USC students exposed to alternative view on 9/11
WeAreChange lead organizer Bruno Bruhweiler speaks into a bullhorn urging USC students question the events surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
The 9/11 Truth organization WeAreChange confronted students at USC yesterday, asking them to take another look at the official story surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Situated on the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street, members gathered to engage passersby. They handed out DVDs containing several 9/11-related documentaries.
According to organizer Katy Kurtzman, USC is a “challenge” for the group. She said their organization gets a positive response when doing outreach actions in places like Santa Monica, Silverlake or the San Fernando Valley. However, USC remains resistant to their message.
“We thought as we went to different parts of the city word would get out,” said Kurtzman, “but for some reason this is an odd pocket. These people are asleep. They don’t want their realities challenged.”
Facing the Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street intersection by USC, members of WeAreChange hold up sign few can ignore. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
Getting people acquainted with an alternate explanation to 9/11 is not easy. It is an involved subject with massive amounts of information and if people are unwilling to take a free-DVD it leaves little room with which to plant seeds. But WeAreChange has an answer to that – building seven.
Building seven is a sort attention-grabbing, ace-in-the-hole for 9/11 Truthers. Though most people know about the collapse of the two World Trade Center towers, few are aware that a third tower fell to the ground on Sept. 11.
Kerry Bailey helps hold up a sign that calls attention to World Trade Center building seven. 9/11 Truthers point to building seven as an inconsistency in the official version of events because the building collapsed like the towers without being hit by an airplane. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
The building, which stood 47 stories tall, was not hit by an airplane, but collapsed in the same manner as the two infamous towers had. For Truthers, building seven is a chink in the official story’s armor, lending credence to their belief that the towers collapsed via a controlled demolition.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology maintains the building collapsed due to severe damage from falling debris and a fire that had burned the structure for hours.
Using a bullhorn, lead organizer Bruno Bruhweiler would tell people to go online and simply “look up building seven.” One woman passing by said to Bruhweiler that she thought the building never collapsed, but would take him up on his request when she got home.
Asking people to question the events of Sept. 11 evokes strong reactions in some. Organizers were told to “shut up” or were said to “have a lot of nerve,” but there were just as many – if not more – strong emotions of support. For the group of Truthers however, these experiences are mounting to a grander sociological observation.
Michael Murphy boards a city bus to hand out DVDs to a receptive driver and passengers. The DVDs contain documentaries that question the events of Sept. 11. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
Many of the WeAreChange members interviewed commented on their observations of who is and is not willing to hear what they have to say. The general consensus within the group is that poorer or working-class people, often of color, are more receptive to the 9/11 Truth message. The group theorizes it may be due to the inordinate amount of obstacles such people face causing them to question the society they live in.
“There seems to be a socio-economic awakening in lower-income communities,” said Michael Murphy, a film maker and journalist. “I think it’s due to the oppression [they face].”
WeAreChange member Jomarie Johnson said she found wealthier, older white people to be most resistive, thinking that those who benefit from society the most question the least.
Almost to illustrate their point, the most enthusiastic praise for the group came from bus and truck drivers who would honk their horns to show support. Often members would board buses and hand DVDs to receptive drivers and passengers.
Jomarie Johnson hands a DVD containing alternate information regarding 9/11 to a USC student passing by. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
Johnson says she became disillusioned with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the years progressed. The events of 9/11 and how the buildings collapsed didn’t make sense to her.
“Things weren’t adding up,” she said.
Now she has a granddaughter in the Navy whom she is concerned about.
“I don’t want these kids to be sacrificed for those bums in Washington,” she said. “We have a responsibility for the generations below us. We’re supposed to leave this place better and we’re not doing that.”
And so, with one DVD at a time, members are trying to get people to question the post-9/11 world they live in. Despite the occasional hostile reactions, Kurtzman estimated the group handed out over 200 DVDs in the three-hour period they were at USC.
