Journal of Student Research 2018

One Month to Grieve- A Study of Menomonie’s Mourning After 9/11 One Month to Grieve- A Study of Menomonie’s Mourning After 9/11

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Margaret Clarke Senior, Game Design and Development - Art

Faculty Advisor: Lopa Basu

Abstract

Most Americans participated in a shared experience of national grieving following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. However, this grieving process was cut abruptly short, and Americans became desensitized to the violent aftermath of 9/11 by being overexposed to repetitive, violent imagery. By analyzing relevant American authors and columns in the University of Wisconsin-Stout student newspaper following the September 11 attacks, one can get a sense of the abrupt shift that occurred in American society shortly after the attacks, from unifying grief to calloused disengagement. The nonstop national media coverage of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers was jarring and overwhelming. Nearly everyone old enough to remember the event has stories of stopped cars and empty stores. The entire day was spent glued to the television watching the towers fall, and people feared that the once-thought-indominable American security was crumbling along with them. Newscasts everywhere, including those seen in the small city of Menomonie, Wisconsin, saturated the network with raw video footage of blood, tears, and chaos. People were horrified. For several days, while violent images continued to be plastered across every front page and television screen, Americans grappled with the trauma of the attack. Daily routines were suspended, public buildings were evacuated, public transportation ground to a halt, and everyday life suddenly seemed uncertain and frightening (Attack). Just nine days after the attacks, American President George W. Bush addressed the reeling nation and a joint session of Congress in a televised speech, where he stated that the events of September 11 had fundamentally altered the United States of America. The Washington Post’s transcript of his speech reads, “All of this was brought upon us [Americans] in a single day, and night fell on a different world” (Text). The President described the new America as a country “awakened to danger,” but also as a country that had