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.

Let us take a break from our busy schedules to take a moment to reflect and discuss the tragic day that changed our beloved New York forever. September 11, 2001. I remember going to school, going about my day as usual. Then I took my bus and walked home. As I entered through the door my mother, brother and grandmother were glued to the television screen. When they told me what happened, I was utterly befuddled. I don’t think I really understood what had happened until I saw the images and eventually went to New York City in person.

It’s quite daunting how one day, in a mere hours, a whole city can be shaken. Since I was so young there isn’t much I can say about how my perceptions of New York changed then. Although, based off the experience Professor Healey told us in class it is evident that people were completely changed by the event. I think for many of us it was a wake up call. The fact is that there are twisted individuals out there who see us as their enemies and will do whatever it takes to hurt us. I think after 9/11 people saw New York as a much more vulnerable and sadly, destructible place. After all compare the last decade to the times before 9/11. The amount of airport, train, subway security that has increased is insane. The motto that can be find all around New York, even on your metro cards, “See something, say something.”

I think the whole country was traumatized up by the event, after all New York City was not the only target. However, it definitely is more meaningful to the people of New York City. It was our city that was attacked, our families that were destroyed. New Yorkers had to stare in disbelief as the towers collapsed to rubble, while the rest of the country saw it in their television screens. Moreover, for non-New Yorkers the Twin Towers were just an iconic image however, for actual New Yorkers they had to go on with their commutes to the city and stare at an empty space where the towers used to stand.

To a certain extent yes. I think through art artists can portray their personal reactions to a traumatic event like 9/11. For instance, when I read Mercy Seat I didn’t have a meaningful connection to 9/11. Instead I was just reading a story, set at the time of 9/11 and experienced the characters reaction/perspective on it. However, I had a much more meaningful connection with Fahrenheit 9/11 but that’s only because of the way Moore portrayed the film. The fact that he used images and movies of the towers falling is what made it meaningful. When I visually saw those scenes it was as if I was there, I felt what the people there felt. I cried and suffered with them.

I remember sitting in a circle cross legged on the blue carpet of Ms. Marsh’s third grade classroom. I remember being so confused, kids were going home one after another, the number of children remaining was dwindling to a mere ten or twelve. All I could think was, Is this some kind of holiday? Where’s my mom? No one could tell us what was going on, they simply said that some parents wanted to be with their kids that day. Again, all I could think was, I want to be with my mom every day. When I got home from school that day, I remember my father was watching the news in the den. This struck me as really odd for him to be watching tv in the den during the middle of the day for he typically only chose to watch tv out there when he was watching a tv show we weren’t allowed to, like Sex in the City. I remember my mom sitting at the dining room table, tears were falling silently down her face. When I entered the room, she grabbed me, and she held me very close.

That day was one of confusion and disorientation; it was only in the days after that that I realized what was actually going on. It was everywhere, all over the radio, the tv, the news. My dad was watching the coverage twenty four seven, he couldn’t stop. I began to think that the coverage would never stop, and that people would never go back to being happy again. That the death toll would keep climbing and the tears would keep falling.. The entire country was in a perpetual state of mourning; a state of mourning that seemed eternal.

You would think that after such an event that people would flock towards the suburbs and New York City would experience a major shift in population, its massive eight million people fighting to get out. But that didn’t happen. People stayed, despite the fear, despite the terrible loss it suffered, people stayed in New York City. I guess that makes a statement about New Yorkers. While 9/11, I believe, impacted New Yorkers more strongly than any other people in the country, they still stuck around. People around the country heard about it, but New Yorkers lived…no…survived 9/11. The loss, the suffering, the violence. But still, They didn’t care that they were living in the core of what had happened, they weren’t going to move. Typical stubborn New Yorkers, eh?

Today, New York City is still as much of a tourist hub as ever, so one could argue that 9/11 didn’t change how people viewed it much, except that NYC will always and eternally be associated with 9/11. But 9/11 doesn’t stop people from looking at NYC as some kind of fantasy. It’s just what naturally happens in time I guess. When someone mentions Hawaii, the first thing someone thinks of is sandy beaches, mojitos, and sexy cabana boys. Not an attack on American soil that launched us into the second World War. Maybe in time, New York will  be able to dissociate with this tragedy, but maybe that in and of itself is a tragedy.

