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Today isn’t just the day after the debate
Other than tiny blurbs on what the current candidates are doing to mark the date, I have found very little to commemorate or solemnify the date. Even on Ricochet, there is one post that mostly just states our lack of progress in defeating Islamist terrorism.
Today is the anniversary of one of the worst attacks on US soil. Civilians were killed in an attack that forever changed the political landscape and our daily lives.
We no longer: send off or meet family at the airport gate, wear shoes through the airport, or even consider privacy an expectation.
While some news programs will do a retrospective on the human cost of the attack, focusing on the heroes of the day or enumerating the civilians murdered, overlaid on the flag and the NYC skyline or the Pentagon, few will take a moment of silence to remember the country we used to be.
The cost of that day was far more than the cost of human loss and ongoing illness in the few survivors.
The cost of that day was immeasurable for the entire country. We all suffered a loss of rights and a way of life that we can never again achieve. Our children will never know a life where every movement is not tracked by an agency. We will never again have the safety and certainty that we did before.
Today is a day of remembrance for those killed, as well as a day to recall what we and all future generations lost. We should take a moment to be grateful for the people who helped that day, for those who perished, and for those who survived. We should also take a moment to thoughtfully reflect on our lives since then and mourn what we had, who we were as a nation, and to remember that even if we weren’t there, we all suffered a grievous loss.
9/11 was the day that America changed.
Published in General
Amen TRN.
Where were you when the towers fell?
That is the question for all of us of a certain age.
My oldest son was 5 on that day, joined the Marine Corps on his 18th birthday and received a medal for joining in a time of war. He did 8 years and was discharged 2 days before 9/11/21, and just 2 weeks after the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul. He has no memory of this date and his brother, who is now a Midshipman 2/C at Kings Point sees everything as ancient history.
A member of our church was working in the North Tower. And now his parents have passed, too.
Time is a cruel and unrelenting mistress and you can’t stop her.
I was very surprised to find out that our University was holding a memorial service today to be attended by first responders and veteran alumni. I made a point to go just to make sure that some faculty attended. It wasn’t crowded, but there were students, staff and faculty there. We observed a moment of silence; the carillon played a song composed for the day and the first responders laid a wreath at the memorial. Very moving.
4o1 S. La Salle Street, twelfth floor. Just north of the Telegraph Building while we waited for our old office to be painted. We heard the news of the first plane hitting the North Tower on CNBC. I was telling my officemate about the B-25 that hit the Empire State Building in 1945 when the second plane hit. I knew then that the first plane wasn’t an accident. Work kind of ceased at that point, until Bernie came into the room and told us that the city was evacuating buildings in the vicinity of the Sears Tower and we might as well go home for the day.
There was no point trying to hail a cab. I had to walk past Sears Tower to get to Northwest Station. I spent the walk back figuring out that if a plane hit, it would take about a second for the sound to reach the ground, and another eight before the debris started hitting the ground. (Being an engineer is not just something you can turn off, you know.)
The platform at Northwest Station looked like the train platform in Casablanca, except I didn’t get a note from Ingrid Bergman. All trains were local outbound, standing room only until we got to Des Plaines. I heard about the Pentagon and Flight 93 on my Walkman. The markets were closed, so I don’t think I went back into work until the following Monday.
I was reading an old Dave Barry column the other day, where he mentioned getting to the airport an hour early so he could stand around and wait. Only an hour? Must have been nice.
I think the commemorations are muted because the changes after and not related to 9/11 have had so much greater effect than 9/11 itself did. Obama made a hard left turn toward hating America, celebrating abortion, legalizing gay marriage, and Julia depending on the government all her life. Obama started (or maybe accelerated) the trend toward politicians lying shamelessly and gaslighting (“If you want to keep your doctor”). Then covid and the lockdowns came and made even more changes. And then Biden took another hard left turn. And here we are.
It feels as though 9/11 was still in a previous era. Like it’s not relevant to today’s situation. And that’s really sad.
It is really sad.
What is most sad is that while all you said is true, all of it can be traced back to 9/11. We let our rights be taken in exchange for a safety that couldn’t be promised.
Since then, even more rights are stripped way using the same logic; sometimes, even using the same act that was supposed to prevent another terrorist attack. Teenagers and young adults now expect that we should be made uncomfortable and have our rights taken away in the name of civility and safety. Not only do they expect it, they help to enforce it. They yearn for it.
In return, the restrictions put in place become even more broad and become a tool of the state. All welcomed by the generations who never knew how good we had it and by some who still somehow believe that the government can protect us.
I recall trips to the airport to pick up my grandmother when she flew out to visit in the early 90’s. They did have metal detectors then, which fascinated me as it was the first and only place I had ever seen them, but we just casually strolled through — no lines, no emptying of pockets or removing of shoes, no showing ID and obviously no boarding passes as we didn’t have any. Then we walked out to the gate and hugged Grandma as she emerged from the tunnel.
More innocent times, happier days.
My first international trip, my parents took me to the gate and waited with me. It was only a few short years later that 9/11 would happen. I’d just left the US (with parents at the gate) to go to the UK for a semester abroad. Two days later and the first day of class, we were interrupted by someone running in from the dorms saying that the US had been “bombed or something”. Class was canceled as we ran back and watched the news. We arrived to the dorm just in time to see the second plane.
No calls could get through to the US and internet was not that good back then. We were separated and unable to help, even unable to mourn with our own people.
In ’99 I drove cross-country with a buddy who was moving to New York for grad school. We decided to cut across Ontario on the way to Niagara Falls, I didn’t even have a passport yet, and thought nothing of crossing the border. The Canadian guards were very friendly, asked a few questions and waved us through, but the American guard made us pull aside and started grilling us while trying to inspect the station wagon which was packed to the gills with everything my friend owned. We could’ve been smuggling all sorts of things, but it hadn’t even occurred to me that this might look suspicious, and I recall at the time I was first surprised and then rather indignant. We’re American citizens, he’s moving, this is his stuff, what’s the hold-up here officer?
When we first relocated to the Pacific Northwest, we took several trips in summertime by ferry between Seattle and Victoria, BC, in the Princess Marguerite. It was about a three hour trip one-way. Although the boat did carry cars, we never bothered, because we found Victoria a very walkable little city. Made a nice day trip with a few hours to shop, eat, visit a museum, and such, before the return voyage.
The only ID needed crossing the border in either direction was a unexpired driver’s license. And if you brought anything back you’d bought, there might a customs form to fill out.
Until 1908 you could cross the US-Canada border without any formalities or paperwork whatsoever.
Dave Barry reported on the phenomena of Americans going over to Canada and purchasing unregistered unregulated 3.5 gallon toilets. I’m told the only way you can get those now is through the gun show loophole.