When the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 shook New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC, the word "tragedy" was used on a grandiose level around the world. For people who lived close enough to experience the events firsthand, perhaps they didn't even call it a tragedy; perhaps they called it bad luck, retaliation, lack of strong government, unreal, or perhaps even rebirth. In the years following the attacks, everything from standing together as a nation to declaring war had flourished; but how did the land that does not have a distinct ethnicity make us feel towards each other? Why is fear usually missing from the affective memory of memorial sites which, after all, are symbols of some of the most horrific violence in human history? Do memorials dedicated to these attacks unite us in terms of understanding or is it simply an ongoing collective grief? This article will discuss the global complexity of the 9/11 attacks, the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park, NJ, and the factors and theories that memorials influence the sense of complexity. The terrain of public memory is always in motion, shifting with the tectonics of national identity. I chose the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial as a topic of observation since, personally, I visit it a few times during the year to pay my respects to the people I knew personally who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. I was in fifth grade when this happened and had absolutely no idea what was going on until my father came home until two days later with a bandage wrapped around his head and his devastating memory of what had happened just before he got to his house. Work. The emotions I feel within myself relative to others will be... middle of paper... real differences in patterns of behavior and social support include each culture's sense of what is wholesome and wholesome, as opposed to in danger to life and health. Therefore, what people do protects the grieving person and, in a sense, everyone around the grieving person. The intercultural emphasis, in fact, is a sort of metaphor. To help effectively, we must overcome our assumptions and strive to understand people on their own terms (i.e., without having the intent or reason why the man put a rose on Bella J. Bhukhan's name). Works Cited Irish, Donald P. (1993 ) Ethnic Variations in Dying, Death and Grief. Taylor and Francis.Jordan, Bob. Christie unveils Empty Sky Memorial. Daily registration. Retrieved September 11, 2011 Urry, J. (2002) Global Complexity. Cambridge: Polity.White, G.M. (1999) Emotional recollection and the pragmatics of national memory. Ethos 27(4): 1-26.