Extra Credit September 11, 10 years later
Read a news article, go to an event, or talk to a someone affected by the bombings that day ten years ago. Write a 250 word (min.) reflection on the event. Post it here and email it to me. Don't forget your works cited and use a citation in the piece (1).
Read a news article, go to an event, or talk to a someone affected by the bombings that day ten years ago. Write a 250 word (min.) reflection on the event. Post it here and email it to me. Don't forget your works cited and use a citation in the piece (1).
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 5:34 PM
7 Comments:
Kyle Tay
Professor Sabir
English 1A 11am - 11:50am
8 September 2011
September Eleventh Reflection
Ten years ago on September 11th, 2001, I was awoken frantically by my mother. She told me that a terrorist attack just happened in New York on the World Trade Center. I was in the third grade at the time and had no idea what a terrorist attack was. I had an idea that it was something bad by the look on my mothers face and as soon as I laid eyes on the living room TV I was sure it was.
When I later arrived at school that day the teacher had the news on the TV while the class watched in awe. At the time we were all so young and I don't think we truly grasped the intensity of what just happened. Nobody knew that it would eventually lead to the war in Iraq and establish a long-term feud with the middle east. (Except for the imperialistic government higher-ups that manufactured the attack)
It is now ten years later and the USA is still sluggishly recovering from the effects of September eleventh and pulling American troops out of Iraq. Unfortunatley for the families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack or war in Iraq, recovery does not come so easily. From the documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" Rosemary Dillard, the widow of a 9/11 victim, shares her tragedy. "I lost my husband of fifteen years. I am now by myself. I don't know what reason I have to live". It is evident that after ten years of recovery that 9/11 continues to effect the lives of thousands of Americans.
Works Cited:
Fahrenheit 9/11. Dir. Michael Moore. Perf. Michael Moore, George W. Bush, and Britney Spears. Lions Gate Films, 2004.
Melody Webster
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
10 September 2011
9/11 response
September 11, 2001 was the most apocalyptic event in United States history. When four planes were hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the twin towers and world trade center, completely chaos covered the streets of Manhattan. The attack took many lives, and affected thousands. Because of the impact of this event, several hours after taking place, historians at the Center for Oral History at Columbia University began to form project ideas on how best to record this for future generations. This project is known as the “2001 Oral History Narrative and Memory project,” in which more than 440 people gave interviews to 60+ volunteers just days after the attack. They began interviews so quickly as to capture real stories before the media, and popular opinions morphed them. Today the project contains more than 22,000 archives of written and oral accounts, as well as videos, of survivors who were willing to share their story. Many recount the small early morning twists of fate that determined whether or not they made it to work in one of the three buildings. Ivy Barsky, Deputy Director for Programs at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, was supposed to take a bus that stopped at the World Trade Center around 9 a.m., but instead decided to have a late breakfast and take a different route. She recalls, “It was quite a while after that that I thought to myself… ‘Now what would have happened if I were on that E train?’” At 8:46 a.m. Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center. As the interviews progress chronologically, the stories become more extreme while the attack takes place. Lucio Capito, working on the 78th floor of the North Tower, recalls as he ran down the staircase “…there were people, coming down from the top floors, that were terribly hurt. There was one woman who was without any skin. It was like a boiled potato that loses it’s skin. She was all raw meat.” These stories of survivors are so personal, and so detailed, that they paint a detailed picture for those who did not experience it as they did. This project, I feel, is vital to history and gives the most true and real account of any historical event that I have ever read.
Works Cited:
Bronner, Ethan. "Witness to Apocalypse." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 08 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Sept. 2011. .
Stephanie Kiick
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 11:00-11:50AM
11 September 2011
September 11, 2001 Remembrance
Ten years ago a devastating attack occurred that I am sure no one will ever forget. I was relatively young when it happened. It wasn't until I arrived at school that I found out what had happened. We sat inside all day and watched it over and over again on the news. Personally I really still did not know what was going on, but I knew that it was horrible. Many students and teachers were hysterical and eventually people began to stop watching it. I understood it was painful, yet at that age I had barely heard of what the Twin Towers were. Class was definitely called off that day and the center was focused on comforting each other.
I remember one girl, Chelsea, that I barely knew was especially sad. She told the teacher that her father was in New York that day. Only a few minutes later her mom came to take her away. She never came back to the school I went to. Now that I am older, looking back I realize all of the scenarios that could have happened to her. It makes me extremely upset that at such a young age she had to endure a tragedy so huge and that no one had any control over.