You can’t have something like this happen and forget about it. We need it as a reminder to ourselves that we as a country can survive anything, that we as people can survive anything, and that we as New Yorkers can survive anything. That is why I think that every piece if art centered around 9/11 is a good thing, whether it be movies, plays, books, sculptures, paintings, whatever. Each one is decidedly different in portraying the event, and that is what we need because everyone had an extremely different experience on that day. We need these artworks so that 9/11 doesn’t just become another chapter in the history books, so that it continues to be a living breathing thing, so that it remains an everlasting reminder of a day when we finally forgot our differences and united as one.

9/11. Just saying it gives me chills. This date, known all over the world to everyone, means so many things to people both New Yorkers and on the broader spectrum, to Americans.  To New Yorkers, especially to those directly affected by the tragedy, this date is forever imbedded in their memories.  It is a day of lost lives, lost chances, lost hopes, and lost peace.

My main recollection from this day is just confusion.  I didn’t understand what was going on and my parents wouldn’t explain anything.  All I knew was that I was excited to be able to be picked up early from school, but disappointed to see that I couldn’t watch my favorite cartoons.  My dad turned on the Egyptian channels and all I could see was burning buildings. Just burning buildings and fire.  At that I age, I knew what death was, and I could certainly count to 3,000. I had realized that this was a big deal but I couldn’t fathom it. Terrorists flew planes into buildings. That’s silly, planes fly in the sky, not in buildings. What’s a terrorist? People hurt others for no reason? But that’s so mean.  I could fairly say that my innocence and naiveté took a huge hit when I begun to understand the reality and impact of this occurrence.

But by the next week or so, while NYC, the city that never stopped even for a second, was at a standstill, I was moving on.  I was only a child; my preoccupations were on a very small scale.  I definitely overheard conversations about the mysterious World Trade Center (which I had not yet connected that it was the twin towers) and about this loss.  But I did not hear the endless stories about missing people, about mourning families, about foolish governmental acts, or even about the other planes attacks involved until quite a while later. Though I was alive during the time, I wasn’t involved. I didn’t have a stake in what happened, it seemed to only inconvenience my seven-year-old self for a day.  I could tell that this was going to be a part of history that the future generations would learn about. But it was only until years later, when I looked into the matter and really thought about it, did I form an opinion and somewhat of a reaction.

Though little me did not give much thought to it, other people certainly were.  I read a makeshift transcript of a memoir written by an older friend who was headed to work in the towers before the second plane hit. This text is a compilation of her journal entries that she wrote in a daze over the course of the year that followed. Through her I lived the up close agony and confusion of the attack and the utter loss and emptiness that followed.  She lost all that one could ever possibly lose: her soon to be spouse, her entire career, her best friends, her peace.  Her accounts still bring me to tears.  The date 9/11, to her, holds a completely different weight than to me, or a Minnesotan sitting on his couch watching these events unfold. To her, this ‘event’ changed the entire direction of her life.  It kept her on edge for months to follow and caused her serious health problems. To New Yorkers living in New York at the time, this event holds painful memories and terrible images, but to younger people now, it means next to nothing.  Do we feel the same way about the Civil War as say, a Civil War soldier or a resident of Gettysburg? No.  And it sad to think about, but that is what will happen in less than fifty years.

To those from other countries, 9/11 is a huge shake to America’s status.  A handful of people managed to completely confuse the country and kill thousands in one foul swoop.  They stopped people, literally, in their tracks and watched America hold its breath as the towers came down.  For months later searching and slowly cleaning up was all people could do. But it put the almighty United States in a daze.  These buildings, Pentagon included, held world affairs; they were centers of communication and business. And in an instant, they were replaced by a huge, gapping hole and hundreds of splintered connections.

