And we're back with another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Jasinski,
culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the
show at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr
LST. Make sure to subscribe for every download your podcasts and to the premium
version of our website as well. I just want to thank everyone for sending
so many lovely emails in the last couple of weeks. I don't know what
shook it loose. I think maybe it was that last podcast we did with
Bedford just responding to different listener messages, But I just want to thank everyone
some really kind reviews on iTunes or Apple podcasts. You know, if you
if you have a review to leave, feel more than welcome to do that.
If you have an email to send again, it's just radio at the
Federalist dot com. We always appreciate it. Thank you so much. I'm
joined today by three of my colleagues, Vida Deffi, Alfonso el Purnell,
and Jordan boyd All. I'm realizing right now, A all young women,
b A all young married women. I'm trying to figure out which one of
you was oldest when you got married. I don't think any of you was
over like twenty four, am I wrong? H And by the way,
married each for more than a year. They've all been married for more than
a year. And they've all been married since they were roughly like twenty two,
twenty three something like that. So first of all, congratulations to all
of you. And secondly, I want to ask actually a little bit more,
a little bit more about your age. We're going to get into that
because as I was thinking, I know that's very impolite for ladies. But
as I was thinking about how we should mark the anniversary of the September eleventh
attacks this year, we usually try to do a podcast on the anniversary,
and as I was thinking about how to mark the occasion this year, I
was thinking, you know, we have this young staff, younger than me
now, not that I'm old, but younger than me now, and to
the point where maybe a lot of you don't remember nine to eleven, and
I wanted to do kind of a round table conversation. It just happened that
it turned into all female because our colleagues Sean and Sam are traveling as we're
recording this. But basically to check in and hear what nine to eleven means
to people who maybe don't necessarily recommend remember it. So on that note,
first, I'll say, we're all very, very lucky to have not lost
anyone, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong lost anyone on nine
to eleven directly, although I know it's affected just about every single American over
the decades in different ways, but our hearts, our prayers are with everybody
who did today. I can't imagine how difficult this day is every single year
for folks in that situation. Now, I want to ask each of you.
I'll start with you, L. Purnell, tell us what year you
were born? How old you were on nine to eleven? How old?
L So? I was born in ninety nine, so I would have been
three seven early birthday? Okay, if you'd know? What about you?
I was also born in ninety nine, but in October so so later.
So I don't know why that means I'm one or two? Two? I
guess if EL was Yeah, I was two. No, I can't remember
I was one. L was two, right, okay, Jordan, what
about you? Also ninety nine so two? Wow? Okay? So all
of you were born in nineteen ninety nine, so barely in the last century,
barely in the last millennium. That's really interesting. All I'm going to
start with you again. Do you have any memory if you were too I'm
sure the answer to this is no. But do you have any memory of
nine to eleven? No, I don't. My mom has told me that
when the news broke, I was she was like with me running errands,
and we were at the feed store getting a feed for our horses. But
I don't have a personal memory of that. And you were in Florida.
Yeah, that's right, Okay, Avida, what about you? I thought
that I had a personal memory of nine to eleven and they're being like a
lot of commotion, But I don't think that's true. I now, looking
back on it, it seems more likely that it was Hurricane Katrina, which
was a long time later. And but my grandmother did say because I was
with her when nine to eleven happened, that afterward George Bush was gave a
speech and that I was very perceptive because I said, George Bush looks mad
at one year old, and that was That's about the extent of my nine
to eleven commentary. At one, I was going to say, already an
advanced political commentator, what about you, Jordan, Yeah, I would say
I don't necessarily think I can link my memories of nine to eleven two the
year it happened, but certainly in years after, you know, seeing the
footage play on TV screens and whatever. It was a conversation that my parents
weren't afraid to have with me and my siblings, even at such a young
age in the home. So it was something that we certainly learned about early
and grew up talking about a lot. Yeah, let's stick with that.
