Post 9/11 America Essay

Five hundred thousand dollars is the estimated amount of money it cost to plan and implement the death of 2,977 people (CNN.com). 500,000 dollars is the amount of money that changed one nation forever. For some, it is hard to believe that this America is the same country as it was 12 years ago. In some ways, it is, but in most ways, the pre-september-11 America is almost a completely different America than the post 9/11 America. This country has changed in almost every way it can: technology, government, traditions, education, and economy. Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaida caused the cultural transformation in the United States through the terrorist attacks that they planed and executed on September 11, 2001.

Before September 11, 2001, America

Post 9/11 the education system currently teaches about the tragedies of September 11. “New York City’s Department of Education is making lesson plans available on how to teach and talk about the terror tragedy.” (NBC New York). The history of that day is now in everyday textbooks and has its own section libraries across the nation. To deal with the lack of security that America once had the US government implemented the USA PATRIOT Act. This act gave the government the ability to fulfill the purposes to “…deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and… other purposes.” (USA PATRIOT Act of 2001). The change in government was necessary and contrary to the nation’s original thinking that, “The very term ‘national security’… always implied that both threats and vulnerabilities lay outside the country. Our military and intelligence forces were configured accordingly.” (Gaddis 8). After September 11, 2001 the economy suffered through a very strong downfall there was “$123 billon- Estimated economic loss during the first 2-4 weeks after the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York City, as well as decline in airline travel over the next few years” (CNN.com). It took 3.1 million hours of labor, $750 million, and nearly two years to clean up Ground Zero (CNN.com). Technology since September 11 has also changed. There were full body scanners that were invented to create tighter airport security, “The situation has been mitigated to some extent by the deployment of about 500 full-body scanners at some 78 airports in the U.S.” (Freedman). Also implemented, was data mining technology, which the USA PATRIOT Act allowed to be in place, “There are now supercomputers crunching away at data posted to Facebook, Twitter, and countless websites and blogs, in multiple languages, all to find links between people, places, and events that could