Today is the 8th anniversary of "9/11", when terrorists hijacked aircraft to attack the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. President Obama has attended a memorial service at the Pentagon, and Vice-President Biden laid a wreath at Ground Zero. Today is now known in the US as the "National Day of Service and Remembrance". However, 8 years on, is people's attitude to this event now changing? Can it now be described as an event "from history"? Certainly the new intake of Year 7s at Nonsuch(aged three at the time) have no memory of it. Perhaps the inauguration of President Obama makes it easier to consign 9/11 to a previous "chapter" of history. What do you think, and what are your memories of the day?
On another note, there was a documentary on BBC2 last night about the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. It approached the subject, through its narrative and interviews with key figures, clearly a historical event. Is this too soon, and when is it acceptable to treat events in the past as history?
I think that the inauguration of President Obama definitely has made it easier to consign 9/11 to a previous chapter of history. When President Obama was elected, I sort of saw it as a 'new beginning' for America. I think that, already, George Bush and the events that happened during his time as President have become history, because Obama's inauguration drew a definite line between the past and the present. Having said that, it still seems very strange that the year 7s have no memory of 9/11, as it is an issue which has been kept in the public eye due to the increased level of terrorist threat in the past few years.
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