In fact, that's where I was going to go next. I want to
know when you guys sort of became aware of nine to eleven, when you
sort of remember This is going to be very difficult to pinpoint, and as
a Vita, I think alluded to memory is such a weird thing. But
when you guys became aware of what happened in nine to eleven and sort of
what your impression of it was as a young person who grew up in these
years where American culture was incredibly influenced by nine to eleven, it is hard
to even sort of go back in time, and you think about exactly how
every single day, you know, American culture was colored shaped by what happened
on September eleventh, two thousand and one. And this is as you guys
are coming of age. So you don't have memories exactly of two thousand and
one, but I'm sure you have memories of two thousand and three, two
thousand and four, two thousand and five, six, seven, eight that
are formative because these are the years. This is the America that was shaping
you into the adults you are today. So Jordan, stick with me on
that flesh out a little bit more about how you became aware of nine to
eleven. Yeah. Well, like I said, I mean, parents were
not afraid to talk about it at the time or around At the time,
they were running a college ministry with our church, and one of the things
that came up very early in their conversations with college students as well as with
us hanging around, was all these young men who wanted to run an enlist,
to fight for their country and to kind of retaliate. I mean,
there was a huge spirit of fear at the initial onset of this, but
as the years went on and there was a growing chorus of people who said,
we want to hold whoever did this accountable. And I think you know
that ushered in what we now know is this expansive security state that's long outlived
what the initial threat was, but it definitely pervaded regular normal life. I
mean, my parents had four young children under four around that time, and
so personal safety was taught priority. And even though the Twin Towers were far
from where we were in Texas, there were things that we did in daily
life that were justified by well, anything could happen, you know, like
learning how to lock doors and protect your home or protect your family. That
was a very strong priority in those young years. That is very very interesting,
especially the military aspect, especially in Texas. I know, I'll mentioned
she was in Florida and Georan just mentioned Texas. If you'da was in Wisconsin.
So if you don't all turn to you with the same question. Basically,
when you became aware of nine to eleven and and how you know it,
you maybe sensed it was affecting the America you grew up in. Yeah,
when I was little, like in elementary school and even middle school,
I remember every year we always did something to remember nine to eleven, whether
we had a little lesson about it. I think one year we made cards
and sent them to first responders. That would have been when I was like
really little, and I don't even know, I didn't even know, but
maybe it was like an elementary school program. I don't remember exactly what it
was about, but there was definitely a remembrance of it. And then I
remember starting in high school, suddenly we like we stopped talking about it.
Even on the date of nine to eleven. There was no there was no
lesson plans around it, there was no discussion of it. It sort of
started to drop off. And I remember asking my history teacher if if it
was just a thing of high school that we stopped talking about it, or
if this was, you know, because we're slow, it's it's becoming more
and more of a distant memory in American history. And he said, it's
becoming more and more of a distant memory. And my siblings who are who
are younger than me, the youngest of my siblings is three now say that
they don't do anything for it, which is which is really interesting to think
about because it was such an imprint on so many people's minds and It certainly
wasn't the immediate aftermath of it, and now is where, you know,
over two decades out from it, it's less and less of a of an
impact on students. M Oh, how about you. Yeah, I don't
remember like one specific moment that I was first made aware of what had happened,
But I think all of us came of age as the War on Terror
was progressing and we had a significant military presence in the Middle East and that
was ongoing, and so I mean, growing up, it kind of it
seemed like like this big event that was still very much connected to and part
of something that was still going on. And then you know, now we've
we have moved out of Afghanistan, we have decreased our presence over there,
and so we're kind of in a different moment to look back on that multidecade
period. But it is definitely different reflecting on it as an adult and specifically
as a reporter and thinking like, oh, well, if that were to
happen, you know, if something like that were to happen today, thinking
about it through the lens of how would I be covering it? And you
know what the way that that information would be We spread the way you'd find
out today. It puts it a different lens on it than when you just
grow up knowing about it. Yeah, that's an interesting point. And I
want to say, you know, I like Evita. I was in Wisconsin,
and one thing I learned when I moved to the East Coast for college.
