On the day of 9/11, my family and I were coming back from Canada. We started our trip at 8 in the morning, hoping to avoid traffic. While sitting in the passenger seat with my dad driving, I heard the tragic news of the twin towers collapsing. At that moment, I did not understand why it was such a big deal. My dad was shocked and turned up the volume. I didn’t understand what was going on really so I took a nap. When I woke up from my nap, I saw we were stuck between cars and couldn’t go anywhere. There were cops everywhere, not allowing anybody to pass through. We had to drive around for five hours, just so we could get home. When we finally got home at 9, my dad turned on the television and we all saw the repeating footage of the planes attacking the towers and collapsing. Even though I saw what happened on television, it never impacted me a lot. I feel for the victims and their families but I’ve been able to move on. I wasn’t in the city on the disastrous day to experience the chaos and commotion and that’s probably why I feel differently.
I don’t think people’s perceptions of New York have changed drastically. New York is still a thriving city and the center of almost everything. With the collapse of the twin towers and a big hole in the ground, the site has become a tourist attraction. 9/11 has demonstrated that New York City is an important city, thus the reason it was attacked. People have glorified New York and that’s why the city was attacked- because it’s so important to so many people. One of the things that has changed about New York is that even though it’s a large city, it’s still a city that can be attacked. September 11 is a day that is definitely more important to the people of New York City because they experienced the attack and the chaos and the confusion. It’s a day that has been etched into people’s memories and will never be forgotten. It still matters to others who don’t live in this city; newspapers from different cities were published on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 commemorating its anniversary. It may not be as important to those not living here, but it still matters because it affected the whole country and even other countries in one way or another.
No matter how the traumatic events of that day are portrayed, they are going to evoke different kinds of emotions in different people. Some people may begin to cry when presented with certain artwork while others may feel proud. I agree with Rui Yan when she says that it won’t heal people’s wounds because it will refresh their memories and force them to remember what happened that day, their loss and suffering. It may be any form of art but it will trigger some sort of memory or emotion and will leave people with no choice but to remember. I don’t think artists can portray the events in a meaningful way.
