“Are viewing photos of the 9/11 terrorist attacks harmful to your health?”
A local news channel announced a report on the 9/11 photographs people will see today. Some question whether or not these pictures should be shown at all. The reason? Seeing images of death and destruction may be mentally difficult for the viewer.
Some scientists think that media exposure of horrific events over time could be harmful to a person’s psychological wellbeing.
The article contends that “From 24-hour cable news to YouTube and Twitter, today’s mass media can turn local disasters into international events within minutes, transmitting the impact of a disaster far beyond those who are directly exposed.”
The report said, “The effects of trauma-related media exposure lasted over time – frequent early exposure to 9/11-related television predicted posttraumatic stress symptoms and physical health problems two to three years later.” The researchers believe that this study produces persuasive evidence that “widespread media coverage of terrorism and war may have harmful effects on mental and physical health over time.”
I thought a long time before I came to this conclusion: WE MUST SEE SO WE DO NOT FORGET.
Does psychological drama exist? Sure.
I was in the middle of downtown Chicago when I heard the F-16s break the sound barrier on 9/11. You see, most officials believed Chicago would be the next city hit. I watched the towers go down. I prayed and cried with everyone around me. I left the city later than most. Chicago was a ghost town. I felt the fear, the emptiness of a city, the ghost-town which was O’Hare.
And then I saw President Bush utter those words that still make shivers run up my spine,
“And those people who knocked down those buildings will hear from all of us soon!”
Right then and there I wanted to join the Marine Corps. But like the 70 year olds who found themselves in line at the recruiters, we knew we were too old. But the passion was there. The nerve was there. The anger and the rage was there.
People attacked our country. We responded in unison.
We were no longer hyphenated Americans—African, Latino, European, Asian-American—we were just Americans.
And we were angry.
Our President and our military turned anger into justice.
It was Toby Keithwho said it for the rest of us:
“now this nation that I love is fallin’ under attack.
A might sucker-punch cam flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man, we lit up your world like the fourth of July.”
This morning, when I drive to work, there will be folks flying American flags on the I-69 overpass.
And I will join the hundreds of Hoosiers who will honk their horns and flash their lights in agreement:
WE WILL NEVER FORGET.
Show me the 9/11 photos any day, every day.
No psychological trauma eleven years later will ever overcome the trauma of that day.
THE PHOTOS REMIND US, WE MUST NEVER FORGET.
Mark understands psychological trauma; Mark also understands love of country. When it comes to 9/11, you can’t have one without the other.