On September 11th, 2001, “over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.,” (History.com Staff) and mourning occurred many days after. In Annie Farnsworth’s For the Falling Man poem, she states, “I know who you are, (and) I know there's more to you than just the image on the news.” (Farnsworth) Even though she doesn't, and nobody really does, know or necessarily recognize who this man is, she still relates to him and others who had passed because Americans as a whole came together and mourned on this tragic day. We all sympathized with whoever, whether we knew the deceased or even the family grieving, Americans came to help and support each other. After that, however, America was changed – it had been ripped apart psychologically in many ways, and wouldn't …show more content…
continue the closeness that 9/11 had originally produced. Out of this event, the National Security Agency (NSA) was created to aid the government and the military with finding terrorists, but today the government uses it regularly on every person, whether they have a reason to or not. Americans, because this is going on, fear something major is happening if the NSA is still in full swing. From this, people, especially those who live in cities or suburban area, won’t even trust their new neighbors because they fear that they’re terrorists or just bad people who they can’t trust. This shows how coming out of 9/11 really scared people. People feared not only more terrorist attacks, but if there were anymore of these vicious types of people out there. This scared people so much that they ultimately didn’t want to trust anyone they weren’t close with or weren’t introduced to, in fear that that person could hurt them, their families, their community, or their whole country. The NSA is also invading on American’s privacy, which most people feel comfortable about.
There’s a reason why boys use incognito mode on web browsers – they don’t want people to know what they were doing. The NSA also doesn’t have a warrant or even a reason to gather information on Americans who are not suspected of certain crimes. It’s one thing if all of our files were put somewhere and nobody looked at them until a person had committed a crime or they’re keeping watch on a former criminal, but that’s not what’s happening. Somehow, however, “secret court orders allow (the) NSA to sweep up Americans’ phone records” (Franceshi-Bicchierai) and other things like our email or web history. Many Americans are appalled by this, especially since Edwards Snowden released this information, and are just surprised by how this gets around our fourth amendment in the Bill of Rights. People always say its for your own protection, but if it is that way than why aren’t we allowed to carry guns and protect ourselves like our ancestors did when this country started. Fearing who, what, and why the NSA is targeting seems a lot less stressful than knowing everybody in this country is after
you. After September 11th and Bush’s speech addressing who the terrorists were, Americans became all up in arms and ready to fight Al-Qaeda and other affiliated groups, but that also meant racism toward Middle Eastern looking people within our country. After 9/11, “attacks increased by 1700%” (Rose) towards Islamics and in just one year, an additional 453 hate crimes were reported against these people. Arrogance is what took these people’s lives. Just because they had similar appearances to those part of the 9/11 terrorism attacks doesn’t mean that they were going to bomb a place or kill somebody. Some African Americans look similar to each other appearance wise, but what really matters is the person, like if they’re nice and courteous or if they’re hurtful and heinous. If people can’t get past looks, then how do we expect a country to come together as one and be friendly and kind to one another if a lot of people are racist and have these types of feelings. You also know your country is racist when your president points out that “the targeting of (Osama) bin Laden was purely a national security priority, and placed it in the context of war against terrorism,” (Hutchinson) not racism. Unfortunately, a statement as high up as President Obama won’t stop the way people feel about how people look and their culture’s practices. Many Caucasians have killed people, yet there is less racism or hatred towards them than African Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, or any other race mixed into America’s mixing pot. Racism and fear still circulate in the minds of Americans ever since the cataclysmic event that happened fourteen years ago. In these past years, many memorials, parades, and other events commemorating those who have died or lost their loved ones have been put together; but what happens every night when we go home? We routinely lock our doors, tell our children not to talk to strangers (especially “different” looking ones), and worry about what will happen in the near future. Our nation has unfortunately become detached from the horrific yet eye-opening event of 9/11.
“September Elegies” is a poem written by an American poet Randall Mann in memory of Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Billy Lucas, and Tyler Clementi. It articulates a gloomy story about four young boys who took their own lives by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The memorialization is a reminder of how cruel our world can be and how bigotry and indifference destroy people’s lives. The poet reveres their memory by making use of various literary devices in order to transmit the pain the boys experienced.