So I moved to the East Coast for college on the tenth anniversary almost
you know, within a couple of weeks of the tenth anniversary of nine to
eleven. So that was twelve twelve years ago. Now it was. I
moved in August of twenty eleven, and the tenth anniversary, which George Washington
University where I went, marked with a day of service. So on that
anniversary I realized how just common these horrific traumatic memories of nine to eleven were
among my mostly East Coast peers. So as I from Wisconsin moved to Washington,
DC, and I know a lot of our listeners are probably in DC
in New York, and your memories are are very, very different. And
that's not too of course diminish the way people all over the country were so
deeply affected by this, but it is to say it was a real wake
up call for me to realize, just if you live with maybe you're in
Connecticut, maybe you're in New Jersey, maybe you're in you know, your
upstate New York, maybe you're in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, maybe you're in Northern
Virginia, in Maryland, not just in DC proper, and of course,
you know, maybe not just in the vicinity of the Pentagon in Northern Virginia.
But how close so many of those people were to you know, having
these traumatic scenes in their own schools when they were young, when they were
my age, so I was Jesus nine in third grade. That was a
very different day for them. I have a I have a very distinct memory
of that day. But for them it was something at a completely other level,
whether or not and many of them did, but whether or not they
knew somebody who was killed, whether or not they knew somebody somebody very close
who had a loved one killed the scene, as you can imagine, in
my friends schools and many of yours, if you're listening your schools in Connecticut,
New Jersey, I mean, the trauma is just so much more common
and so much more intense for people in different parts of the country. I'll
toss that to you, guys, do you have any stories of people you've
met or people stories that have just really stuck with you over the last you
know, a couple of decades as you've been coming of age and you've you've
heard stories from nine to eleven. Has anything just really stuck with any of
you? I think most of when my parents talked about it growing up,
it was a lot of and you know, part of this was I was
a kid. I didn't have like immediate internet access for most of my childhood,
you know, until I was older, so a lot of what I
was hearing about it was my ear. It was you know, my parents
telling me about it, and so it was definitely a different way of ingesting
those stories. In college, I had the opportunity to go to the museum,
which I don't think is there anymore in DC, but they had these
recently closed with them the left. Yeah, they had the like iron beams
I guess from from the towers and the videos of people either you know,
tragically jumping out of the towers or people in the streets with the clouds of
smoke. And so that was absolutely a different kind of like experiencing the storytelling
in a new way than you know. Hearing it as a kid spoken.
Hey, y'all, this is Sarah Carter, investigative columnists and host of The
Sarah Carter Show. Thanks for listening to the Federalist. We all have a
heartfelt reason to support our blood pressure. In fact, more than half of
the US population would benefit from blood pressure sup super Beats heart shoes are easy
and convenient way to support healthy blood pressure and promote heart healthy energy. Paired
with a healthy lifestyle. The antioxidants and super Beats are clinically shown to be
nearly two times more effective at promoting normal blood pressure than a healthy lifestyle alone.
I tell you this, I've felt it. I love taking super Beats.
Not only are they tasty, they're great to chew, but I love
to know that I'm supporting a healthy heart. It's effective and clinically studied.
Super Beats is the number one pharmacist recommended beat brand for cardiovascular health support.
