9/11 Changes Everything

One Day Changes Everything
9/11/01 has shaped America into what it is today. The terrible tragedy that has made Americans realize how wonderful of a country that we are living into day. Some may disagree and say that the government is going down hill, and that the people in office are going to ruin this country, but they have nothing to complain about because the are allowed to speak their mind in the US, unlike in many other countries. America is blessed to have so many freedoms to be able to be yourself, and not have to live in fear. After interviewing two people from our community, Craig Johnson and Janine Knutson, it is easy to see that 9/11 has impacted their lives in an immense way. Both of them had same idea that they didn’t realize how vulnerable that they had been left to be. I had talked to both of them separately, and they had different reaction when about what happened, but came to the same
conclusion that they hadn’t noticed until that point that something as terrible and tragic could happen to the US. Interviewing somebody that has experienced the really shock and horror of what happened on 9/11 is very intriguing. You can read about words on the page of a boring history textbook, and never be able to fully understand the depth of what happened on September 11, 2001, you would never be able to see the sadness or anger in a person’s eyes, or hear their voice shake when they are explaining their day on September 11, 2001. All of these were things that I could see and hear when talking to Janine Knutson, my mother. When talking to her you could really tell that 9/11 really changed her life as a new mother, a wife, and as an American citizen. She explains in her interview that she was filled with many different emotions on of which was confusion. She was unsure how an event this tragic would be able to happen in our country that was filled with so much happiness. Janine let’s us inside her head for a moment as she explains that she was watching me wobble around as a little child in front of her, something that was so innocent and happy, and yet she was watching a horrible terrorist attack that was happening on our home land in the US. She was filled with confusion on how something this terrible had happened to us. As a daughter and a sister, caring as much for her family as she did, she was concerned about her husband, Rick, right away. She was not worried about her mother and father because they were with her at the time that she had found out, but her husband was still working. Once she knew he was safe and health she then was concerned about the people that were actually got hit by the attack of 9/11. She calls herself selfish for reacting that way, but I would say it is human nature and wonder who didn’t react that way. Janine explains to us that she think that the government had become to relaxed which is what lead to the attack of 9/11, but she doesn’t blame the government for what happened. She believes that they should have been more aware of what was happening, but she also should have been more aware. She says that 9/11 affected her in a way that she became more involved in voting and helping her country after the attack. She tells me that that attack made her realize how she hadn’t cared or payed attention to any of the political news, but afterwards she didn’t because she didn’t want anything to happen like this again. Another big point that Janine has is it made her realize that she was not going to raise her new child to be ignorante. She wanted to make sure that I was aware of what is going on around me in hopes that I would never have to go through anything like 9/11 or worse. It only took one day, 9/11, to change Janine’s world completely. Craig Johnson, my highschool teacher, had many different view on the attack than Janine did, and yet many of the same big picture ideas. Craig had a very similar reaction with Janine in the fact that they were both very calm reacting to a terrorist attack. Mr. Johnson simply walked over the the history teacher’s room, and watched what was happening on the news. I think that they were both so calm about what was happening at first was because they didn’t really understand what was going on, and the attack was happening aways away from them so they weren’t directly feeling the the pain and tragedy that was happening. Mr. Johnson also tells me that it made him get more defensive than sad, which was a different view than Janine had. I think this has to do with the male mentality. He explained to me that he thought this is war now, and a war that we are going to win. Mr. Johnson also explain how he wanted the second plane crash into the twin towers. I found this to be fascinating and hard to wrap my head around. He had no idea what was really happening, and thought that their might be a chance that this was just an accident of some kind, but he said confidently that he knew when the second plane crashed that this was a terrorist attack. I can not image what it was like to watch our own country being attacked and living in those moments anticipating that they might be coming for my town not, or what other surprise attacks that they had planned that we didn’t know about. Both Mr. Johnson and Janine didn’t fear that they were no longer protected in the US though, which I found to be very interesting. Johnson was not worried about his safety because he lived in a tiny little town, and he didn’t think that it would have any chance of being targeted. Johnson also had a different out look than Janine did on why the attack even happened. Johnson expressed that he didn’t think it was anybody's fault for what happened, and he simply thought that is was because of the change in leadership and the transition was simply a weak spot of ours. Janine thought that is wasn’t necessarily one person's fault, but she did believe that it was the government's fault for expecting everything to be protected because we had become such a strong government from the past. Craig Johnson was a changed man after 9/11. Craig Johnson and Janine Knutson were not the only two people that changed after the attack on the twin towers, the whole country made adjustments because of the terrorist attacks. The government had to change the rules and regulations on airplanes because they needed to ensure that nothing like this could or would happen again. They changed the lawes of being able to ride on an airplane so they would be able to check you, and your items you brought with to ensure the safety of the people and of the plane. The government passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. This act made the security more harsh in the the airports. It gave the government much more power than they had before 9/11. Before 9/11 each individual airport had their own specific rules. They had certain rules and regulations that they had to follow, but it didn’t clarify how strict they had to be with enforcing the rules. Once they passed the Aviation and Transportation Security they were allowed to check people’s bags and them themselves in order to prevent something like this to happen again. Rules on the airplane themselves had changed too. The made it legal so you the pilot would allow them to become a federal flight deck officer, which allows them to carry a loaded gun on the plane. They would be able to use this as protection if an attack would happen again. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act was not the only change that was made by the government. It was important to the government that they wouldn’t let anything like this happen again to the US. In order to prevent something like this to happen again the government needed to make sure they know who was coming in and out of the country and at what times. They passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform. This new law would make sure that the government would be able to look at who was coming into the country and had who had their visa. This made the Immigration and the State share the information that they had on visas, and the people that were coming in and out of the US. This was so that they all had the same knowledge about immigration. Being on the same page with each other would allow both parties to be able to work together to prevent another attack like 9/11 from happening. The government took many good strides to make sure we were not left vulnerable as a country again.
There also was a lot of hate crimes that were against the Islamic country. The people were in fear that there were more of the Islamic people were here to terrorize the US. It was still very important for the US to let the Islamic people still have their freedoms though. The law enforcements had some issues with how to ensure the people that they were still safe in our country, and make sure that all races had equal rights. They manage the issue very well for at the time. Everything can change in an instant. The attack on 9/11 changed the lives of everybody in the US and in other countries. People have changed the way that they live their day to day lives, and the US has taken strides to make sure an event like this would never happen again. Having such a tragic attack happen on US soil has made people realize that as a country we are not invincible, and that we should not take what we have for granted. 9/11 has changed America into what we know it as
today.