In my opinion, no one can really portray these events in an accurate way.  Maybe a way that is pretty or thoughtful. But one that is truthful and alluring? I don’t think so. Nothing could say more than the video and images of the crash and the bewildered expressions of people standing in the middle of the streets trying to believe what they are seeing.  Just raw footage of people running, racing the dust cloud. No voice-overs, no explanations, no opinions; none of that will be necessary for the viewer to understand the impact. Each artwork that attempts to portray a certain aspect of the event could never do it justice.  Too much happened on that day to so many different people, we cannot even begin to tell the story.  The artist will only be able to see through his/her lens and some aspect of what they saw and felt may and will be lost as they try to translate that into a physical work.  That is not to say they shouldn’t try, but I cannot look at it and see 9/11 the way I look at a video and cry for all of humanity.

Maybe it’s because I was so young back then.  So naive, so unaware.  But learning this semester about 9/11, reading and viewing the artistic pieces on it–they made me actually think and consider the events of that fateful day.  I didn’t think that this unit would be so valuable to me when I first read about it in the syllabus because it was a topic I knew enough about–heck, I lived it.  But I realized that there was a lot I didn’t know, and what I did already know, got reinforced in me.  The emotions and feelings of that day are now stronger, the historical facts have been made clearer, and the contrast between the New York of then and now has been made sharper.  We are living in a whole different NYC.

We are living in a whole different NYC, and we are living with whole different mindsets about the city.  Before that day, did anyone consider September 11th a special date? It was as mundane as September 10th, as September 12th.  But once an event occurs on a certain day, everything about that day becomes associated with that event.  And so too, September 11th (“nine-eleven”) has become a cultural phenomena, if you will, one that has spread throughout the world.

In that, I would definitely say that the event has changed people’s perceptions of New York.  Again, it has to do with associations people make. The date of 9/11 has become associated with violence and terror, and New York has become associated with 9/11.  New York has that extra “baggage” of 9/11 attached to it, and people can not forget that.  “Always remember 9/11. We will never forget.”  It’s changed our perceptions of safety in the city, and the concept of terror has hit home, quite unfortunately.  We travel around with a heightened level of caution, look out for suspicious activity, and are instructed to report it if we see anything of the sort.  When traveling, we are extremely restricted in what we can carry, mainly because of this fear of terrorism.   I would argue that many of us do not feel as safe as we once felt because a terrorist attack happened here, in our backyard.  While Michael Moore described how Bush’s administration instilled fear in its citizens when there was no danger present, the fear was still there–people’s perceptions were changed.

And are those perceptions of the city more profound for those living in it?  I would say a definite yes.  That famous statement of “don’t judge others until you’re in their shoes” rings in my head. How can anyone understand the feeling of horror New York City’s residents felt watching its two towers fall, killing fellow residents, many of which were family members, friends, and co-workers.  When an event so horrific happens in your backyard, you feel connected to it, often in ways you wish you were not.  How often have you read a tragic story that happened “somewhere,” felt sad for a minute or two, and then got over it and moved on with your life?  Can you say that you “got over” 9/11 two minutes later?  How about ten years later?  If you asked someone living halfway across the world, would that person say that 9/11 is still meaningful to him?  He isn’t the one staring at the city skyline, thinking of the two towers that are now missing in the picture.  He is not constantly reminded of them when he gets on the E train and hears “this is a World Trade Center bound train.”  So no, I can’t really say that to a foreigner September 11th is as meaningful as to a New York City resident.

I think that for artists to portray the traumatizing events in a meaningful way is a difficult task, one that requires extreme sensitivity, but one that is not impossible.  Emotion is perhaps the greatest method and tool in doing so, because it is something that any person can be influenced by–everyone has emotion.  Some pieces are meaningful to certain people more than others, and that is because of our unique characters.  But the issue has been approached in many various ways, and a person is bound to be touched by at least one.  In watching Moore’s documentary, my sympathy was aroused when I saw wounded Iraqi victims’ bodies; contrastingly, a whole different kind of sympathy arose in me when reading The Mercy Seat.  I felt like I was there, in 2001, in the apartment, thinking of my dead co-workers. Because the artists were able to cause me to think and feel something inside, I would say that it’s possible for them to portray the events of that day meaningfully.  When you cause your viewers and readers to “feel something,” that often inexplicable feeling, then I think you’ve done a pretty good job.  Then you’ve really brought meaning to people’s lives.