It's blood pressius support you can trust. Get a free thirty day supply of
super Beats heart shoes and fifteen percent off your first order by going to get
superbeats dot com and use promo code Sarah. That's Saar eight. Get Superbeats
dot Com code Sarah to get fifteen percent off your first order. Get Superbeats
dot Com promo code Sarah. No, that's super interesting, and that's that's
basically exactly what I'm getting at here. You know what of the the imagery
or of these stories. I mean many people on nine to eleven will share
the story of the Falling Man, for instance, the picture of the Falling
Man, the story of the Falling Man, or the story of Todd beam
Er. There's just some of these incredible stories that came out of that day,
inspiring stories, got wrenching stories, I mean literally hundreds and hundreds of
them. But Avida and Jordan, even if it is just the imagery seeing
the beams somewhere like the Newseum that exhibit was, I just used the word
got wrenching. It's exactly what it was. Or maybe you've been to New
York and you've seen ground zero. What's stuck with you? So I have
not been to ground zero before, but something that sort of has begun to
go kind of viral over the last few years on TikTok Are and Emily doesn't
like that. I have TikTok I have TikTok. But some of the things
that have gone viral are the voicemails that people have left to their loved ones,
whether it's like a married couple or a mother calling her son, or
people calling uh the nine one one helpline, And I mean they are heart
wrenching voicemails of people telling people that they love them, that these are their
last moments, saying, you know, I think I'm going to die as
as they're they're breathing in all of the fumes or or things are falling down
around them. I mean, they're harrowing, horrifying phone calls that really make
you, uh, you know, just just feel like you're in the moment
and it's like I said, it's horrifying. But another thing that also I
think has impacted me are the images of patriotism afterward. I think, especially
during twenty twenty, where it felt like everyone was so divided in our country,
and whether it was over COVID or it was you know, on January
six or BLM, and you had these just these displays of this country feeling
like it was being torn apart. And then you look at the images and
the immediate aftermath of nine to eleven where you saw people come together in a
really beautiful way. And it's weird, but I actually felt almost nostalgic for
this immediate aftermath of nine to eleven that I never was I was too young
to experience that felt so cohesive and beautiful as as our country came together in
tragedy, juxtaposed with with now where it just feels so divided. Kind of
jumped in on that comparison too, just thinking about it. Yeah, through
the lens of the way that people dealt with such a reminder of mortality,
because you see, like obviously nine to eleven was this huge event, forcing
people to grapple with you know, what would I have done? How would
I sounded if I was making those phone calls, how would I've reacted?
And you also saw people grappling with their mortality with COVID, But like Avida
said that the reactions were very different in the way that people kind of responded
to that reminder that life is brief. There really is a strong contrast.
I'll turn this to you, Jordan, but we'll first say I'm glad you
picked up that point now, because I was going to jump in and say
what Avida said really gave me chills, and you kind of confirmed that it
was similar for you, because it's quite interesting to me that for both of
you looking at a pandemic that you know affected your lives at a very young
age, very formative age. Looking at January sixth, and most of you
were in journalism at that time as well. To have the sense in both
of your minds that something is very, very different from what you've learned and
absorbed about the aftermath of nine to eleven really did give me chills, because
there was, my goodness, the America in the days after nine to eleven
was really the best of our country. And I don't think we've experienced anything
like it since, and I don't think anybody has the I don't think anybody
has the sense that if something God forbid on a similar scale were to happen
again, that we would respond in such a way. What do you think,
Jordan, Yeah, I think that's something that I think of all probably
a way too often. Is I feel like the nation, especially in the
last decade, has been in this fight or flight mode, and if something
else like you said happened, I mean, I think people would be baracky
it up in their homes with rifles. And that was one of the things
when I was old enough to go out on my own and do research about
nine to eleven and watch the clips. I didn't want to see the main
clips that they showed over and over on national news. I wanted to see,
like someone who happened to have a digital camera or a film camera at
work that day and captured those just candid, intimate moments between co workers and
people fleeing and pulled up all of that footage or what I could find of
it, and just watched it and watched how these strangers came together and prayed
or you called family members or whatever, and that kind of unity. I've
just never seen that really ever anywhere in life or in American life, and
so it's very interesting. And one of my favorite things to do is to
