The Rise of Paranoia
As I stated in my last post, a strong fear of another attack happening took a firm grip over the nation. I can remember hearing adults talking about what their evacuation plans would be and where they would go if another attack were to happen. People were becoming so paranoid worrying that another attack would happen that they even bought gas mask. Now people on the west coast might not have experienced this as much, but living in Pennsylvania at the time the attacks happened, people were very much afraid.
Not many people knew what would happen in the few months after the attacks. Some people speculated that there would be another hijacking, or chemical attack, or even a rouge terrorist group would obtain a nuclear bomb and detonate it on U.S soil. This may have seemed extreme to most people, but it might as well have been written truth for the media. As you surfed through the news stations back in the early months of post 9/11, you would see nothing but bad things being reported.
I can remember quite vividly switching from news station to news station and seeing nothing but despair. The FOX news network particularly was the station that ran with the crazy ideas the most. They might as well have been saying the apocalypse was upon us. Normally people would ignore the outrageous news stories, but due to that state of fear over the nation, people accepted what the news was saying without question.
With all of the news station reporting despair and the nation’s ideas of an attack running wild, people looked to the government to keep them safe. The nation was willing to do anything to feel that they were safe again. To calm our overly imaginative nerves, the government formed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The primary goal of the DHS is to prevent the U.S and its territories from terrorist attack and respond to natural disasters.(dhs.gov, 2008) That was their primary goal, but over the next few years the DHS would expand their “responsibilities”.
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