I think I’ve made a case for myself this semester that I like meaningfulness.  I’ll leave it at that.

I suppose 9/11 must’ve began like any other day. I must’ve woken up, and one of my parents must’ve driven my sister and me to school, because that’s where we ended up.

I was sitting in Mrs. Gilvary’s third grade class when one of the teacher’s assistants walked in. “One of the towers of the World Trade Center just fell,” she must’ve said, or something like that. And whatever routine we were following must’ve stopped, because more important things were going on in the world.

“Who has a family member who works in the World Trade Center?” I remember Mrs. Gilvary asking. I jealously watched as a couple of kids raised their hands. Show offs, I thought.

A little later I while I was using the restroom on the upper floor of the school building I found a few girls huddled around the small window along the wall of the last stall. I joined them as watched as a large cloud of black smoke drifted from the two burning buildings just over thirty miles away from my small school located in Hollis, NY. At that time the news from earlier became a little more real. But I wasn’t upset or scared. This is actually a bit uncomfortable for me to admit, but at that time I felt important and excited. Something interesting was happening just a few miles away and now I could report this smoke back to my classmates.

As an eight-year-old child, 9/11 was not as traumatic an event for me as it must’ve been for the adults of the time. I didn’t understand the magnitude of the situation, I didn’t understand that thousands of people had either died jumping out of windows, died with the collapse towers, or were dying under the pounds of rubble. I didn’t understand that the country was under attack. All I knew was that something different and important was going on. And when I came home and saw that the coverage of the towers took over channels five, eleven, and thirteen, I thought: but Sailor Moon was supposed to be on Kids WB today.

After 9/11, my parents’ perception of New York changed a little. They came here for opportunity, for a new start. Not for terrorists attacks. My father actually works in Manhattan; thankfully he wasn’t too near the towers the day of but after the events of 9/11 my mother wanted him to stop working there. For the people who lived in New York, 9/11 could not be any more real. And after that day, for a short time, New York wasn’t as glamorous, not as amazing. Instead it was a place with a red dot on its head. ‘Of course they’d bomb New York, we’re the center of everything.’ ‘We had it coming to us, didn’t we?’ ‘No! Why? I don’t understand why they did this!’

Flipping through the channels for the next few days I saw multiple pictures and videos of the same footage of the towers. And then the more creative ones: pictures of missing people, crying people, phone calls between those on the plane and their families. When the events of what was happening became too real, I’d turn off the television, because I had that option, because even though I lived in New York, since I was young and not directly affected by the events, it was that easy for me to forget. I just had to hit the power button. That’s how I imagine it must have been for the rest of America.

OK that was a large generalization. But I honestly feel that those who lived in Nowheresville, Idaho and Invisibletown, Wisconsin did not feel the same terror as those in New York. I’m not saying they were not affected but, I’m saying that if they didn’t have family members or friends who worked in the World Trade Center their worries did not run as far as the ones of the victims’ families. Perhaps their fears were as easily extinguished as mine: with a click of a button.

There were those who used the fear and pain they experienced to create works of art like pictures and plays. Creating art is never easy. But from experience, the easiest way to create a “good” piece of art is to utilize the emotion from a painful experience. But are all artworks that portray painful/horrific experiences good? No.

And I have to honestly say that I was apathetic to the 9/11 Peace Quilt. As I said creating art is not easy, and while it is easier to turn a painful experience into art, a work of art that portrays an event experienced by thousands of people will have different responses to it, as each of those individuals experienced the event a different way. An on duty fireman who worked in the area will always see the event differently than the six-year-old boy who lost his mother in the south tower. But I have negative feelings toward the Peace Quilt for a different reason.

This is going to sound a bit harsh but the Peace Quilt was put together by a bunch of children who were handed crayons and markers and told to draw their feelings of 9/11. Looking at the messages and drawings, I could see what they were trying to do, as the message was cut out and pasted in plain sight, but the whole thing did not seem genuine. How much were these children really directly affected? From what I read and saw, the pictures and messages were nothing short of what I experienced, which was honestly not much.