go back and read the really famous New Yorker piece The Real Heroes Are Dead,
and it's about Rick Rescorla, who helped evacuate the South Tower and ended
up dying in the process, and just his relationship with his wife and all
of that, and thinking about those moments and how profoundly people made such a
quick moral decision. It's just insane. It's so difficult to comprehend. And
you can walk around and ask anyone in your family or anyone who was above
probably the age of five around that time, and they get this like distant
look in their eyes as they recount what was going on, and the insurmountable
fear that led to everything that we know now as adults is just such an
interesting thing to trace back. I mean in a way that I just I
don't even know how to explain it. You know, we went from being
such a unified country in those few months after that to now like having a
romanticized security state where like surveillance is put above the unity of the American people,
and seeing that all play out in the curn events that, like else
said, we're covering right now is just crazy. And how rapidly that occurred
is crazy. You know, that's a really interesting point. I want to
toss that back to everyone, because a lot of what you guys do as
journalists at the Federalist is cover the excesses of the security state, which were
in no small part supported by Republicans, supported by in many cases of the
conservative movement. Of course, as with anything, there was descent among the
conservative ranks about certain things like the NSA and all of the powers given to
DHS, and the after bath of nine to eleven, which we see being
weaponized in ways that we're you know, perhaps predictable, but somewhat unfathomable in
this the days after nine eleven, when people really felt like they were on
the same page. If you look back at the votes in favor of the
post nine eleven wars, in favor of establishing, for instance, the Patriot
Act, again there was some descent, there was debate eight but compared to
what both parties or people in both parties would make of these programs, now
that's very different. And as you guys are covering these things, I have
to wonder people myself included, I wasn't you know, a voting age even
close in these in these years. I don't think I voted until twenty eleven
tea party years something like that when I was eighteen. But as somebody who
had no part it gave no consent for the government to expand to the point
where it is now. How do you see, how do you look at
the decisions the country made domestically, Even I'm not going to talk about the
wars right now, but just domestically, how things changed after nine to eleven
within this context of the reality that even if we don't think about it every
day, a lot of what you're covering ends up being downstream of new powers
that expanded it in those years. I might jump back in here. I
think it was best encapsulated for me in George W. Bush and in the
moments following nine to eleven. You know, my parents were teaching us about
nine to eleven about who is the president, you know, kind of just
the general American political situation, and so I knew who he was. In
the years following he looked like such a hero. And now as an adult
looking back, and I literally live in George W. Bush's childhood town,
like he is memorialized everywhere in this town. I'm so angry. I'm so
angry that that this was ushered in so quickly and without it felt like a
care in the world. And it's so frustrating to see that there is a
direct link to all the issues that we're having right now back to these moments
and how rashly we were thinking. And I can't help but wonder what kind
of rash policy did in the last few years with the COVID drama and everything
else going on, is going to have severe consequences down the line for the
rest of the generations. Like it's just I think it really highlights how important
is to think things through, not just with framing of the present, but
framing of the past and framing of the future, because it really does have
a huge impact, and it's not easy to undo this. I mean,
there's really not a good way to undo what has happened over the last twenty
two years. I'm glad you linked the COVID door, but I was just
thinking, it's like, it's another example of how one of the things the
government does best is weaponize people's good intentions against them. And we definitely saw
that again during COVID, where there was this kind of emotional manipulation telling people
like we'll look out for grandma, and you know, look take care of
your neighbors, do this for your neighbors. And we now know, and
some of us knew then that a lot of that was just being used to
to push policies and practices that didn't help anyone but did take away a lot
of people's freedoms. Just like a lot of these postman element policies have been
used too. Yeah, I think l that that's exactly how I feel about
all of this. Really, it's I'm angry, to be honest about how
we had gone through this national tragedy. People felt so much patriotism and and
you know, just rage over what happened to our country, and the powers
that be used those emotions to justify this. I mean the Patriot Act really,
which was which was sponsored by James Senson Runner, who's a man from
Wisconsin who my family knows well. But you know, it was a terrible,
terrible decision that now has been used truthfully against the four of US and
