This week’s lab to the “newseum” was very emotionally powerful to me because of the 9/11 exhibit. That exhibit made me realize how much the media can influence American politics indirectly by influencing the American people. The news still does have this effect on us and always will.
When 9/11 happened I was only nine, but when I look back it seems like that the media riled up the American people by showing the planes crashing in to the buildings for weeks straight. When the American people had a sudden surge of patriotism after 9/11, the surge seemed to be fueled by the media with the constant showing of the planes crashing. September 11th is arguably the day the world changed forever and you could see this in the headlines of newspapers from places like Argentina, Russia, Israel and Korea, all the headlines that I read said “Americas new war” and “TERROR”.
9/11 put us into a war, a war on terror. On September 11th I was watching the news and there were people debating whether the media should still air the planes crashing. I think we should be because it brings emotions back to people. It reminds them of what happening and seeing that we as a country have A.D.D we need reminding. If we leave Afghanistan now we will let Al-Qaeda build back up and we may have another 9/11 on our hands, we need to keep Al-Qaeda on their heels and to do that we need to keep on the offensive.
I don't disagree that 9/11 should be kept fresh on America's mind, but I can't agree with you when you say that video footage of the planes crashing should be broadcasted again. Yes, it would bring back emotions; namely patriotism and reverence. However, some (more ignorant) people take the patriotism to a higher level and say/do some things to American Muslims that are not warranted. For instance, consider the mosque drama in New York City. There is no valid reason that peaceful Muslims should be denied the right to build a religious structure in the United States, but still people are taking out their frustration from 9/11 on people who weren't related to the event. There is no need to bring up the raw feelings from 9/11 again with such strong footage.
ReplyDeleteIf they show it, it would only be on 9/11. The issue of the Islam center came up during the summer before the anniversary so people weren't seeing the images replayed, it opened wounds of people who went through it in the area. I agree with you and think they can build it there because that's religious freedom which is one of our foundations of as a country.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't agree with is the person in charge of building the center wouldn't listen to government officials who were going to offer him free land to build it on but he never found out because he refused to hear them out.