Ever since tragedy struck on that fateful Tuesday morning back in 2001, September 11 has been a solemn day of remembrance for Americans.
Most of us can recall a time when it was just another day, but we can unfortunately never recapture the innocence we had then.
No matter how we react when the day rolls around, the events of 9/11 will continue to weigh on our minds.
For this reason, passions can understandably heighten a little quicker than usual and if it seems as though someone is making a disrespectful move, it’s easy for widespread outrage to follow.
And as we’re about to see, not even the First Lady of the United States is immune to such heated moments.
At 6:32 am yesterday, President Donald Trump posted a tweet paying tribute to 9/11 on its 18th anniversary.
In it, he and First Lady Melania Trump can be seen standing at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania.
This installation pays tribute to the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, who prevented the plane from reaching the U.S. Capitol after the flight was hijacked.
Featured in this somber scene, however, was a detail that some Twitter users couldn’t help but notice.
Namely, that the embroidery on Melania Trump’s coat seemed to depict an object flying into a tower.
For some, it resembled the nose of a plane breaking through one of the twin towers.
Others noted that the pointed roof of the “tower” didn’t quite match the description of any part of the World Trade Center.
For users like @AshleySpivey, it seemed to resemble an object flying into the Washington Monument instead.
People were generally pretty outraged.
And to be completely honest, the longer I look at the dress, the longer I’m like “Do these people have a point?”
Even Trump supporters weren’t certain that the outrage was unfounded.
“Saw a liberal make fun of the embroidery on the back of Melania’s dress here and I was about to chide them for focusing on inconsequential matters,” this user writes, “Then I zoomed in on it and I’m not sure what I’m looking at.” That right there, is doubt.
Maybe our brains are just creating meaning where there is none.
But on the other hand, is that many people from all sides of the political spectrum see a plane and a tower on her dress, there’s got to be some merit here.
As far as some of their fellow users were concerned, however, these critics were seeing something that simply wasn’t there.
They suggested the “tower’s” shape was purely functional and that the supposed flying object was just an unusual-looking button.
As USA Today reported , White House representative Stephanie Grisham’s description of the controversy as “ridiculous” seemed to confirm this suspicion and suggested that the design was not intended to evoke any such imagery.
This seems to be more optical illusion than intentional disrespect.
Let’s not be so quick to accuse people of making a mockery of a tragedy. You know, like this Trump tweet from 2015 where he does exactly that .
h/t: USA Today