against any conservative in this country. I bring it up all the time,
but it's it's true. Andrew McCabe, who was a Russia hoaxer former deputy
FBI director, said two years ago during a seminar with David axel Out at
the University of Chicago that conservatives are are equivalent to the Islamic Caliphate, that
half of the country is likened to domestic terrorists. They've deployed the the strategies
and the privileges that they gained at the at the after nine eleven and used
it against their political enemies, which happens to be us, And that is
infuriating, and not just about the security state, but also thinking about all
the people that died in Iraq and Afghanistan. And with hindsight, we know
that particularly Iraq, we were not we were not there or correct reasons they
lied to the American people about weapons of mass destruction. We know that the
Afghanistan withdrawal was a complete disaster. We essentially we left behind allies and billions
of dollars of military equipment that made people who fought in those wars, who
lost, people who lost friends and family members, feel like they were there
for nothing. It feels like the government took this tragedy and then just kicked
us in the face with it, and it's enraging well. And shortly after
we finally did get out of the Middle East, you see the military industrial
complex working so hard to in twine us in another war in Ukraine. The
Washdogroom, Wall Street Podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the
connection between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet. Ever heard
of goldilocks? Remember, bad news is not good news, no matter what
they claimed to say a bidnomics. Unemployment is still rising, wages remain stagnant,
and job numbers are now revised. There's still no soft landing with this
plane. Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall Street, it's affecting
you financially. Be informed. Check out the Watchhold on Wall Street podcast with
Chris Markowski on Apples, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. There's something
very interesting in what all of you said just now and again, I think
we will readily see that this is not a representative sample of twenty some things
in the United States. You guys are politically engaged, you work in journalism,
you're all women, and you're all really conservative. But that's part of
what's interesting. Three conservatives now looking at Let's take a Sense and Brenner's Patriot
Act as an example. I'm actually from gen Sense and Brenner's district, born
and race in his old district. And you know, the fact that he
was the author of that piece of legislation didn't loom large that I can remember
in my childhood, at least, you know, in the sort of politics
of the Waukasha area. But I imagine if former Congressman Cents and Burner were
here, he would say to you a vita and I'm sure very politely,
but I imagine it's very sensitive subject. And to everyone he would say,
well, we don't know. We don't know what could have become of the
United States of America without the Patriot Act. We don't know, frankly,
that we would all be here. We don't know what level of sheer random
terrorism could have consumed the United States and the years after nine to eleven were
it not for the Patriot Act. We will see similar argumentation being deployed in
the coming months as what's known as Section seven O two, which we've talked
about in a couple of episodes of the show recently, which does authorize pretty
vast surveillance that is often and it is a very powerful argument that you hear
when these things come up. But you all said something so important, which
is basically you didn't even say it, you you implied it, which is
basically that you don't believe that for a second. You don't believe in your
mind that basically has no validity. That's not something that you you believe at
all. Am I wrong? No? No, I don't I don't think
that any of this was justified. I think there's a famous, you know,
Ben Franklin quote where and I'm probably gonna butcher it, but he says,
you know, those who would sacrifice essential liberty for safety don't don't deserve
liberty or safety. And I think that's that's what we experienced in after nine
to eleven, and we're reaping the consequences of that. I think the same
thing, as l pointed out, happened with COVID and now COVID two point
zero. Now they're trying to deploy it back at us with as we're coming
up to an election, saying that, you know, we need to mask
up again, we need to have you know, more boosters and more vaccines,
and we've already been through all this. And I think people that that
buy into this, that's say, for public safety or public health, we
need to give up certain liberties. I think that is a complete departure from
the American spirit, from the principles that we were founded on. And it
saddens me to think that so many conservatives, and in the aftermath of nine
to eleven, we're supportive of the Patriot Act, and it saddens me and
at the same time, I think, you know what, maybe maybe we
deserve it. Maybe we need to get ourselves out of this hole now because
because we are we are definitely conservatives are the outsized victims of the surveillance state.
Uh, and now all four of us are going to have to,
you know, pick up the torch and try and undo the mess that has
been created by the previous generations. And it's going to be a fight.
