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Emotional reaction to the Commission report?

ckosarek's picture

 The first chapter of the graphic representation of the 9/11 report struck me the hardest. Even though it wasn't constructed to elicit emotion (because it seemed to try to focus on the facts and not their emotional implications), I still found myself caught reliving the emotions of that day. I had a neighbor who worked in one of the twin towers; I was good friends (at the time) with his daughter, who is my age. I remember getting the news that he was lost, and I remember getting the news some days later that his torso had been found, wedding band still wrapped around his finger. Maybe the power of these first few pages is found in the fact that they are factual rather than anecdotal or personal or emotional. By presenting "just the facts", it seems that the authors invite readers to fill in their own emotions. The pages don't tell you how to feel. They don't tell you to be angry at the mismanagement of authority that day. They don't tell you to be angry with the terrorists. They don't tell you to be sad about the lives lost. They present what happened in timeline format and let you make of it what you will. Their power is in the choice of readers to feel and relive - or not. 

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