America: In a different view

Walking into The Penn Museum, I expected to see the relics, paintings, statues, and the other artifacts they had. I knew they would have these things from Rome, Greece, Japan, China, Egypt, and the Middle East. The two things that I didn't expect to see were the things that I thought were the two most interesting galleries in the place; The 9/11 room and the Dopefiend area. The reasons why I think they were the two most interesting areas were because of what they each represented. Each area defines the people, places, and cultural of America at this time. 9/11 was the greatest tragedy most people in America have seen and will probably ever see. Also, when looking at the dopefiend wall, it didn't matter what race they were, black, white, hispanic. Everyone's life has been affected by the attack on September 11 and the lives of many Americans have been affected by drugs, whether it is the person taking them or the ones who love them. Also, each one shows what the museum is about, Archaeology and Anthropology.
 For the September 11 memorial, they had a sign on the wall about why they had the room and why they had these items from ground zero to show. I wrote down two lines that were really interesting to me: "The challenge of archaeology is to reconstruct lost moments in time", and "Through the documents recovered history is being documented and preserved". The items that they had on display were not anything major, but it showed that things survived the attack. They had a plate from one of the towers, name tags that people would have worn on the day, and a fire alarm from one of the towers. Even though these items might not have sentimental value to a lot of people, they show the world that if these tiny things can come out the fire, so can this great nation. The dopefiend area of the museum shows the Anthropology side of it. That was one thing that I thought would never be put in a museum. People say that they don't care about dopefiends and who cares if they die. But, at the same time the pictures and the write ups that follow them, show that these are or were normal people, just like the people at the museum. The wall of photos shows the people that this kind of thing can happen to anyone at any giving time. Just as 9/11 was a tragedy, the people who are hooked on heroin and crack are the same. When the terrorist attacked our nation, I thought how could someone do that to the greatest nation in the world. But, when you read the stories of these people, you can't believe you live in the same one.
When you said that museums categorizes themselves into place and time, I immediately thought of these two. Both of these galleries are about America at this time. We proved to the world and to ourselves that this great nation can overcome any tragedy and event that is thrown in our way. People say that even though September 11 was the worst time in this country, it also showed the best in what the country is about. Even though the pictures and captions of the dopefiend gallery show what some people in America have become, there is always hope that they can return to their normal selves.