Through the first 9 chapters of Root Shock, I’ve had trouble relating to the concepts addressed. I guess I’ve been waiting for the anecdote that got to me.
The realization on the power of root shock, as well as the balance of social classes, occurred for me when Fullilove addressed New York. Her firsthand account of the events on September 11th in conjunction with the information she presented up to this point revealed how doesn’t only occur to victims of urban renewal etc.
So, how did 9/11 uproot you or your family, if at all, and how did it affect your identity as a New Yorker?
John, I completely agree with you in that throughout Root Shock, I haven’t been able to relate to any of the topics Fullilove presents. Sure, when I was a child I moved to a new neighborhood, so I guess you can say that that’s the closest I’ve gotten to experiencing something like root shock, but that is nothing like the experiences of the families in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia. Like I explained in last week’s post, their lives literally went from bad to worse – both physically and psychologically.
I, too, thoroughly enjoyed the part about September 11th because it was something I actually lived through. I remember it like it was yesterday; memories of that day will forever be ingrained in my mind. To answer your question, luckily 9/11 did not uproot my family. Out of my whole family, it affected my parents the most because they were both working in the city. That day, they had to walk home from Manhattan and were not able to go back to work until the following week. As for my identity as a New Yorker, I was so young at the time that I didn’t even understand what was happening. After my aunt picked me and my siblings up from school, I remember walking home and seeing my neighbor (who was two years younger than me) saying “someone flew a plane into the twin towers!” A naive 3rd grader, I had no idea what the twin towers even were, but as soon as I got home and turned the TV on I found out. From that day on, I don’t think there is a single New Yorker or American for that matter that doesn’t know what the twin towers are. As I grew older, it affected my identity as New Yorker. I was proud to be an American, and even prouder to be a New Yorker. I think that the events surrounding 9/11 have made us closer as a city, and I believe the same goes for Hurricane Sandy now. As we discussed in class, when tragedy happens we tend to stick together and bond in the face of our struggles. Though I hope the worst is over, we are still young. There is a chance that we may see a lot more struggle and heartache before we leave this Earth, but I have faith that if and when it comes, we will come together and fight.
By the way, I’d love to hear about everyone else’s experiences! Since we’re all from different parts of the city/country I am sure the effects 9/11 and even Hurricane Sandy had on us are different. What were your experiences like?
I’ve actually wondered if 9/11 changed me at all. I think that I was too young to understand what had happened, and I hadn’t really been given most of the details at the time, so I’m not really sure.
I remember getting out of school almost as soon as I had arrived. No one explained anything. There was a person on the loudspeaker telling students that their parents would be arriving shortly. No one was told why, but I don’t think any of us really cared. It was suspicious, but I didn’t think much of it. I was just really happy that I got to leave school early and play outside. I didn’t know about the attack until later that night. When I was told, I didn’t really understand what was going on. My uncle was in the second tower that got hit, but I was told not to worry because he made it out ok. A few days later, he told me about what happened to him. When he told me about it, he made it sound like it was a terrible event, but it was no big deal. Maybe that was so he didn’t scare me. He told me about how he lost a pair of new shoes when the tower went down, how women had to take off their heels so they could escape faster, how a lot of people made it out safely by using the elevator. I thought it was strange that anybody took the elevator when we were told as children to always take the stairs in the event of a fire/emergency because you wouldn’t want to get stuck in an elevator.
I don’t think that I thought much about the event until a few years later. Everyone remembers it now. We talk about it in class and use it as an example of terrorism or a reason to justify the use of torture to find out information that will prevent other events like this from happening, and now we are talking about how it caused root shock for a lot of people. However, I think the details of the event was kept from me for a long enough time that I was able to brace myself until I got them. Because of that, I don’t think it changed my outlook on things. I learned about the event just like how I learned about other historical events. They were terrible, but I also feel removed.