I was then living in Fairborn, Ohio, getting ready to teach another year at Ohio State. I got up that morning, turned on the TV, and the first thing I saw was fire at the top of a Twin Tower (we New Yorkers referred to World Trade Center 1 and 2 as the "Twin Towers" or simply the "Towers"). I wondered how firefighters were going to put out the fire so high up in the building. Then I heard something about planes flying into the Towers, then about another flying into the Pentagon, then yet another that was hijacked and still flying before crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. I was completely stunned as I watched one Tower, then the other, collapse on live TV.
On that September 11, we didn't know that there were a total of four planes. We didn't know where or how we would be attacked next. The days that followed were tense, quiet, and solemn. Living just a stone's throw away from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, it was eerily silent; for the first time in history American air space was completely closed. There was light traffic on roads that were normally busy. In grocery stores, a sense of dread hung heavily in the air, and people were stocking up on canned goods, trying to prepare for whatever came in the days ahead.
Things that have now become a normal part of our lives weren't normal in the aftermath. Searching and screening people before being admitted to concerts and sporting events. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA with its agents in airports carefully screening bags, having us take off and X-ray our shoes, swabbing our hands for explosives, and sometimes patting us down. The Patriot Act expanding the powers of law enforcement to monitor phone calls and emails without a court order; detain immigrants for an indefinite time; and search homes and businesses (including libraries) without consent or even our knowledge. Over time, we have accepted giving up our privacy and some of our freedoms in the name of security.
The attacks of September 11, 2001 may have occurred 25 years ago, but we live with the repercussions of that day in a brave new world.
Remembering all those who perished 25 years ago and their families as well as those who have died from exposure to toxic WTC ash and rubble from the perch.
Learn more about September 11, 2001 from the following websites:
