Ask two people if they remember where they were on September 11th and you will receive an incredibly detailed description. However, if you ask those same two people for a detailed account of what happened that day, you would receive two very different stories Why? Well, public memory is prone to even fuzzier memories. Witnesses and government officials all have different memories. It is often artists who bring these stories together, creating works that encourage public debate. Two such artists are Isabelle Gardner, author of the poem "Children Are Game" and Andy Warhol, painter of "Atomic Bomb". These two artists contribute to the collective memory of the atomic bomb by helping us to understand its meaning. They do this by reflecting in their work the struggle of accurate memory, which every society faces. such traumatic events. cycles of memory and forgetting. Through this process, Warhol and Gardner create a venue through which significant public debate can take place about the bomb and people can discern for themselves the accuracy of the generally accepted public memory of the bomb. In Edward Brunner's book Cold War Poetry, he writes "living in the atomic age is about recognizing that the citizen is as much a target as any military base" (224). However, with the Cold War looming, some forgot the human cost of using these weapons and public memory of the bomb changed. The bomb was now considered a weapon intended to keep people safe. In Isabella Gardener's poem "Children Are Play," she describes a narrator who hears children "skating on the thin ice of the pond" (line 17). These children are...... middle of paper ......ry. [Normal, Illinois]: Dalkey Archive, 2003. 186-94. Print.Prosise, Theodore O.. "The Collective Memory of the Atomic Bombings Wrongly Recognized as Objective History: The Case of Public Opposition to the National Air and Air Museum's Atomic Bomb Exhibit space" Western Journal of Communication 62.3 (1998): 316-47. August 5, 2010< http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/10570319809374613 >Tucson Art Museum and Historic Block. “Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life and Legends – Tucson Museum of Art.” Tucson Art Museum:: 140 N. Main Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701. Web. August 7, 2010. .Warhol, Andy and Pat Hackett. POPism: Warhol's 60s. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. Print. Warhol, Andy. Andy Warhol's philosophy: (from A to B and back). Orlando: Harcourt, 2006. Print.