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Add to FavoritesEmotional Changes From 9-11-01 Until 9-11-09
The attack on the World Trade Center sent shock waves throughout the world. Anyone anywhere who had a television watched the minute by minute coverage in shock. It was unprecedented. It was unbelievable. It was only the disbelief that stopped us from crying as the bodies fell from the upper floor windows. It took days, for some of us weeks, to finally get over the initial shock and begin to grieve for all those who lost their lives that day.
By the time reality had set in, the Patriot Act had been signed and Muslims were disappearing off the streets. Telephone companies were setting up "spy rooms" and all military personnel were at heightened alert knowing that war was just around the corner. People were frightened, angry, and confused. We had no idea why anyone would want to attack the U.S. and we trustingly put our future in the hands of our elected officials because we elected them for just this kind of thing.
It's now more than 8 years later and the U.S. is still dealing with an emotional response to 9-11. It is not the typical grief that goes through the stages of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, then Acceptance. It's more like the grief that goes along with betrayal. We want revenge. We want justice. And, even though the U.S. military has killed millions these past 8 years, we know in our hearts that the real culprits-whoever we may believe them to be- still walk free.
We are fighting a war in Iraq. No Iraqis were involved in 9-11. We are fighting a war in Afghanistan. No Afghanis were involved in 9-11. Osama bin Laden has most likely been dead since December of 2001 and al Qaeda is just a ghost who, suspiciously, seems to seek refuge exactly where the U.S. needs to gain control of oil reserves and nuclear facilities. Even if we don't do the research we all still sense it. There is no justice here.
Those who died during the attacks on 9-11-01 were not just Americans but human beings from all walks of life, from a myriad of religions, and from many different countries. Although the attack was on American soil we all know that it is much bigger than just a few angry Muslims hating America for her freedom. America is not as free as she pretends to be and the Muslims know it. They, too, have the internet.
The wounds from 9-11-01 are still open and bleeding. No true healing has been done. And, the necessary healing will not be done until we reopen the case with a truly independent and scientific criminal investigation to find out for sure just who really was behind this horrific act. After a legal and impartial trial in which they are convicted we can then prosecute them publicly with a sentence that fits the crime. Only then can we finally we can lay it all to rest and move forward. Only then can we be proud to be Americans.
But, until this is done, we will continue to suffer emotional reactions to the events of September 11, 2001.
Learn more about this author, Sandi Crain.
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No
The emotional impact of any tragic event is never as strong as it was years after it happens. That part of the brain that blocks out the trauma of such events kicks in to aid us in recovering. It is part of the survival apparatus we come equipped with. Clearly the emotional affects will diminish quicker for people who were not actual victims; those that survived at the sites, relatives and friends of victims who did not survive and the immediate site witnesses to such tragedies. All of the rest of us are non-victims and for the most part are spared the pain and suffering these people have to go through from now on because we are immune to the sensory stimulus that such interactions recreate beyond the actual event.
For the non-victims that could only watch in horror on their TV sets as the events of 9/11 unfolded in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania the depth of their pain was lessened by their distance from the tragedies and the relative ease they could turn away from of the awful images of such meaningless destruction. Life was severely disrupted in these locales where jet liners loaded with people exploded before them. But for the rest of the world life was only hampered out of their willingness to allow it to be so. Though I, like many who watched were appalled at what we saw on our sets, our work days pretty much continued. Staying busy had a therapeutic effect though it did not prevent us all from reflecting every minute that day on what had just happened to many in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a lonely field in Pennsylvania.
For the people who died there, there was no work to go to any more and for survivors - days and weeks would pass before their routines came anywhere near resembling normal. Such thoughts however begin to vanish over the weeks and months that follow; out of sight, out of mind as the saying goes. And when the mind is no longer effected by such stimuli it reverts to a sense of normalcy that aids us in persisting in doing what we need to do to survive.
For the non-victims of 9/11 in the rest of the country and around the world our emotions on that day are only partially restored when the sights and sounds are broadcast over the air waves for the sake of a memorial or a news story. The tragic events of terrorism that continue to occur around the world and more recently in our own back yard in Ft. Hood, Texas also re-ignite that dread and despair we experienced in September 2001. But again, unless our sensory capacities are inundated with the actuality of a tragic event we manage to function much as we did before such atrocities occurred.
Without this mechanism in the human brain to buffer us against unexpected awful and inhumane behaviors, normal life functions would not continue. If the ability to put aside the shock of heinous crimes was not functional then the ability to progress and prosper would be severely hampered. To those who would view such detachment from the horrors of war, terrorism and crime with disdain and offense is to deny an aspect of our humanity. For those who would be outraged that our emotional reactions concerning the events of 9/11 are not held in constant chaos and angst is to expect the unreasonable. We're just not wired in a way that let's distant, non-direct tragic events shut down our ability to engage normally in our daily lives. Without the capacity to get past such intense drama quickly the human brain would have perhaps not gotten much past the developmental stage that has made it the dominate species in our ecosystem.
It is an inherent part of who we are to be shocked and out-raged at human tragedies and be temporarily immobilized as a consequence. However, it also is an innate characteristic that allows us to proceed beyond such reactions and the stages of mourning that ensue. Too much emotional luggage carried for too long can be a detriment to us as a species. What is gained by the emotional remnants that do persist after a human holocaust is a drive to correct those events that led to them. It also serves to help the true, direct victims of human suffering cope with their losses and rejoin the human race in a manner as similar to the one they had before such life-altering events occurred.
Learn more about this author, L.B. Woodgate.
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