America: Post 9/11 | Americanidiot

AMERICA

"WE ARE THE KIDS OF WAR AND PEACE,

FROM ANAHEIM TO THE MIDDLE EAST. "

THE BASICS: 9/11

The attacks on September 11th, 2001 were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda.
The attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,996 individuals, the injuries of over 6,000 individuals, and caused numerous cancer and respiratory disease based deaths in the following months.
The estimated damages of these attacks were over $10 billion.
The U.S. suspected al-Qaeda’s involvement in these attacks, and in response to the events of 9/11 launched the War on Terror, invading Afghanistan.
The War on Terror is still currently going on, though their most active phase ended with the capture and death of Osama bin Laden.

REACTIONS TO 9/11: PATRIOTISM

After 9/11, there was a newfound sense of unity and patriotism. American flags were present more than ever across the country: flying on front porches, pinned on jackets, and even attached to car antennas. Americans came together to demonstrate their patriotism after the loss of so many individuals - people attended candlelight vigils and participated in moments of silence. “I don’t know why I’ve been coming here, except that I’m confused” one young man in Union Square told a reporter from the New York Times. “Also a sense of unity. We all feel differently about what to do in response, but everybody seems to agree that we’ve got to be together no matter what happens. So you get a little bit of hope in togetherness.”

Rescue efforts were made - big and small. Cities across the United States sent their firefighters and EMTs to Ground Zero (formerly the World Trade Center before the 9/11 attacks) to help wherever they could. Lines to donate blood were extremely long - some lines even took an entire day of waiting before donation. New and established charities alike raised money to send aid; the Red Cross raised $3 million in two days thanks to a one-click donation button through Amazon’s website.

REACTIONS TO 9/11: RESCUE EFFORTS

REACTIONS TO 9/11: ANGER

While many Americans used this time to grieve and mourn, some turned to anger and frustration, needing to find people to blame for the attacks. Reverend Jerry Falwell made the news on his television program by saying, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way–all of them who have tried to secularize America–I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.'”
Others used their anger to attack people of Arab and Muslim descent, with a startling nearly 600 incidents in the first ten days after the attacks. Five hundred people mobbed a Chicago-area mosque and refused to leave until they were forced out by police. A Pakistani grocer was murdered in Texas. A man on an anti-Arab rampage in Arizona fatally shot a gas station owner who was an Indian-born Sikh. Racism against those who appeared Middle-Eastern in descent shot through the ceiling in an attempt to try and release the anger towards the terrorists who made the attacks.

REACTIONS TO 9/11: GOVERNMENT

President George Bush was able to win a broad mandate to act in the nation’s defense. In his September 20th, 2001 speech, he asked citizens to be “calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat,” and promised that the United States would triumph over terrorism. In regards to terrorism, he stated that the U.S. would, “stop it, eliminate it, [and] destroy it where it grows.” After the U.S. began military operations in Afghanistan that October, George Bush’s approval rating soared to 90 percent.
Congressional leaders responded to the attacks as well: they passed a $40 billion disaster relief bill in September, and the following year they passed the USA Patriot Act, which gave investigators a great deal of leeway in domestic surveillance activities and made immigration laws more stringent.

REACTIONS TO 9/11: UNEASINESS

Americans were feeling a great number of different emotions, but uneasiness was undeniably present. According to a study by the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly half of all Americans reported symptoms of stress and depression after the attacks. Thousands of Americans lost loved ones on September 11th, and millions more watched the heart-wrenching news reports, listened to the interviews with firefighters and survivors, and felt the trauma that happened that day was theirs too through others. Memorials, commemorative ceremonies and time have helped many to begin to heal, but for others, the shock and horror of that day in September remains painfully fresh.