{"id":354,"date":"2007-09-11T11:35:30","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T16:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/09\/11\/our-nation-changed\/"},"modified":"2007-09-11T11:35:30","modified_gmt":"2007-09-11T16:35:30","slug":"our-nation-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/09\/our-nation-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Nation Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;On that day, our nation changed.&#8221; Promotions, teases and lead-ins to broadcast programs or segments about today&#8217;s sixth anniversary of the 9\/11\/2001 terror attacks often have had this or a similar phrase. Hosts on shows so far repeat the statement and precede it with, &#8220;Everyone knows that. \u2026&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No, we don&#8217;t. No, it didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>I remember six years ago today clearly, and the months afterward. During that time it seemed everything had changed. On that morning I was driving 55 miles down Interstate 540 to check my mom out of the hospital, stop by the pharmacy and take her to her home in Fort Smith. The car stereo was tuned to NPR&#8217;s live coverage. In the hospital, every TV was on, with patients, family and staff looking up every chance they got. At the drug store, the canned music was shut off and clerks and customers almost moved in slow motion.<\/p>\n<p>Airport security tightened immediately. Washington gave itself permission to do more snooping, immediately. Little else happened. Measures for those seagoing cargo containers and for America outside New York and Chicago to a large extent still remain in the planning stage.<\/p>\n<p>When in recent months you hear of any little Podunk, in this case Lowell, Ark., mounting a security videocamera high enough to look in every back yard and of Razorback Stadium installing a number of cameras, you have three possibilities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Concern to prevent or lessen a heartland 9\/11 attack. <\/li>\n<li>Concern of another Columbine High (April 20, 1999), Virginia Tech (April 16, 2007) or even Oklahoma City (April 19, 1995). [T.S. Eliot was right in 1922 about April being &#8220;the cruelest month.&#8221;] <\/li>\n<li>Governments big and small have a tendency toward increasing control. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Point 2 seems more likely than 1. Point 3 seems more accurate than the others. Besides, whatever happened to the Anthrax Scare, which began a week later, Sept. 18, 2001?<\/p>\n<p>The relatively young Bush administration hijacked the facts, history and symbolism of 9\/11 for foreign policy already drafted. This is the shrill Michael Moore view, but Iraq remains top of the news and Afghanistan &#8212; where the hunt for Bin Laden is based &#8212; stays low and not always updated daily. Coverage follows interest.<\/p>\n<p>Our nation should have changed on 9\/11. If it changed, it was for the worse. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;On that day, our nation changed.&#8221; Promotions, teases and lead-ins to broadcast programs or segments about today&#8217;s sixth anniversary of the 9\/11\/2001 terror attacks often have had this or a similar phrase. Hosts on shows so far repeat the statement and precede it with, &#8220;Everyone knows that. \u2026&#8221; No, we don&#8217;t. No, it didn&#8217;t. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7257,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2022\/03\/slaw-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":354,"position":0},"title":"Slaw Down","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This recipe for coleslaw took decades to nail down. Not full time, had other things to do. It starts with Porta's barbecue on Jenny Lind near my junior high school, Ramsey, in central Fort Smith, Arkansas. There were several Porta brothers, Art's only served BBQ and sides, intended for take-out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sides&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sides","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/sides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Large steel bowl of shredded cabbage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shredded-Cabbage-wikimedia-commons-1920x1080-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shredded-Cabbage-wikimedia-commons-1920x1080-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shredded-Cabbage-wikimedia-commons-1920x1080-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shredded-Cabbage-wikimedia-commons-1920x1080-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shredded-Cabbage-wikimedia-commons-1920x1080-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shredded-Cabbage-wikimedia-commons-1920x1080-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2587,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/12\/inaccessible-cable-access\/","url_meta":{"origin":354,"position":1},"title":"Inaccessible Cable Access","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this month the cable television provider Cox Communications changed the access to the community and government access channels here in Northwest Arkansas. They sent a letter to customers (click for a PDF), and press releases to the news outlets. They'd say changed the location, but what they did is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Body, Home, Street&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":254,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/12\/stone-not-stoned\/","url_meta":{"origin":354,"position":2},"title":"Stone Not Stoned","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Just to be self-referential, to refer to something I've published elsewhere, here is my review of the new biography of iconoclast commentator I.F. Stone. (No, not self-reverential.) Reading other reviews is very interesting. Essentially all the majors come in already liking or hating Stone, and that colors their write-ups. At\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Course of Words&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6078,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2018\/05\/town-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":354,"position":3},"title":"Town Home","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Poem A home town is where you're from. After a while, a home town is now where you're from. Later on, the home town is where you're from now. Finally, there is no finally, the home town is where you are. The trouble is, who agrees? People in the current\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Course of Words&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5085,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/06\/hang-separately\/","url_meta":{"origin":354,"position":4},"title":"Hang Separately","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"America is not a nice country. Hardly any of the other countries think so. If they say the U.S. is a nice nation, that's for show, to stay on our good side. It's just to be nice. We are a nation led by elected officials, often compromised by \"contributions,\" as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News, Spin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Animation of light going through a prism","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Prisma-Spectrum-580x360-ani-300x186.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":190,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/double-nickels\/","url_meta":{"origin":354,"position":5},"title":"Double nickels","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In a televised address to the nation, President George W. Bush tonight is expected to announce an executive order reducing the maximum highway speed to 55 mph. You heard the speech was to be about immigration? Well, we will see. Another two-term Republican, Richard M. Nixon, created the first 55\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News, Spin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}