During an interview of three family members, I was able to learn more information about the events of 9/11. My mom, Jamie Goldman, was the first person I interviewed. She told me she was helping a friend with her new business in Aiken, SC. She first heard on the radio, breaking news, that a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. Her first thought was that a plane had crashed accidentally. As the day went on, she learned of even more horrible acts against our country, and then realized our Nation was under attack from terrorist. My mom was heartbroken, scared, sad, and mad all at the same time. She struggles with forgiving the terrorist but knows that God would want her to forgive them. The song "God Bless the USA" is a song that helps my mom cope with the events of 9/11. My mom did not know anyone personally that was killed or injured on 9/11. She said, "after 9/11, our country has been a country at war. We have stopped loving our neighbors and instead, started judging them."
How would you feel if everything you did on the internet, every text you sent, and every call you made was seen by someone? That is what the NSA is doing right now. According to Wikipedia, the National Security Agency is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.[1] They have been a controversial topic since the 1970s when it was revealed that they had been wiretapping Americans’ telephones. Their surveillance has only grown since then, even though most Americans disagree with it. [2] The NSA’s domestic surveillance is unconstitutional, ineffective, and a violation of privacy that needs to be stopped.
In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).
Eleven years ago Hurricane Katrina hit us, hard. The levees failed to do what they were made for. It was both a natural and man made disaster that was destined to happen and too late to stop. The damage has been done; the lives lost. But this storm, awful as it was, did more than destroy. The hurricane brought people closer as we cleaned up cleaned up after it’s mess. There were people donating, volunteering. It all just goes back to show our identity as Americans. It shows that even when we get knocked down, we always resurface, united as one, and if that isn’t our identity; I don’t know what is.
Wintergirls is a book related to eating disorders. The author’s purpose of writing this book is to inform readers what a person with an eating disorder. It depicts the inner and outer conflicts that characters like Lia and Cassie face with disorder. It all began with a competition between two characters of who can be the skinniest. Cassie dies in the attempt of winning the game. Lia, the main character in this novel, always keeps track of her food consumption. For example, one breakfast morning, Lia said she didn’t want “a muffin (410),…orange (75),…toast (87),…waffles (180)” (Anderson 5). Lia constantly keeps track of the calories she eats. Unlike Cassie who follows the path of bulimia, Lia inhibits herself from eating, therefore not getting the proper nutrients. This allows the readers to know how a person with a disorder like Lia can restrain herself from eating foods that we’re used to eating in our regular lives. Her ultimate goal frequently change, getting lower and lower each time. Lia strives for a “five hundred calories a day” (Anderson 189). Her constant change of goals allows the readers to know the struggles a girl with such a mindset may feel.
When the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 rocked New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., the word “tragedy” was used on a grandiose level around the world. For the people who lived close enough to experience the events first-hand, they may not have even called it a tragedy; perhaps they called it a misfortune, retaliation, lack of a strong government, unreal, or maybe even rebirth. In the coming years after the attacks, everything between standing united as a nation to declaring a war had flourished; but how has that left us - the land that has no distinct ethnicity - feel about each other? Why is it that fear is usually missing in the affective mnemonics of memorial sites, which, after all, are signifiers of some of the most horrific violence in human history? Do memorials dedicated to these attacks bring us together in terms of understanding, or is it just continual collective grief? This paper will cover the global complexity of the 9/11 attacks, the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park, NJ, and factors and theories that memorials do influence a sense of complexity. The ground of public memory is always in motion, shifting with the tectonics of national identity. I chose the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial as my topic of observation as I, personally, visit a few times throughout the year to pay respects to people I personally knew who perished in the attacks to the World Trade Center. I was in the 5th grade when this happened, and had absolutely no clue what was going on until my father did not return home until two days later with a bandage wrapped around his head and his devastating recollection of what happened just before he arrived to his job. The emotions that I feel within myself compared to others will...
