This Connection of Everyone with Lungs, a series of poems written by Juliana Spahr, is about 9/11 and the differences and similarities in how it has had effects on people around the world. The poems are split noticeably based on when they were written. The first section is entitled “poem written after september 11/2001,” and the second section, “poems written from november 30/2002 to march 27/2003.” This divide separates Spahr’s initial experiences of the terrorist attacks that occurred on 9/11/01 from her thoughts on the events later on, as well as her reflection on the United States’ invasion of Iraq.

Spahr’s first poem explores the connection between all people. Our bodies are made up of the same organs and operate in the same ways. We all, as human beings, breathe the same air in and out. We all share the same space. She wrote the first poem in Brooklyn, New York, a place where people were physically effected by the effects of 9/11. The toxic chemicals that were released into the air upon the impacts of the planes into the Twin Towers physically effected all of New York’s residents: even with all their differences and diversity in values, views and lifestyles, all people living in New York City were effected by the air that they all breathed in and out of their lungs.

When I lived in New York in 2013, I worked in a cafe with a back door to the kitchen that slammed loudly whenever someone walked through it. One night when I was working the late shift, a disgruntled neighbor to the cafe came in and informed me that she needed to speak to the owner of the establishment, as the slamming door was putting her on edge every time an employee went down to the kitchen. She told me that she had lived through 9/11 and that she suffered from PTSD. After promising her that I would speak to the owner on her behalf and that we would make an effort to close the door quietly, she went back home. After her departure, a fellow employee commented that we had all lived through 9/11 and that if the sound of a slamming door bothered her, she shouldn’t be living in noisy Manhattan. She was appalled that the woman had “pulled the 9/11 card.”

Immediately following 9/11 occurred, a sense of community within New York as well as the United States formed. I remember learning in a friend’s Sunday school class about how people banded together and that a lot of kindness came from 9/11 as a result of people’s ability to relate to each others’ experience, as well as a need for support. New Yorkers were there for each other in their losses. The U.S. as a whole banded together in their fear and and grief in order to become stronger. However, the U.S. as a country isolated itself. Instead of opening up and relating with other countries, the U.S. separated itself from other countries, upped its security and planned counter-attacks.

America’s reaction to 9/11 exemplifies the dichotomy of “we” and “others” that is discussed in Judith Butler’s book Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?, and has been so throughly explored in many of my classmates blogs. New York, and the U.S. as a whole opened up their “we” to include all New Yorkers and all Americans, but in doing so, also made their “others” more distinct and to include more people. As time has progressed, the people of New York have relapsed into their old ways of the self-centered isolation. On a day to day basis, I would argue that our “we” usually only includes those that we have positive interactions with. The woman who came in to the cafe where I worked to complain about the noise wasn’t taking into account the fact that 9/11 was something that had effected all New Yorkers, all Americans, and all those that breathe, as Spahr argues. She had re-isolated herself, and her “others” had grown to include those of us working in the cafe. Additionally, my rather insensitive co-worker, instead of being understanding and accepting the woman into her “we”, excluded her. The two were unable to connect with each other over the traumatic events that they had both experienced, and much like the U.S., shut down and isolated themselves. Though we are all connected as humans, we often choose not to expand our “we” and connect with strangers unless we are forced to by extreme conditions, such as 9/11.

References:

Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? New York: Verso, 2009. Print.

Spahr, Juliana. This Connection of Everyone with Lungs. Berkley: University of California Press, 2005. Print.