2008 Woodie Awards
Teamwork lost, sense of betrayal in United States
Catherine Morrisey
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Editorials
Listening to stories about life in America by my parents and grandparents really highlights the psychological impacts that tragedies have on a nation.
My grandparents can't remember a lot of things by this age in life, but they remember exactly where they were and how they felt when they heard about Pearl Harbor. My parents were only ten years old when Kennedy was assassinated, but understood the repercussions it would have on the mourning nation. Most people reading this editorial can recall exactly where they were when they first heard the news of 9/11.
I look to my parents and grandparents when I attempt to grasp just how intertwined a nation can become with its own trauma. The Second World War was in progress by the time Pearl Harbor happened, and Vietnam had an American presence for ten years before that fateful morning in Dallas. And yet, when these horrible events happened and the nation was at its most fragile, Americans still believed they were survivors.
Both Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination happened under the watch of Democrats, and yet, the nation was united regardless of party politics. It had nothing to do with party affiliation and everything to do with sticking to the greater beliefs that made this nation - the entirety of the nation - unique in the world.
Decades later, this nation can't play as a team. When FDR went to war with Japan and Germany, American's saved all they could for the troops. They boycotted pretzels on account of the German origin.
Now we're in a war and feel just how severe the oil shortages are getting. We aren't boycotting OPEC and walking to work. If anything, we're defiant and buying bigger cars to show the world that we really don't need them.
I write this because, like many people I know, the willingness to work as a team just sounds flat out stupid by this point. The past five years of my life have been spent watching the nation at war - that's almost 23 percent of my life, for the record - and I still feel more betrayed than ever.
My grandparents can't remember a lot of things by this age in life, but they remember exactly where they were and how they felt when they heard about Pearl Harbor. My parents were only ten years old when Kennedy was assassinated, but understood the repercussions it would have on the mourning nation. Most people reading this editorial can recall exactly where they were when they first heard the news of 9/11.
I look to my parents and grandparents when I attempt to grasp just how intertwined a nation can become with its own trauma. The Second World War was in progress by the time Pearl Harbor happened, and Vietnam had an American presence for ten years before that fateful morning in Dallas. And yet, when these horrible events happened and the nation was at its most fragile, Americans still believed they were survivors.
Both Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination happened under the watch of Democrats, and yet, the nation was united regardless of party politics. It had nothing to do with party affiliation and everything to do with sticking to the greater beliefs that made this nation - the entirety of the nation - unique in the world.
Decades later, this nation can't play as a team. When FDR went to war with Japan and Germany, American's saved all they could for the troops. They boycotted pretzels on account of the German origin.
Now we're in a war and feel just how severe the oil shortages are getting. We aren't boycotting OPEC and walking to work. If anything, we're defiant and buying bigger cars to show the world that we really don't need them.
I write this because, like many people I know, the willingness to work as a team just sounds flat out stupid by this point. The past five years of my life have been spent watching the nation at war - that's almost 23 percent of my life, for the record - and I still feel more betrayed than ever.
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