The day America spoke

September 11th. A day that so many remember vividly as debris filled the air, people ran through New York City's streets in a state of shock and fear, and lives were taken in a destructive act of terrorism. The story of what happened aboard Flight 93 has not only grabbed the attention of filmmakers and journalists, but researchers as well. Seven years later, images from that terrifying day are still discussed and remembered. As a New Yorker, I did not know how to handle the news. A 14 year old girl sits in her math class, learning how to plot her y's and x's on a graph when an announcement comes on to say that the twin towers have been hit by two hijacked planes. The only thing I could remember was silence. Faces blank and eyes opened wide. What was I supposed to make of this? Every catastrophe produces its own linguistic fallout. Words and phrases are forged by the awful novelty of 9/11 into everyday speech. When that day is discussed amongst my peers, or on any public forum for that matter, there are words that are commonly used now that I never thought I would so often utter: terrorism, bombs, ground zero, and debris surge. These words have infiltrated the language of public discourse and private conversation universally. When we discuss that fateful day, many are emotional, whether it be anger or grief, and tend to use this discourse to portray what had occurred. 911 and 9/11 are used to signify not just the date, but everything that happened on it and afterward. It may be a phone number for an emergency, or people can just remember it for the day that we were attacked. But most importantly, we came together as a nation with common efforts to protect and serve.