NYTimes Sunday Review 9/11 Remberance Editorial

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/opinion/sunday/loss-and-hope.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The article that I chose is from week's New York Times Sunday Review. One of the main reasons I chose this article, was because of how much it stood out to me as soon as I saw it. The title of the article is Loss and Hope, and right underneath, the article wrote, "As a nation, we can work to retrieve the compassion that surged after 9/11." This immediately piqued my interest, and is a demonstration of how the author of the article managed to effectively capture the interest of any reader by grabbing their attention right off the bat.

The author of this editorial paints a picture of the horror, giving the reader the image of "Lower Manhattan gasping in a cloud of what looked like Pompein ash," before prompting the reader to think back to Septermber 11, 2001, asking them, "do you remember?" It is interesting to see how the author does this. He (I'm assuming it's a he, but the author's name isn't given) clearly is assuming that the audience is an American who remembers the devastation of 9/11, which can be seen the way he asks them to remember. In addition, the author places himself with the readers, always speaking say "we" instead of "I," "you," "Americans," or anything else. This is an interesting thing that not many authors do, and it made me better able to empathize, and more compelled to listen, showing how it is a strong persuasive tool that this author used well.

This article talked about how, in the days following 9/11, midst the grief, shock, and fear, America came together to help, to hope, and to support all those affected by the tragedy. In the last 10 years, though, this camaraderie has all but vanished. America, the author writes, has given in to a weakening of the civil liberties that form the foundation of our society, and allowed our lives to be tainted by a rise in xenophobia. This really struck me, making me realize that, while it isn't an idea I've given much thought to in the past, it really is true. One line of the article that particularly stood out to me was, "As a nation, we have done a better job of living with our fears, sadly, than nurturing the expansive spirit of community that arose in those early days," and I felt it really captured this loss.

This questioning of what happened to America's post-tragedy strength is a different way of looking  at things than I've seen in previous articles I've read about 9/11, and if anything, that makes the editorial an ever stronger piece, and one that is going to leave me thinking for a while.