By Shana Helps
Americans are not apathetic to Sept. 11; instead they are integrating the events of the day into their lives.
While it was appropriate that Sept. 11 was all anyone could talk or think about immediately afterward, at some point a community must move on, said Matthew Holland, assistant political science professor.
“The daily business of living requires that we not be immobilized or overcome by tragedy,” he said.
“This does not mean we should forget what happened. We should never do that.”
Sept. 11 is more than a phrase or a date, Holland said.
“It is a concept which continues to surface in everyday discourse and will remain visible in American cultural consciousness for a very long time,” he said.
Over time, even big events lose their significance, said Jonathan Mott, adjunct political science professor. If people receive speeding tickets, they are likely to drive slower for a few months, then slip back into old habits of speeding.
“Even though 9-11 was a much more salient event than receiving a traffic ticket, the same phenomenon occurs,” Mott said.
While people do not remember every-day occurrences, such as a specific drive to work, everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the tragedy of Sept. 11, he said.
“For the American people, it is the most salient event that most people were alive to experience,” Mott said.
“The only thing it really compares to in the past century are Pearl Harbor or the Stock Market crash of 1929.”
While Americans have internalized what happened on Sept. 11, it has changed the political landscape, said associate political science professor Kelly Patterson.
“During times of relative peace Americans think a lot about the economy, health care, crime, drugs, those kinds of issues,” Patterson said.
“But foreign policy crowds itself onto the agenda and candidates begin to think about it, talk about it.”
People who live close to the sites of the Sept. 11 attacks have more poignant memories because they were personally affected by them, said Page Johnson, a mother from the Washington D.C. area.
“Right after that it was hard for me not to be afraid when I heard a plane, and not to think a plane was a bad thing,” she said.
The media has not concentrated on Sept. 11 as time has moved further from the events, Patterson said.
“To the extent it recedes from the media”s focus, it will then also recede from the public”s focus,” he said.
Americans have made enduring changes because of Sept. 11, including how they think about security, building design, government organization and service workers, Patterson said.
“The country has shown a remarkable amount of resilience, and done a fairly adequate job of trying to deal with the immense changes brought on by the events of that day,” he said.
Sept. 11 humbled the entire nation, said Ammon Posey, 22, a junior from Sandy, Utah majoring in zoology.
“A little meekness is always good,” he said.
People should remember those that died in the attacks, Posey said. The victims” families would feel the support of the nation if there is a moment of silence.
“It”s a time to remember our freedoms and what our country”s all about,” Posey said.
There will be a resurgence of memories on the anniversary of Sept. 11, Mott said. However, Pearl Harbor day has become more of a historical event rather than holding personal meaning for Americans, and the immediate importance of Sept. 11 in people”s lives will also diminish.
“On 9-12 of last year, people were uneasy and uncertain,” Mott said.
“Today, nearly a year later, they are less so.”
People”s lives have been changed forever, Mott said. They are more wary and watchful, however it has not fundamentally changed the way they live.
“Airplanes fly again, people go to work each day and we are not constantly looking over our shoulders,” Mott said.
“But the world is a different place and we will not forget that it is.”
The commemoration of Sept. 11 is necessary, but it should be handled delicately, said Danny Currit, 22, a sophomore from Sandy, Utah majoring in civil engineering.
Tributes should be kept simple, along the lines of a memorial service or a moment of silence, he said.
“I think what shouldn”t be done is you know those documentaries on it, you know they”re going to have tons of it,” Currit said.
“I think those stir the wrong emotions.”
Watching coverage from one year ago is similar to watching film of a family member being murdered, Currit said.
“The one-year anniversary of their murder you don”t want to watch a videotape of them being stabbed over and over,” he said.
Children will have an especially hard time on Sept. 11, because it will be traumatic for them to watch the footage of the attacks again, and to see people jumping off buildings, Currit said.
“It”s like telling your kids not to play violent video games then sitting down and watching real life violence in detail on TV,” he said.
It was not only Americans who were touched by Sept. 11, Johnson said. She lives in an area with neighbors of many different nationalities, whose children go to school together.
“They go to school all day with kids whose parents on the national level can”t even get along,” Johnson said.
Sept. 11 taught the importance of being prepared for an emergency, she said.
“I wouldn”t be a burden to anyone else,” Johnson said.
“I really want to be self-sufficient and I want each of my children to be self sufficient.”
In an emergency, people go running to the store to buy batteries, milk and bread, Johnson said. She has been in a store where those items are not on the shelves. People should not wait until an emergency to prepare, she said.
“When you need it, there”s such a sense of peace in saying ”I”m okay,”” Johnson said.
“In an emergency, you just have time to react.”
To be prepared, people have to start somewhere and they have to start now, Johnson said. There is not enough time to get prepared at the last minute.
“I don”t want to get to the end of my life and say ”oh my goodness look at all the things I haven”t done,”” Johnson said.
