematic. He writes, “For these good Americans, regardless of what was in their hearts or minds, their religion, skin color, maybe even their clothing “communicated” disloyalty to the United States to many Americans” about what Muslim Americans had to deal with shortly after September 11. An idea that Americans have been working so hard to say that it is “okay” to be different and that we should learn and embrace each others differences when New York City and the United State were attacked by a group of people who a lot of Americans do not understand to believe are considered to be an extremist group and not representative of all Muslim Americans. Similar to the yellow ribbons that have become associated with supporting our troops, the light beams that are placed in the sky every year on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks have become representative of freedom and the Twin Towers.
The events of September 11, 2001 changed the lives of people in New York City, the United States and even all over the world in many ways. As extreme terrorists killed innocent people as an “act of revenge”, Muslim Americans are struggling to keep their good name and image of peacefulness in the Islamic religion which was pretty much destroyed by this group of terrorists.
References:
Hanson, Ralph E. "Chapter 1." Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. Washington, D.C.: CQ, 2010. Print.
S. Baran , "What is Culture?"
Youtube: http://youtu.be/ltP2t9nq9fI
September 11th is a day none of us could forget. I was also in school when it happened. However I did not find out about the planes crashing into the Twin Towers until I got home. I remember wondering why my classmates were called one by one to go downstairs because their parents were picking them up. I asked my teacher why but he did not tell me. By the end of the day, there were only five kids left in my class. I remember going home flipping through the channels to watch Pokemon, or any other cartoon, but all the channels had George W. Bush making a statement about the attack. Or there would be a footage of the two buildings collapsing and the intense smoke coming out of the building. The funny thing is I also did not know The World Trade Center and the Twin Towers were the same buildings.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was in school but I was a few years younger. I remember kids being called to the principal's office every time a parent showed up. That was the only day when we didn't do regular work in class. Our teachers all had to be calm so us nine year olds wouldn't get scared. I just didn't understand what was going on, and I think I tried to imagine what the twin towers would have looked like on fire. I never saw actual footage until I got home. That day had such a big impact on me, not because of the actual act of terrorism, but because it was the only time I had seen so many people react to a single event all in the same way.
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