9/11 will always mean different things to different individuals. As I child, I was not directly affected, but there were those (adults and children) who lost friends and family that day. While there have been artistic portrayals of the event, not all have been successful, because not all are genuine, not all reach out emotionally to their audiences.

Hello there, everyone! Today, I want to discuss a serious issue, which is the tragic 9/11 event, with all of you. I remember my 9/11 experience vividly, even though this traumatic event occurred over a decade ago. I recall being in front of my large “60 inch” television screen, watching the footage of the first plane, and eventually the second plane, crashing into the two monumental buildings. At that moment, I was with my brother and mom, getting ready for school. Due to my naivete at that young age, I could not comprehend what had just occurred. The only thought that occurred to me was “Is Daddy, okay?” because I knew he worked in the city. I also remember my mom’s worried expression, rapidly dialing the numbers on the home telephone with her nimble fingers. Fortunately, my dad was safe from harm and far from the disastrous event at that time. Next, I could see the billowing dark clouds of smoke engulfing the very atmosphere of the earth in front of the television screen. At that time, I was just hoping everyone would be all right.

Now that many years have passed and I am more knowledgeable about the 9/11 tragedy, I want to use this opportunity to reflect upon this unfortunate incident. That day over 3000 thousand innocent lives were lost, including our tenant’s son. I was heartbroken when I found out that our friendly tenant had lost his one and only son amidst this distressing event. Even though this event did not impact me as severely as other individuals, I can imagine vicariously their pain and deep grief over the loss of a loved one. Who knew such an unexpected occurrence would transpire? I’m just glad everyone in my family was fine, but I greatly feel sorry for those who actually lost someone dear to them. It truly causes me much agony to see the unrelenting tears and the extreme destruction that was caused that day. The Twin Towers, one of the powerful financial symbols of this nation, completely obliterated… While viewing Fahrenheit 9/11 and my own research, I grasped a clearer understanding of why 9/11 took place. Yes, the lives of over 3000 civilians had perished in the deadly attack, but we were at fault, too. My feelings towards this event are ambivalent. I definitely sympathize with the families that had to witness their loved ones pass away in front of them and understood the immoral deeds done upon this nation. Nevertheless, why does a country as powerful as the United States have to interfere in the status quo of other foreign nations? Maybe if we were not so nosy, a tragedy such as this could have been precluded.

I am in accordance with the fact that Michael Moore may have criticized George W. Bush severely, but I think that President Bush should have been more decisive about his actions. In my opinion, I just feel that President Bush worsened the situation. For instance, he foolishly and incorrectly came to the conclusion that Iraq was in possession of nuclear weapons, and decided to drop bombs on the country. Little did he know that Saudi Arabia was the main cause of this event, not Iraq. Thus, even more innocent people died and many families suffered. I mean for goodness sake, the man (President Bush) can barely pronounce the word “nuclear.” I do not mean to be so harsh, but President Bush should have at least thought twice before coming to a final decision.

After 9/11, I think most people’s perceptions of New York changed. For example, many people thought security measures should be more strictly enforced (as seen from the Patriot Act) and that the people of New York felt more united than once before (more supportive of a war on terrorism). 9/11 made New Yorkers realize that the unexpected can happen at any given moment and racial stereotypes were wrongly made about all Muslims being terrorists. Essentially, this event caused the people of New York to fear traveling by plane due to risk of another terrorist attack. I believe that while 9/11 may have had more of a direct impact on the people of New York, it also affected the people who do not live there. Individuals outside of New York may have had family members in New York that suffered from the event and they also understood the loss of a “big symbol” of this country. Just because we are far apart from the event doesn’t mean we can’t feel the pain of others.

