
On September 11, 2001, America was under attacked by Al-Queda, an Islamic extremist group that hijacked American planes. The hijackers were able to board four planes to carry out a suicide mission. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers, one plane into the Pentagon, and the last plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The total amount of casualties from the attacks rests at more than three thousand fellow Americans. This tragic event opened the eyes of Americans and changed the future of the nation. The attack highlighted the lack of airport security, which was the primary vulnerability it exploited. The security needs to be enhanced then in order to identify potentially dangerous passengers. The two major US news broadcasting station, USA Today and PBS, both published recent articles that discuss preventable attack on US soil, that relates to 9/11. 

The article “10 Things You May have Forgotten about 9/11” by Ray Locker and “9/11 to Now: Ways We Have Changed” by Jason Villemez are related to each other due to the topic of September 11. The article “10 things You May have Forgotten about 9/11” discussed the hijackers’ motives and what America could have done to prevent the attack. The answers to these questions are based on theories because most of the primary evidence has been destroyed. The article “9/11 to Now: Ways We Have Changed,” describes the change of security after the incident. I found these two articles interesting because both the article included a video. The videos are a great way for readers to follow along while reading the article. The articles are a great secondary source, while the video/pictures are a great primary source. The video/picture is highly graphic and could trigger Americans to feel emotions from the tragedy on September 11, 2011. The visuals create a strong sense of pathos unlike the words in the articles. The meaning behind the pictures/visuals plays a vital role in depicting the tragedy during the moment of impact.

The article “10 Things You May Have Forgotten about 9/11” summarizes the event as a whole in the beginning of the article. Then ten points strongly emphasize what made the situation so deadly. The ten points are: questions arose on how the hijackers got into the cockpits of some of the planes; there is no evidence of the exact answer because the evidence has been destroyed in the crash; the planes carried light loads meaning that the planes were not as full; one plane that was headed towards Washington DC crashed in a field because of missing hijackers; the Vice President ordered United 93 to be shot down; earlier plots also targeted commercial aircraft; The U.S. worked on multiple attempts to kill Osama bin Laden before 9/11; the CIA warned President Clinton about hijackings in 1998; Saudi Arabia had multiple ties to the hijackers. 

The article “9/11 to Now: Ways We Have Changed” provides ways of preventing a copycat after the 9/11 attack. Security precautionary measures have been put in place on air travel. Congress has passed put The Aviation and Transportation Security Act. This means that the budget on security defense and air travel has increased in fares in the attempt to provide security for the citizens of America. In addition to this act, many other bills and acts have been put in place for safety. 

The two articles correlate to each other due to the fact that they are about the attack on September 11, 1996. However, the difference between these two articles is that the first article lists the information prior to the attack. The second article talks about how government actions have been put in place to stop these inhumane actions. A major similarity would be the fact that the first article state that the hijacker was an Islamic extremist. The result from this fact is shown in the second article stating how “28 crimes committed in 2000 were found to be anti-Islamic. In 2001, that number jumped to 481, and it remained above 100 in subsequent years” (Villemez). For every cause in the first article the effect is shown in the second article. These similarities and differences are shown from different perspectives. Therefore, it is hard to compare and contrast the two articles because they are written about different periods of time of before and after. However, the readers can agree on that implementing airport security would prevent future attacks. The government actions in the second article prevent problems in the first article. The results in these safety precaution leads to a rise in budget.

The way the two authors construct the article is fairly different from one another, which makes them unique. The difference in the articles is to target their intended audience. One who might read “10 Things You May Have Forgotten about 9/11” could be the audience spark interest in the incident about September 11, but does not want to read an intensive long research paper about the attack. Instead, this article provides a gist of the incident. One who might want to read “9/11 to Now: Ways We Have Changed” could be someone that experiences aerophobia and is about to board the plane, but wants some comfort knowing that it will be okay. The authors focused on different interests. I noticed that in the first does not mention Islamic extremist instead replaces that word with hijacker. This could mean that the author of the first article is less politically correct than the second article.  Trying to find the similarities and differences in both articles is difficult. The articles are different, however there are links within both the article to prove the point that security is the main role within the articles. 