But I really I disagree with that, with that hypothetical sense into her response,
Well, one thing, Emily, that your quote or your hypothetical quote
from the senator made me think of. You know, I think since then,
since the Patriot Act was passed, we've had a remarkable depletion of of
faith and institutions. And so, you know, I think the average American
their their senator that they like tells them, Hey, this, this is
what we need, this is going to be great. The average American,
ourselves included, are not experts on national security, and you know, I
think a lot of people had no reason not to believe what their lawmakers were
telling them. Oh, this is necessary, this is good, this is
going to protect you, this isn't going to infringe upon their liberties. And
that's been a huge shift over the past twenty years, is seeing how a
lot of people today no longer trust those institutions because those institutions, a lot
of them have have forfeited that trust from the American people by making decisions in
ways that don't steward their trust. Well, and so I think, yeah,
I mean, of course it's not going to be enough for an elected
representative to say, you know, we had to do this, you don't
know what what could have happened. That's that's not enough from an institution that
has demonstrated that it's it's not taking care of Americans' interests. Well, yeah,
I think all can see, like hindsight is totally twenty twenty, but
there was a lot more going on here than what we've seen now. And
what could have happened is what's happening to us right now. And to be
fully frank, I'm more worried about the government coming after me and my family
than a terrorist attack in my town or my airport or wherever. And is
that thanks to the Patriot Act? I don't think so. I think that
that proves that what could have happened has happened, and that's the government used
these acts and the expansion of security state to weaponize against its own people.
And I just will never trust the government to protect me and my family better
than I can. It just won't happen. And I think this proves that
that's again, I find this really interesting. And as you were talking,
I was thinking about, how about four years before I was born, the
Berlin Wall fell. And it's very, very fashionable for people of my generation
to look back with intense, smug judgment on decisions that were made during the
Cold War, for example, some of which were absolutely nefarious, There's there's
no question about it. Some of which were exactly to the point that Cold
warrior Dwight Eisenhower made in his farewell address, were improperly and despicably motivated by
profit. At the same time, the threat of global communism, that the
threat of nuclear war, which was incredibly new to that generation, these things
were rationally terrifying, and I know that we're terrifying. Sort of feels like
it's implicitly an irrational emotion, but people's terror at the potentiality of instant destruction
of Cuba, for example, being compromised by the Russian military and being able
to exact all kinds of havoc and destruction in the United States, or having
sleeper cells in the United States that you know, catalyzed moral panics, that
that catalyzed the Red scare. As we say, people's fears were predicated on
something that was very real and that was very, very immediate. There was
something rational about panicking in the Cold War years now. That isn't to say,
you know, I think we should have an airport named after Alan Dullies.
That isn't to say all of these decisions, you know, be it
supporting Noriega early in his career. We could go into any number of specific
case studies that these were good decisions and that people should have known better.
It's not what I'm saying, but it is interesting, and you can connect
the dots between sort of the Cold what happened during the Cold War, what
happened at nine to eleven. It is really interesting how these events shape each
of us generationally despite them happening outside of our living memory. And that's where
I want to turn this to you guys one more time. The opening credits
of Euphoria, or the opening scene in Euphoria, I think I've mentioned this
on the show a couple of times because it struck me when I saw it.
Euphoria is this very popular show on HBO. One of the stars actually
just passed away tragically from an overdose, which is a bit ironic given what
the show deals with. That addresses the plight of gen z. You know,
there's a lot less sex and drugs happening for the average Zoomer than there
is for the Zoomer and Euphoria, but there are a lot of pills,
there's a lot of porn, there's a lot of pain. And the opening
scene of this show starts with the girl being born, the lead character being
born just a couple of days after nine to eleven, and her parents were
in the hospital room watching what happened on nine to eleven in the news coverage
on the TV in the hospital room right after she's born. So, how
do you think nine to eleven affected you as an American? Changed you as
an American, shaped you as an American? Go ahead, I'll say that
it really made me further on, like in twenty twenty two now, made
me have a lot more. It made me want to critically think more.
I think because when learning about nine to eleven, especially in the early years
in elementary school and middle school where it was still new, where we're still
in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was there felt like there was
a very clear enemy. It felt like, you know, Islamic terrorism is
is everywhere, that we have a clear objective in the Middle East, that
there that we that people hate America and hate everybody in it. And now
looking back, I realized that things are so much more complicated. The reasons
for nine to eleven are are very complicated. The America's involvement before nine to
eleven and the reasons that that it happened are are not often talked about.
