Journeys of the Questress - WTC
Nov 19 - 911 The Rape of America
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Oct 11 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
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Nov 19 - 911 The Rape of America
Dec 14 - Just A Thought
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Sitting on the Edge of Forever
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A Counting of Days
For Friends Absent But Not Forgotten
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Unbreak My Heart
Standing On The Edge Of Forever
Both Sides Now
A Memory In Time
The Gravity of Loss
The Survivors Rise Up
Flowers Will Bloom
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Stronger Than The Storm
Between the Candle and the Stars
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A Journey Through Remembrance
Canticle of Remembrance
Beyond the Crucible of Chaos
Journey Through Remembrance project
What See We Now
Forever In Our Hearts
Keeping the Flame Alive
The Rebuilding of Ground Zero continues
Does Anyone Care Anymore?
Where Is Our Story Teller of Pain
At Memory's Edge
Dust Thou Art and to Dust Thou Shalt Return
7x7x70
Heroes Never Die
The Flame Inside Our Hearts
The Year of the Heroes of 9/11
Déjà Vu
Remembering 9/11 in the year of COVID-19
Coronavirus Decimates Ailing Sept. 11 Responders
Touching From a Distance
That Which Survives 20 years later
2021 - 20 years later
Memories of Terror Return
Putin's Name Covered Over On Teardrop Memorial
The 9/11 Tribute Museum Closes
When Memories Fade Away
St. Nicholas at Ground Z is rebuilt
The Blue Wall of the Unidentified Victims
When Time Calls Your Name
When Art Gets It All Wrong

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911 - The Rape of America

Today a plane exploded and crashed into a residential area of Queens. At present no one yet knows whether it was mechanical failure or a terrorist plan. But immediately all airports in NYC, NJ and DC were closed. All bridges and tunnels into NYC were closed. People in the area where the plane crashed said, "Oh no, not another WTC".

What does this all say about our 'return to normalcy' after Sept 11? Everyone talks about going about their lives in order not to give the terrorists a triumph. Well, we've resumed our lives but our reactions to anything that resembles that Black Tuesday is far from 'normal'. We are reacting exactly the way a rape victim does after the rape.

Freud would have had a field day with the way the terrorists approached doing their ugly deed. They 'penetrated' buildings with 'explosive' phallic symbols - jumbo jets. It was soley MEN from an organization that hates women who not only masterminded the plot but carried it out. And when the jets collided with the buildings and penetrated them they exploded, just as an ejaculation would!
Then the upright standing towers fell down after penetration, just as a woman who is assaulted and raped would do when attacked. She would also 'fall to pieces' after such an encounter.

Also ironic is the fact that the date 9/11 is the number a rape victim would call for help. 911, it would forever be imprinted in her psyche afterwards. All things associated with that number would dredge up memories. And isn't that what we as a nation are doing now? It has become a sacrosanct collection of digits because on that day, thousands of victims cried for help.

But that is just only the visible signs. Once a woman has been raped, the inner scars remain for years. She never feels safe. Every event that comes anywhere close to the rape situation creates terror in her. A sound or a smell, the lighting, the texture of the environment, an image in the shadows all these things trigger her memory. We, as a nation, have collectively responded in the same manner over the last 2 months: the sound of sirens, smell of a burning building, a plane flying too low overhead, walking underneath a skyscraper.....

And so we are on 'heightened alert'. We batten down the hatches, seal of the area, shut the doors. Like the female rape victim, we've even taken to 'learning how to protect ourselves'. She will learn judo or buy a gun, we've deployed the Coast Guard, taught our air force how to shoot down an errant civilian jet, and close off airspaces and entries to cities in order to avert a  threat.

All of this is what has made the attack on the WTC so much more dark in the psyche of our nation. This overt yet not explored symbolism contaminates us. It will be our leitmotif for years to come. The terrorists couldn't have planned it better if they tried. They just did things the way any arrogant, dominating, alpha male on this planet would do it. They came and raped America.
 
c 2001 Leona Seufert