Talk of the Town: The Effects of 9/11

The two essays from The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section, in my opinion, were very well written.  I especially loved how the first essay was told through the eyes of a witness of 9/11, and the second essay criticized the government's reactions to the attack.  The two contrasted yet complimented each other perfectly.


The first essay was written by John Updike who told his story about witnessing the attacks on the twin towers.  Updike explained that he was looking out the window of his tenth-floor apartment in Brooklyn Heights when the planes crashed into the two towers.  I thought his description, "smoke speckled with bits of paper curled into the cloudless sky..." was a great way of showing us with words what he was seeing.  As the essay went on, he continued to paint beautiful, yet horrific images to explain how tragic this event actually was.  However tragic and horrifying the attacks on 9/11 were, I liked how he ended the essay on a positive note; it was kind of a happy ending.  
                  "...walking around Brooklyn Heights that afternoon, as ash drifted in the air and cars  
                  were few  and open-air lunches continued as usual on Montague Street, renewed the  
                  impression that, with all its failings, this is a country worth fighting for."


The second essay was much less charming.  This seems to have been written for one reason and one reason only: to complain about the government.  The author Susan Sontag explained how she believed that the government needed to stop saying that "our country is strong," and that it also needed to be less comforting.  She states that the public needed to know the reality of what was happening and accuses the political leaders of concealing the truth of the situation.  I do agree that, as the people of this country, we deserve to know what is really going on, but after a terrifying event like 9/11, we, as a nation, needed the government to act as a mother hen and comfort us and tell us things will be okay.  Besides the uprising of slavery and the Depression, September 11th was probably the darkest day in American history; an untouchable super-power was brought to its knees by a couple of terrorits.  This was a time where we needed the government to lead, unify, and guide us out of the aftermath.  Sorry Susan, but we weren't ready to hear all of the horror stories of war that were yet to come.

What You Want (and Probably Don't Want) To Know About Me!

Howdy y'all!
    
My name is Halle Siebert, as most all of you know, and I am a senior at McFarland High School.  I am absolutely excited to start my senior year and to see everyone again....but having said that, summer can stick around a little longer!

      
Some random facts about me are: 
       - my right eye has a freckle
       - I love Dr. Pepper
       - I have seen almost every Disney movie and I own 80 of them
       - I am a lover of God and I willingly go to bible camp
       - I listen to Michael Jackson and Eric Hutchinson non-stop
       - Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday
       - I truly believe that Prince Harry is my soul-mate.

As you can see, I may like a lot of things, but I really only have five passions in life: my family, golf, traveling, the Badger basketball team, and of course, Joe Mauer.

Something that is really cool about my family is that I don't have any brothers or sisters, but I do have three cousins that I am very close to.  Alex is a year older, and Nathan and Mathew are a few years younger.  I do everything with these three, and I don't think that I could live without them in my life.

It is no surprise to anyone by now that I love golf.  To be honest I love everything about it.  I love everything from the relationships you make with students from other schools, right down to that putt I should have made to save par.  It's a challenging game, and in return it has taught me work ethic, persistence, and a whole lot of patience!

I also love traveling and I am a major history buff!  My dream vacation would be to start in Maine and drive down the East Coast to Florida, or to start in Scotland and travel all over Europe and end in Greece.  Gosh, I hope I can take those trips some day!  I also hope to major in History in college.

Speaking of college, I hope to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison next fall; it is really the only college for me and I love their men's basketball team.  I have season tickets to the games, and I live and die with the Badgers.  In my opinion, the Badgers are the best team in the Big Ten, and the Big Ten is the best conference in the NCAA.  Hands down.

Lastly, I love everything about professional baseball games!  I love the strategy behind the game, I love the players, and I even love the smell of the roasting peanuts at those dirty kiosks in the stadium.  Now, after saying this I may be severely judged, but it's okay because I feel that all of you need to know this.  I may be from Wisconsin, but I do not like the Brewers, my heart lies with the Twins.  I don't know what it is about them, but I am a huge fan and I love Joe Mauer.  Joe is the light of my life, the apple of my eye, and I am going to marry him.  Seriously.

Now that you all know far more about me than you cared to, I just want to say that I can't wait to start this class second quarter and get to know all of you better!

Have a great summer!