Even the way that Muslims were looked at after nine to eleven there was,
to be honest, there was a lot of of demonization of them, thinking
that their religion was was evil or incompatible in the West. And as it
turns out, there's a lot of Muslims who are partnering with with Christian parents
to fight left wing school boards who are trying to inject CRT and radical trans
ideology into public schools. And so watching things realign in my own mind and
realizing that the enemy maybe isn't the enemy has been really eye opening. It
makes you think about the world and in our country differently, and I actually
am very grateful to that, and I think it's it's made me realize that
that government, no matter what country it's in or no matter what time period
it's in, is always going to want more power, and ultimately, the
only real allies you have are your your family, and your friends and your
neighbors that you know, and and the a government, whether that's on the
state or the federal level, is never always going to have your back,
even if it seems like you know they are going to protect you in a
tragic aftermath like nine to eleven, There is always you should always fear that
kind of power. I think there's been such a devaluing of community, especially
in recent years, and looking back at, you know, the footage of
when the national anthem would play shortly after nine to eleven, and how everyone
stood up and probably admired their flag and admired their country, I think it
stirs a little bit in me, like is their hope. Is there a
way that we can get this back in the country, And I honestly don't
know if there is, but it makes me proud to be an American in
the sense of I think that the principles that this nation was founded upon are
still there. They might be covered in a lot of there and all sorts
of things, but they're still there, and there are still people who care
about them. And when it comes down to it, if something happens,
he does write, the people around you are the ones who matter. And
so I think I just hope for a revival one day of that same spirit,
and a much more sustainable version of that same spirit. And I think
that is what makes me and fuels me to be upset and try and hold
people accountable for the erosion of the liberty and the principles that make our nation
so great. Yeah, I think to that point, like the unity and
the trust in the maybe unfounded trust and the decisions of your own government and
their consequences, and the founded trust and your fellow citizen, I think as
kind of tinged that can be with frustration now feeling like, well where did
that America go? It is helpful to know that you know there was this
example, even if I was two years old and don't remember it, this
example of a strong unity and community within my lifetime. It's not this like
far away America that older generations speak of, that it's hopelessly lost. So
I think it's it makes you, you know more, I feel a little
bit more more encouraged about seeking out the places and the ways in which that
unity still exists and defending it more staunchly. On the evening of nine to
eleven, I remember, and again I'm thirty, my mom picked me up
from school, took me straight to church, and when I came back,
I remember looking out my bedroom window was still wide out. They had already
put me to bed, and seeing an airplane and hearing an airplane, and
you know, I was young, so you know, it was nine.
I didn't really have a clear sense of what had happened on nine to eleven.
When I was on the bus that morning, reports were just coming in
and I I remember hearing it on the country music station. It was probably
from one oh six as the bus driver was taking us to school. I
was picked up early by my mom, taking straight to church, and I
remember looking at the airplane that night and being genuinely terrified. And I remember
on the tenth anniversary of nine to eleven in Washington, DC, being genuinely
terrified, having this very serious sense of fear for my personal safety, terror
from my personal safety, which tells you right there that terrorism, you know,
especially when you're a lot of people who experienced nine to eleven as adults
and we're able to kind of reason in a way that children aren't. That
might have been a different experience, but you know, despite being in Wisconsin
on September eleven, twenty two thousand and one, it was. It was
very frightening. And I just wanted to say that I think, as somebody
who's a little bit older than you guys, my answer to the same question
I I tossed your way is that I actually grew up very afraid, very
very scared of something happening, of meeting a horrific and like the innocent souls
of thousands of innocent souls did on nine to eleven. And I know we
could continue talking about the years after September eleventh and the history and what it
means and how it shaped all of us for a long time. But you've
been very generous and I appreciate all of you, Avida Duffy, Alfonso el
Purnell, and Jordan Boyd for joining me today. I appreciate you guys sharing
your thoughts. Thank you so much, thank you, Thanks Emily, Thanks
Emily. Well, if you were affected by nine to eleven, if you
lost the loved one, you're in our prayers. We're praying for you today.
Can't imagine how hard every anniversary is. I imagine this is something that
affects you every single day, but especially on today. We're praying for you.
You've been listening to another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour, a memtal
editions Kick Culture editor here at the Federalist will be back soon with more.
Until then, the lovers of freedom and anxious for the Frame