Talk of the Town

I remember that day very well. I didn't know of the impact then, but the fear and total surprise of my parents must have been strong enough to imprint the memory of 9/11 into my head. I was home schooled then, and eating my Cinnamon Toast Crunch while wrapped up in my pocahontas sleeping bag as my mother quick rushed to change the channel. What I feared at the time was the tremendous amount of smoke; I thought it enough to suffocate us all.

Even as a child afraid of suffocation, I think it was good to be reassured that the country was okay. I believe that the government treated the public as a child at that point. The country may not have been in a good place, but in order to reduce fear and ensure the everyday life of the public, the government candy coded, per say, the truth. Like you do to a child, so they are not afraid or extremely shaken up by something. The public may not have had to bear any huge "burden of reality", but is that a bad thing? What good could the public do with the complete truth but be fearful of living, flying, and whatever else? I don't think that the public needed to know everything about the war, and the government, for the most part, had good intentions to protect us from the harsh truth. The terrorist attack was a horrific event that no one could handle in its fullness, so why not spare some of the details?