Edward Snowden is America’s most recent controversial figure. People can’t decide if he is their hero or traitor. Nevertheless, his leaks on the U.S. government surveillance program, PRISM, demand an explanation. Many American citizens have been enraged by the thought of the government tracing their telecommunication systems. According to factbrowser.com 54% of internet users would rather have more online privacy, even at the risk of security (Facts Tagged with Privacy). They say it is an infringement on their privacy rights of the constitution. However, some of them don’t mind; they believe it will help thwart the acts of terrorists. Both sides make a good point, but the inevitable future is one where the government is adapting as technology is changing. In order for us to continue living in the new digital decade, we must accept the government’s ability to surveil us.
How much privacy do we as the American people truly have? American Privacy is not directly guaranteed in any manner under the United States Constitution; however, by the Fourth Amendment, Americans are protected from illegal search and seizure. So then isn’t it ironic that in today’s modern world, nothing we do that it is in any way connected to the internet is guaranteed to remain discreet? A Google search, an email, a text message, or even a phone call are all at risk of being intercepted, traced, geo located, documented, and stored freely by the government under the guise of “protecting” the American people. Quite simply, the Government in order to protect us and our rights, is willing to make a hypocrite of itself and act as though our right is simply a privilege, and without any form of consent from the people, keep virtual tabs on each and every one of us. In the words of Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis “The right to privacy is a person's right to be left alone by the government... the right most valued by civilized men." Privacy isn’t just Privilege, it is nonnegotiable right, and deserves to be treated as such.
On the first day after the Twin Towers fell, when the skies were silent and the country cried, a sense of patriotism was greatly increased and appreciated. Many people came from several different countries, with many different skills, but everyone who came all had one
In America we take freedom and privacy for granted, we as people are unable to comprehend how safe our country actually is, especially in today's society. With that being said there is something that we must all understand, in this age of technology if people are not surveillanced it puts everybody else in our country and the country itself at risk. There are aspects of our privacy and life that we have to sacrifice in order to secure the freedom that we do have. The NSA and U.S. government needs access to our private information in order to ensure the safety of our country and citizens.
The poem, “Field of Autumn”, by Laurie Lee exposes the languorous passage of time along with the unavoidability of closure, more precisely; death, by describing a shift of seasons. In six stanzas, with four sentences each, the author also contrasts two different branches of time; past and future. Death and slowness are the main motifs of this literary work, and are efficiently portrayed through the overall assonance of the letter “o”, which helps the reader understand the tranquility of the poem by creating an equally calmed atmosphere. This poem is to be analyzed by stanzas, one per paragraph, with the exception of the third and fourth stanzas, which will be analyzed as one for a better understanding of Lee’s poem.
The government gives each American citizen a set of unalienable rights that protect them from the government’s power. These rights cannot be broken, yet the government violates the Fourth Amendment daily to find ways to spy on the American public under the guise of protecting against terrorism. In 2007 President Obama said the American administration “acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our securities – it is not.” Americans need to understand that their privacy is worth the fight. The people need to tell their neighbors, their congressmen, and their senators that they will not allow their internet privacy to be violated by needless spying. American citizens deserve the rights given to them and need to fight for the right to keep them by changing privacy laws to include Internet privacy.
On September 11, 2001 in New York City, history was changed forever. The best and worst parts of humanity were exposed that day, and with copious deaths came a surge of love and support. It is impossible to fathom what the 2,996 victims experienced in the moments before their deaths, but we do have some glimpses into the last seconds of these innocent people’s lives. Richard Drew’s image of the Falling Man is one of the few portals we have to the catastrophic day, and it needs to be shown.
Privacy is a right granted to all American citizens in the Fourth Amendment which states “people have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and lives against unreasonable search and seizures”. Although our founding fathers could have never predicted the technological advancements we have achieved today, it would be logical to assume that a person's internet and phone data would be considered their effects. This would then make actions such as secretive government surveillance illegal because the surveillance is done so without probable cause and would be considered unreasonable search or seizure. Therefore, access to a citizen’s private information should only be provided using probable cause with the knowledge and consent of those who are being investigated.