Outlooks on 9/11

Adrienne Brookstein, Editor

 

The tragic events of 9/11 are classic examples of outside forces trying to take the freedom of Americans. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives due to a surprise terrorist attack led by Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.

Sadly, most of our present day students have little idea what the reasons behind 9/11 were. In addition, almost all of our students have no firsthand memory of that day, simply because they were too young to remember. According to history teacher, Mr. Joseph Rosenello, present day students sometimes view this event as something that didn’t really happen.

“For me, I see Pearl Harbor in black and white. For starters, and in a way for [present day students], 9/11 happened in a figurative black and white. It wasn’t real. And what you see is no different than the bombs going off and the special effects that kids today watch in movie after movie after movie. You become inured to it,” said Rosenello.

Like Rosenello and plenty of other teachers in our school say, students just don’t know what really happened that day. They have no memory of what happened, and it’s something that can get pushed aside in our curriculum. Teachers are on such a tight limit with their fast paced curriculums, that sometimes they simply don’t have enough time to go into the details of what happened.

“I think that school teaches us what they can in the limits they have. They have to be sensitive to the topic, and a lot of teachers are emotional about it as well, so I think it is a difficult topic to teach,” said Casey Bodner ’19. “It’s hard to teach and talk about something that devastating as if it was just another event from a history textbook.”

14 years later, the fear and uncertainty resulting from the 9/11attacks have still not completely vanished. Al-Qaeda has been slowed down, and Osama Bin Laden is dead. Yet new threats from other terrorist organizations, like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) are now something America must keep an eye on. Many Americans believe that since the US military and intelligence communities took care of who was behind 9/11 that they are now safe. Yet, there are still people in the world who are acting against America.

“I don’t think it’s safe because of threats within the country,” said Alex Calabrese ’18.

Some say that large scale events like 9/11 will not be repeated. But The U.S. now has to deal with individual terrorist attacks.  Smaller terrorist attacks happen on a somewhat regular basis. Recent events such as the Boston Marathon bombing, keep America alert.

“The fear factor of a large scale terrorist attack, like 9/11, is not the same. I guess the thing that we are more afraid of now is the lone wolf type of people. One single person who decides to do something; that’s what I fear more,” said Mr. Brett Eppolite, a WTHS history teacher.

Within the past ten years the US has improved homeland security. In this defensive climate, concerns continue to persist.

“I think we are safer than we were before, but there are terrorists that hate America. They’re after us, so we aren’t completely safe,” says Alicia Griggs ’18.

Finally, 9/11 is becoming a part of past history. It’s something that has made America what it is today: stronger. If you ask ten different people why 9/11 happened, you’re going to get ten different answers. There is no clear answer to why or how everything happened, yet overall, people believe that 9/11 was a day of overwhelming strength.

“I see 9/11 as a day of strength. The only argument for weakness is that the agencies that are supposed to protect us, such as the FBI and CIA, we’re not communicating the way they needed to. There should have been enough dots to connect to prevent this from happening. That’s the only argument for weakness, but I think the argument for strength is better because we saw a real rise of patriotism after that,” said Eppolite.

With the passage of time, 9/11 has become something that students learn about only through school. The history teachers recognize the responsibility that they must teach these students about the importance of 9/11.

“It was a day of weakness for country, but a day of strength for the individual,” said Rosenello.