It just seems trite to ask “what were you doing when you first became aware of the terrorist attacks on 9-11?”.
I clearly remember that I was in a new job assignment, frantically racing to a meeting that I had forgotten when someone told me a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage of the game, it was thought to be a single engine plane by the media.
Little did we all know how wrong they were and how life-altering the terrorist attacks would be on our way of life. So much has been altered, it is almost impossible to enumerate the changes, from the obvious airport security, to how you get a drivers’ license, to the documentation you must have to rent a house or a car.
Nearly 3000 people died on 9-11. They were murdered. Just ordinary people going about their daily business. Then there have been those who died from the clean up, those killed in the wars that ensued, and those who suffered debilitating, life-altering injuries from those wars.
Our lives changed forever. We will never regain what we lost on that date. 9-11 will also be a date that lives in infamy. Post-9-11 seems to have no end. Perhaps more than even the attack on Pearl Harbor, 9-11 seems to have really been, in the words of Don Henley, “The End of the Innocence.”
Some moments you never forget. For me, 3 Berlin wall, 2. Challenger, 1. 9-11.
I was in graduate school, in classroom where the LAN was turned off during lectures. A friend who had hacked wifi access leaned over and said “Plane hit World Trade Center.” I said, “How does a small plane get lost in New York City?” He turned his laptop screen and said “Don’t think it was a small plane.” Soon after every school in site had the pictures, It was inescapable. I called my wife who had gone to the roof of her K Street building to see the Pentagon smoke plume, then the rumors of the State Department being bombed and the Mall being on fire started. A friend with an engineering background “those buildings are toast… jet fuel.” A guy who loved being right hated it at that moment.
Classes were dismissed but no one went home. A classmate from Ireland noted, “Everyone’s thinking, ‘This doesn’t happen here.’ I come from a place where it does happen, and I can’t believe it happened.”
I don’t know if it was the the end of the innocence as much as a realization that strong economics and universal values were not guaranteed to win. Charles Krauthammer (not my cup of tea ideologically but he can craft a bon mot) captured this brilliantly when he referred to the 1990s (particularly Bill Clinton’s second term) as our “holiday from history.” Broadly speaking, many if not most of the great battles were economics and trade, then about values, with foreign policy and defense more or less bringing up the rear. And with Clinton tacking right in his second term (remember triangulation) and basically governing as what a European would call a liberal – and technology stoking the economy – tradeoffs become easier and the gaps between positions smaller. And Clinton tried to run deficits (they were in his plan) but the economy kept growing faster than predicted. Then Monica… and Bill basically became mayor of America, and Republicans had their own issues on the House side. The last major terrorism bill was 1995, and the 1998 Iraq liberation bill was all about “supporting democracy” versus direct action. There’s a reason Francis Fukuyama was the intellectual toast of DC – “The End of History and the Last Man” (more cited than read) put the intellectual window-dressing around this.
Then you get tech crash, Dow crash, corporate scandals and bankruptcies, and 9-11 all inside of 2 years. Holiday over.
In order of importance for me: 9-11, JFK assassination, POWs coming home from Vietnam, Challenger, Nixon resignation.
Then there are a bunch of secondary ones. JFK and 9-11 are almost tied, in my mind.
@MoonHowler
I can’t imagine the JFK aftermath, not least the relative lack of real-time, 24-7 media. Was it better? Worse? I do remember the day Reagan was shot, but the significance was lost on a me, and because it was a failed attempt and the backstory was mental health vs. any inkling of political, it wasn’t etched so indelibly.
Challenger was perfect storm: snow day, lots of kids around, heavy interest in science and tech. Odd what we remember.
I remember a lot of the aftermath being one TV but I don’t remember specifics, other than watching the funeral procession, seeing Lee Harvey Oswald shot on live TV, etc. It was a long time ago and I was young.
I would like to add the Virginia earthquake to my list. Obviously it wasn’t of national importance but it is seared into my brain.