Remembering 9/11

The towers burning in New York City. National Park Service. 

As you are almost certainly aware, today is the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that killed more than three thousand people in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. It's also the eight year anniversary of the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya that left an ambassador and three other US citizens dead, though that anniversary is obviously downplayed compared to 9/11 attacks. 

When the attack happened I was just out of high school, not in college yet and I didn't have a job. So naturally I was still sleeping at home when the attacks began. My father work me up and informed me that terrorists were attacking the country. My dad took the day off work and we watched the news coverage for the rest of the day. Since I woke up late that day I didn't actually see the planes hit but it sure felt like I did after seeing them replay the footage a million times that day.

As for historical events that changed my life, I would have to say that 9/11 was the biggest one. It changed how I viewed the world to some extent, though I distinctly remember in high school saying that "Osama Bin Laden needs to die" after another student did a presentation on terrorism. Indeed, I also remember a conversation with my dad where I thought they might hit the World Trade Center again and he said that they might fly planes into the buildings (or the other way around, it's been two decades). But I think I was a lot more cynical after the 9/11 attacks. I just wasn't expecting so much chaos and destruction. 

For those of you too young to remember a life before the 9/11 terror attacks, it was a different world. You could get on a plane without much security, politics wasn't as divisive as it was today and terrorism was mostly an afterthought. A lot of people thought that we were at the end of history as the cold war was over and there was a real sense of optimism that is long gone now. 

One of the most remarkable things that happened in the wake of the attacks, which is unthinkable now, is that for a period afterwards the country was united in a way I have never seen before. Republicans and Democrats largely put their differences aside and worked together for the greater good. It didn't last long, the Iraq War strained that relationship at first and eventually shattered it after no major chemical weapons were found, but it was something that I can't see happening today. 

As for me, I spent the time after the attack in a daze. I was already confused about what my role in life was going to be and the attacks made it worse. I had wanted to join the military even before the attacks and had tried to sign up but I wasn't qualified. I was bitter about that before the attacks but afterwards? I was furious and felt disgusted that I couldn't help defend my country. It took a long time to get out of that funk and I ended up going to college instead. 

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the attacks and I can hardly believe that. Though the attacks do seem rather distant today, it doesn't seem that distant. It's amazing to me that there are people who were born after the attacks that are now old enough to vote...