September 11th

Writing about tragedy is extremely difficult.  As the writer, you don't want to come off as too depressing, but you also don't want to seem like you are taking a situation too lightly.  Writing about tragedy involves balance.  You have to clearly show your sorrow for the situation while trying to think of the positive aspects or improvements that can come out of such a tragic situation.  In the case of September 11th, I think authors should reflect on the tragedy with a brief history of the events to trigger memories and then to continue by talking about the improvements we have made as a country since.

September 11th is very disturbing to me.  While I do not remember the day or any events surrounding the day, the videos and articles I have researched are very hard to watch and read.  It is devastating to hear the statistics and to think of the trauma that people, to this day, live with.

If I were to write about 9/11 to my peers, I would be sure to inform them of what happened that day because many teenagers don't remember the horrific event.  Once recapped, showing your respects to lives lost is important and finishing with a more positive note on cultural acceptance today or something of that matter.
If I was writing to people older than myself I would focus more heavily on the reminiscing of the event rather than the recap.  To focus on the day itself may stir up unwanted memories and feelings.  Talking about how our world has (or has not) changed since then would also be a good subject to touch on.

I would argue that in a perfect world the speeches to New York and Iraq about September 11th would be the same speech, but in reality, the tones of the speeches would would completely different.  The speech to New York would have a sorrowful undertone of loss and comfort whereas the speech given to Iraq would have a hateful and aggressive undertone.  As much as I wish I could say this to be untrue and that all has been forgiven, Americans stand together.