Hello again, Everyone!
We're into August now and that means September can't be far behind. While we're busily getting ourselves ready to head back to school, we'll most likely be reminded, both by the media and by the myriad ways we as individuals have been touched by the tragedy of September, 11, 2001, that the 10 year anniversary of that horrific day is quickly approaching.
10 years is a long time. Many of you were only eight when it happened. But just because a decade has passed, does that mean artists, designers, filmmakers, and the media in general are now allowed to broadcast images to the general public, make jokes, or write novels about the attacks?
HERE'S a link to a recent Slate article that poses that very question.
Tell us what you think and please tell us also where you were when you heard the news. What do you remember about that day and the days, weeks, months, years after?
Naturally the tragedy of 9/11 plays an integral role in our protagonist's (Oskar's) life; it's what robbed him of his father and his sense of security. Do you think certain depictions of the tragedy are ok while others are not? Why?
Keep the brilliance coming!
-Lesley
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I was actually living in Columbus at the time--in German Village, with my then-boyfriend/now-husband. We were both graduate students at OSU. His mother called us and told us to turn on the TV. We watched, dumbstruck, all day, and only left the apartment once. When we did, I noticed how everyone seemed to be staggering about, as if they were in a daze, with glazed-over eyes.
ReplyDeleteI was also living in Columbus and in German Village. On the evening of September 10, 2011, I went to a Sade concert at an outdoor ampitheater here in Columbus and it was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. I was still so "high" (from the music only!), that when I turned on the Today Show at a few minutes before 9:00 am the next morning and heard Katie Couric trying to make sense of the first plane hitting the first tower, I thought it was a joke of some kind, or at worst, an unfortunate accident. In fact, Couric and Matt Lauer were just saying that it was most likely an accident, when the second plane hit. Then came the reports of a plane down in Pennsylvania. I called my sister in Seattle and tried to reach my cousins who lived in downtown Manhatten. I was glued to CNN for days. To be honest, I'm still a bit panicky when the words "Breaking News" flash across the TV screen. It's so hard to believe that it's been nearly 10 years...
ReplyDeleteI was in 3rd grade, in class, when it happened. All of the teachers began telling each other what had happened and began acting really fidgety. It took them a while before they made the announcement to us over the intercom. Most students were pulled out of school by their parents for the day, and some even longer. I had to stick around because my mother was the pre-kindergarten teacher and she couldn't leave. All of the adults around me were constantly watching the news in shock, listening for any new information regarding the attacks. I, personally, did not understand fully what was going on, although I knew something terrible had happened. I continued my everyday eight-year-old life and as I aged began to understand more that sometimes Earth harbors wicked people. It hardly seems as though it has been a decade, does it?
ReplyDeleteBrandon, time passes more quickly for the old and infirm (me!), but I think even for someone who was only eight when it happened, the attacks can seem to have happened only "yesterday," simply because our nation's policies regarding the Middle East, and our own everyday lives (just think about flying now), have been so fundamentally changed by it.
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