Yesterday I was flipping through the television channels and watched a clip from a television show called “Remembering 9/11.” It was multiple interviews of friends and family from Flight 93. Two wives especially stood out to me. They told of how their husbands were calling them every few minutes from the airplane, giving updates and asking for outside information. One woman's husband asked if it was true that they were attacking the Twin Towers with airplanes. She had to tell him the truth. After being abruptly told he had to get off the phone she explains how she had to stay brave and just wait for another call. She tells of her husbands consistent bravery and how she knew he would not let her down. When another call came through, her husband said he would return in a moment and that he and a few other passengers were going to attempt to take back over the airplane. Lyzbeth Beamer tells the interviewers, "I told him to go ahead and do it. I trusted his instincts, and I said 'Do what you have to do.' I knew that — I thought he could do it." Even though I could never imagine what most people have gone through and are still going through, I find it very admirable of the wives deal with their tragedy in the manner they have. When Mrs. Beamer was asked about her child, a baby girl of 3 months age at the time of the attack, she responds, “I will tell my child her daddy was a hero.”
Works Cited
Author Unknown. “Wives of Passengers on Flight 93.” Good Morning America. 18 Sept. Web. 11 Sept. 2011. (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126702&page=1)
Jesse Pinkney
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 11:00AM- 11:50AM
12 September 2011
9/11: Remembering The Fallen
Every September 11, people around the world pause to remember the thousands who died as a result of coordinated terrorist attacks on American soil. Of all the victims who died, the World Trade Center’s falling people symbolized the horror of the day for many.
The lost souls, who, resigned to their fates either took that final step voluntarily, were pushed out by others behind them struggling to breathe, or were forced out by hot blasts of super heated air. We will never know. What we do know are the names of two of the fallen. Why do we need to know their names? So we can know who we are. So we can honor them.
Writer Tom Junod was convinced that America needed to remember the falling people. He undertook the unsavory mission of identifying the fallen Americans — the forgotten 9/11 victims that no one wants to talk about.“I felt that the idea of people jumping… I felt that the jumpers… I felt that the falling man had been sort of pushed to the side,” Junod said in a 2006 documentary titled 9/11: The Falling Man. “There is an element of exclusion; that he died improperly. That we want to remember this day for its heroism. And whether we think of the jumpers as heroic or not, they should not be excluded from the consecrated ground of American soil because they died in a way that made us uncomfortable.”
Considering the discomfort that some Americans feel when it comes to suicide, it wasn’t surprising that no one rushed forward to claim the fallen man as one of their own family members.When the photo of the falling man was published in newspapers on September 12, Americans vented their outrage against the photo editors for selecting that particular image to embody the horrific events of 9/11.
As photo editors are inclined to do during times of national tragedy, they choose images based on the emotional impact of the content of the photos. The photo editors withheld the series of images of the falling man tumbling, rolling, and flailing desperately at the sky. Instead, they chose the one photo that made the falling man appear peaceful, composed, and willingly accepting his fate as if he had decided to check out with dignity.
Jonathan Eric Briley, 43, was a sound engineer for the Windows on the World restaurant in the North tower — the first tower to be hit. According to Windows on the World head Chef Michael Lamonica who analyzed AP photographer Richard Drew’s photos, Jonathan fit the body type, size and complexion of the iconic falling man in the photos. Lamonica described Jonathan as a “hard working, dedicated, good guy with a great sense of humor.”
Jonathan’s sister Gwendolyn, who was Jonathan’s closest sibling, said she never thought of the unfortunate figure in the photo as her brother. “I thought of him as a man that just took his life in his hand for just that second,” she said. Still in denial, Gwendolyn identified the clothing that the man wore in the photo as items her brother owned. But she stopped short of saying it was him. “I hope we’re not trying to figure out who he is, and more, figure out who we are through watching.”
Works CIted
Author Sandra Rose
www.Sandrarose.com
Great reflections. Hum. What do you think about the woman who has refused to claim her brother despite the overwhelming evidence that its him?
When I saw people jumping I thought: I don't think I could have done that. How scary. One is potentially dead if one stays and certainly dead if one jumps.
