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On September 11, 2001, a series of terrorist attacks were executed in the United States. Between 8:00 and 9:00 AM, four U.S. commercial airliners began their flights, carrying about 260 passengers. Unbeknownst to the pilots and the passengers, these four planes were part of an attack that would shake the nation and change it forever. The first plane began the attack at 8:46 AM, crashing into the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center. At first, this was presumed to be an accident or a mechanical malfunction. The nation did not realize that it was under attack until 9:03 AM when the second plane hit its mark: the south tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:45 AM, the third plane crashed into the Pentagon and sent the nation into a state of panic. The last plane, most likely destined for the White House, crashed at 10:03 AM. The passengers learned of the attacks and attempted to overthrow the hijackers, but they crashed the plane into a field in Pennsylvania, “approximately 20 minutes flying time from Washington, D.C.”
After the attacks on the World Trade Centers and our nation’s Capital, Guilford college students came together to support each other with the tragic events that had just occurred. All over campus people were huddling in different groups around radios and going to different places to hear people’s speeches on what happened. Many different opinions of students’ accounts on what happened was travelling around the campus. The News and Record newspaper wrote this article to express the intense amount of sorrow felt by college students and their reactions to 9/11. For more information about this article go to the News and Record newspaper.
Similarly, Wilson College understood the impact that 9/11 had just caused. Only a day after the intense tragedy, Wilson cancelled their classes for the day and had a meeting for the entire campus. Later in the evening, the campus’s dining hall was packed with students listening to news coverage of the events. Most of these college students’ reactions were of awe and shock that something like this could happen in our great nation. Students didn’t know how anyone could do something like this and were very overwhelmed by these tragic events. For quotes and more information about this news article go to Public Opinion by Sara Buss.
The attacks of September 11 unfolded in a matter of two hours, but the immediate effects have endured time and have shaped American culture. Following the attacks, Americans became afraid and took drastic measures to reclaim their sense of security. Expectedly, airport security underwent a large transformation in response to these attacks. Airport security is an aspect of American culture that is understood and accepted, but one of the responses to these attacks has caused a fairly large debate among the American people – ethnic profiling. After it was discovered who had orchestrated the terrorist attacks, the nation and those in power, sought out, discriminated against, and in some cases, attacked individuals that they believed were of the same ethnicity. Fear drove individuals to connect ethnicity to the attacks. Still today, remnants of these immediate responses can be observed.
In 2009, the Globe Newspaper Company did an interview with Lorrie Moore about her first novel in over a decade. Moore talks about her book A Gate at the Stairs, the characters who impacted the story, and the setting of the novel. Moore discusses the connections the characters had with each other and Tassie’s relationships with the people close to her. When asked about the place and setting of the book, Moore explains how important the setting is to the focus of her novel. She wanted to pinpoint that people in the Midwest were more diverse than a lot of different places, making it a unique time for them in the post 9/11 era. Moore points out that her intentions with the book weren’t really to point out 9/11, but to give a background to the different wars that came from it. For more information on Moore’s interview go the Globe Newspaper Company.
With the editor of the New York Times book review, Lorrie Moore sits down to discuss her new novel A Gate at the Stairs. Sam Tanenhaus dives into deep questions with Moore and her novel, asking about her intentions with the book and mainly her intentions with incorporating 9/11 into the novel. Moore also delves into the idea of setting her story in the Midwest and the reasons she placed the story where she did. Tanenhaus also asks Moore where she got her ideas for the novel and how she decided to incorporate everything she did into her novel. You can get more information on Moore’s interview from The New York Time book review.