Talk of the Town

I enjoyed reading both John Updike’s and Susan Songtag’s articles. They are both fairly well written, although at times it can be difficult to completely understand them. The topic of both is the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center on 9/11, but that is where the similarity ends. Each author takes a different view of the attacks, and a much different view of the cause and effects of them.

To me, Updike seems to be much more optimistic and positive in his article, or as much as one can be when writing about the attacks, than Songtag was in hers. He ends his article on a positive note, describing New York as beautiful despite the damage done by the attacks. He also devotes a paragraph to talking about freedom and how it is worth fighting for and that the attacks were part of the “risk” that is the “price of freedom.”

Songtag has a much different view from this. Her article is actually criticism of that way of thinking after the attacks. She asks, “Where is the acknowledgement that this was not a “cowardly” attack on “civilization” or “liberty” or “humanity” or “the free world” but an attack on the world’s self-proclaimed superpower…” She clearly doesn’t view the attacks as the “price of freedom.” She sees them as a reaction to the United States’ actions and policies, not because we are a “free country.”

I personally agree with most of what Songtag has to say. The terrorist attacks were not against “civilization” or “liberty” or anything like that. They were a result of the actions of the United States in the Middle East, and the failure of U.S. intelligence to uncover them before they happened. However, I don’t agree with her that it was a bad thing that politicians from different groups appeared to work together with little or no argument after the attacks. As she says, argument and disagreement are important parts of a democracy, but in times of crisis like the 9/11 attacks, I believe a show of national and political unity would be better to show the world and the people of the United States than arguments between politicians on what to do next.