Moreover, I agree with Rui Yan’s comment about 9/11 being a part of history and that it should not be portrayed as art. I feel that the works of an artist can definitely arouse memories of the event and enable us to ponder the severity of it. However, I believe that artists cannot depict the actual traumatic experience that the people have viewed with their own eyes. When someone actually witnesses such a tragic event occur in front of them, an indelible mark is left upon them. Viewing the 9/11 event via art will cause emotions to rise within us, but the sentiments we experience on the day of the event are different because the images are so lucid in our memory. Overall, I just feel that the work of these artists gives us the chance to remember that such an event had occurred. Just like any other major historical event, 9/11 will continue to be passed on for the generations to come as a depressing and shocking day for many.

Life can be very volatile at times and who knows what may happen the next minute or even second. It’s important to be prepared for what lies ahead in the future and I just hope that a horrible event, such as 9/11, never happens again. When I watch the videos of people mourning over the loss of those they lost that day, a sudden pain strikes my heart. Like everyone else, I wished this event had not taken place. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Now that we are a more modernized country, I hope that whatever decisions that are made in the future are the right ones, for even the smallest of decisions can have drastic consequences.

September 11, 2001, an important date to be remembered in history. Just like the other experience of New York City, if people are not in it, they cannot understand it. I was not in New York City during this painful event, so I do not know how New Yorkers’ feeling has change since this event. My memory of September 11 was vague. News was inserted in the middle of every television programs. I watched the reports of the planes crashing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. People in the Twin-Towers were waving white towels, and many of them jumped off the window soon after. People on the streets were covered with dust and blood. The Twin-Towers fell, creating huge cloud of dust. My mother was busy calling her sister in New York to see whether she was safe. That was all I could remember. After all, I was only a second-grader living on the other side of the Earth. I didn’t think much about it because it was not important to me, at least at that time. As I grow up, September 11 became a political term to me rather than a tragic event. I have always heard on the news about how the event has affected the international economy, how the position of the United States has changed since that day, etc. September 11 is a turning point that the politicians and economists always refer to. It is also an event that is so deviated from me that I almost doubt about its existence. Of course, September 11 has impacted New Yorkers more than anyone else. You simply cannot expect a Chinese farmer to know what happened in New York City on September 11, 2001.

While New Yorkers’ perception on New York City has changed a lot after September 11, the international position of New York City didn’t change. The city is still the most important international financial center. People from different countries still look upon it as one of the most modern and significant cities in the world. Although September 11 has added a sense of sadness and horror to New Yorkers and placed the city in a more sensitive political position than before, what New York City represents doesn’t change. It is still a very symbolic place.

The arts of September 11 are as symbolic to New Yorkers as New York City is to people around the world. In my opinion, September 11 is a part of history, and arts cannot and should not portray history. Arts serve as remedies in such tragic event. The “9/11 Peace Story Quilts” are the most palpable examples. They remind people not to forget this tragedy while encouraging them to live peacefully and harmonically with each other. People who saw these quilts can easily connect the tragic event with the messages of the quilts. New Yorkers who has experienced it directly can seek comfort from them; people who didn’t experience it would have a deeper memory of this tragedy. No matter who they are, they will all understand the importance of peace, tolerance and acceptance. The quilts convey messages that can help people greatly in their healing and learning processes.  “The Mercy Seat” is a less meaningful piece of arts to me in regard of September 11. This play is considered a masterpiece because it zooms into people’s real reactions of the event instead of telling a trite heroic story. Yet, I don’t see anything that is worth mentioning in this play. Although the heroic stories are cliché, they will be passed on for years. The reality is, when facing a national tragedy, every citizen became so tiny that individualism is simply meaningless. It is true that there were people who act like Ben and Abby, but artists shouldn’t create works base on these inhumane stories. Artists should encourage people to continue on with their lives, or to remind them about the morals related to the events. What I read in “The Mercy Seat” are two “traitors of society.” While people are overcoming every obstacle in this tragedy, there are some people in some corners of the city are trying to escape all of their responsibilities. Even if these stories are true, is it proper to present them as arts of September 11?

Arts do not and cannot portray the facts in history. Yet, artists can often change people’s views through their works. In a tragic event like September 11, arts should cure people’s wounds. It should also encourage people to continue with their lives, and be aware of the issues exist in the world. September 11 is certainly an important event, but what people learn from it is equally important.