Did anyone hear how those men and women who cleaned up after the attacks who are suffering environmental ailments were not invited to the memorials? Their lives are forever changed as well--
I went to a play in John Hinkle Park in Berkeley. It was a riff on Aristophanes's "Lysistrata" only in this play the playwright, now dead and in Hades (hell), was auditioning for the job of God of Peace. After all, if anyone can envision peace, a poet can (smile).
Aphrodite, formerly the Goddess of Peace and Love, is relieved of her title and is trying to get it back.
Aries the God of War is a character, along with Hermes, the Messenger God. It was a musical and of course Peace and Love won the battle for now.
The metaphor in the final battle between love and war took place on the dance floor. As Aries and Aphrodite danced the tango they tried to best each other. The goddess won. Aristophanes went back to Hades, along with his theatre company who'd enjoyed their shopping spree at WalMart.
There was live music and we were invited to singalong in the closing song.
I invited a few friends to join me. they are visiting fellows at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Another friend is a student at COA. They'd never been to Albany so the outing was fun for them.
When we left we walked walked up to Indian Rock in Berkeley where my friends climbed the rock and took photos before we all walked to Solano where we caught the end of the Solano Stroll.
We listened to music, tried on jewelry, checked out the art and I bought a purse. Solano crosses San Pablo where we all caught the San Pablo bus--they transferred at University to a 51 headed for UC Berkeley and Alameda while I stayed on into Oakland and took BART home.
WS
Edwin Peabody
Professor Sabir
English 1A
12 September 2011
10-Year Anniversary of 911
September 11, 2001 was a day that Americans will never forget. Four terrorist attacks occurred on the United States, in New York City and in Washington DC. Terrorist from the Islamic militant group hijacked four planes. Two of the planes were intentionally crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center causing them to collapse. The third plane was crashed into the Pentagon. Finally, the forth plane crashed in a field after passengers attempted to take back control of the plane. Over 3000 people died as a result of this tragedy. Yesterday, September 11, 2012 marked the 10th anniversary of this horrible day. The terrorist attacks brought Americans together not only to remember those who died in the building or on the planes, but also to honor those who gave their life, trying to save and protect the American people.
September 11, terrorist attacks brought Bay area residents together at a march in san José, a memorial in Union City, and an afternoon of music in San Francisco. Fire fighters read out loud the names of their comrades killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers. In San Francisco People gathered to give speeches and to hear the opera in the park, listening to Mozart. Employees at the airport mourned the co-workers who were killed. Parents reached out to their children trying to explain this horrible day with out scaring them too much, but making sure they were educated. Anti war protesters Marched at golden gate park, disapproving of the wars in Afghanistan that followed after 911. Protestors stated that over 6000 American soldiers were killed, which is double the number of Americans killed from the terrorist attacks. Most said, the money spent on the wars would have been better-spent improving health care or schools.
September 11, 2001 is a day that America will remember forever. As time goes on, hopefully, America can heal from the painful memories of loosing their loved ones. Every year America will celebrate and honor the lives of those taken away, one day turning this traumatic experience into a hopeful one.
Work Cited
Baker, David. “San Francisco Chronicle.” 12 September. 2011. Print.
Samuel Yihdego
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 11- 11:50 am
19 September 2011
10-Year Anniversary of 911
“I am sorry family but seems like you are not going to traveling after all to the U.S..." those were the words yelled out of my father's mouth from the living room on September 11, 2001. We were in the kitchen when we heard him. We all rushed into the living room to find out why he was yelling only to discover the horrific pictures on the TV. It was the bombing of the World Trade Center and the twin towers. We started crying in disbelieve saying, it was not real. We thought it was fiction movie, but we saw it live on CNN. We hugged each other and cried, but no words were expressed at the time because it was the saddest thing we had ever seen. We saw people jumping out of the buildings like objects been thrown out to save their lives. We were still in Africa getting ready to come to America at that time. We called family over here to make sure nobody was hurt. We were all confused as to how to respond or what our emotions were at that time. My dad blurted out again that we could not travel because he would not forgive himself if anything horrible happens to his family. We still glued to the TV to see how many people were being rescued and our sympathy went out to those who were not saved and their families. Prayers were said; we hugged and consoled each other.
Although it has been ten years, the memory of that horrible incident will forever be like a fresh wound that will never heal. More lives have been lost since the incident by American troops sent to Iraq. When I found out that the American government was going to retaliate I was satisfied, but later thought it was not necessary because more lives will be lost resulting in more grief to families. May God bless the lost souls on that day and after. My sympathy and love also goes out to their families.
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