September 11, 2001 was a tragic day for the entire nation. We all grieved in different ways; whether it was addressed on nation television, spoken through music, or written about for others to read. We were all intrigued to hear what other people had to say about what happened and their point of view. Nothing could make it better except talking about it which was reflected in “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” by Toby Keith, “My City Ruins” by Bruce Springsteen, American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie by The Onion, and Jon Stewart’s monologue on The Daily Show. Each of these reflected on what happened on 9/11 in different ways.
I think the least effective sources were the two songs by Toby Keith and Bruce Springsteen. They did explain how terrible the scene of the explosion was and the patriotism that America now needs to have. The reason I didn’t like these was because many songs are not written by the artist themselves. They could have had a part in writing it, but it was not solely them. Also, the Bruce Springsteen song was not originally written for the terrorist attack. It was written for his hometown, but before they released it the attacks happened, so they modified it to relate to the Twin Towers. I didn’t think that was genuine so that’s the reason why I didn’t like it.
My reasoning for not thinking the Toby Keith song was effective is because it wasn’t only about 9/11; it was particially about his father. I thought maybe there should be a solely about his father then another one just for September 11. This is because he made this song to perform for the Marines I thought that the focus should be on them for this song. My personal opinion is that he should have made two separate songs for these two incidents because they are of equal importance.
The Onions article had a satire to talking about such a serious issue. I know that it is a sarcastic website, but there needs to be a level of respect. It compared every part of the attack to a movie, which I think where the weakness was. It did have serious parts that were explain through speaking about movies, but I didn’t think it was necessary. It didn’t need to compare the presidents to actors. For me the effective part was when it was talking about these are events that happened in movies, but it is not for entertainment now in fact is not funny at all. This compared what happened to what happens in movies, but still had a serious tone to it.
The most effective source that reacted to 9/11 was the Jon Stewart monologue. This is because he is an anchor on The Daily Show on Comedy Central. This network is all about making people laughed. He cracked one or two jokes, but other than those few second he was serious for the whole nine minutes. This shows how tragic this situation was that a comedian was crying due to grieving the Twin Tower attacks. He said “the reason I don’t despair is because this attack happened it isn’t a dream, but the after math, the recovering is a dream realized.” What happened was real and Jon Stewart made it aware that there is a time to be funny and a time to be serious, which is why I thought this was the most effective piece.
The terrorist attacks in New York City were devastating to the whole nation. Emotions were let out in many ways, but I think being sarcastic about an event like this is not the route to go. I also think the focus should just be on what happened and nothing else because of the millions of people’s lives that were affected. They could easily be offended if someone says the wrong thing or has the wrong intentions, but appreciates the people that are grieving with them.
