My dad woke me up and had me come downstairs. I was sleepy but it seemed important. The TV was on and it showed flames coming from some buildings. I don’t remember if it was before the plane hit the South Tower or not. I don’t remember my parents’ or sister’s reactions.
I got dropped off at school. I don’t remember if they thought about keeping me home or not. I’m not sure what I would do as a parent. I don’t mean fear of a terrorist attack happening in Hickman, CA, population 500, but just staying home because it was a BIG DEAL. Either way, I’m glad they took me because I think there’s something about processing everything in public, communally.
I remember sitting down in my social studies class and our teacher Mr. Vanden Bosch had the news playing. What he said stuck with me.
“What you’re watching is going to affect us all for years to come. Kids like you will be reading about it in their history books.”
He was right.
In the months after, we used to play parody videos and look up pictures making fun of Bin Laden. Juvenile stuff like Osama with a literal butthead. We played this in class:
I remember seeing police cars at the local Sikh temple presumably to stop them from people harassing or vandalizing them.
Some things were to become household names. The Twin Towers? I had no idea what they were but if I would have thought clearly, I would have realized I knew them from Home Alone 2 where Macaulay Culkin is amazed by them.
Afghanistan. I had no idea where it was before and doubt most people did. The Taliban. Al-Qaeda. Were they different? They were both terrorist groups? Later: Iraq. Weapons of Mass Destruction. Michael Moore.
9/11 was such a massive event that there are so many facets to it. You could focus on the history preceding it. The flying lessons. The fatwa against the US by bin Laden. The WTC bombing in 1993. How far back do you go? The Soviets invading Afghanistan? How about the destruction of the region by Genghis Khan and the Mongols in 1219?
What about the effects? The people in the planes. The people in the towers. The Falling Man. The first responders. The health effects from the dust and even the people who died from car crashes because they were afraid of flying.
Bush, Cheney, the War on Terror, Mission Accomplished. The hunt for bin Laden and his eventual assassination nearly ten years later.
The Arab Spring. ISIS.
The conspiracies. Loose Change. Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams. 9/11 was an inside job. Mossad did it. Thermite.
The debates. Is it Islam? Some of Islam? A few bad apples? Socioeconomic and cultural problems with the people separate from their religion?
Liberals vs conservatives. Was it because of the US meddling in foreign affairs? “9/11 is just retaliation! Look at how many people the US has bombed!”
There are so many interesting facets to the case.
We’ve all had to check our bags at the airport, frustrated knowing there was a chance they could be delayed or misplaced. That’s what actually led to the “Rosetta Stone” of the 9/11 investigation. The leader of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, was forced to check his bags late, so they never made it onto the plane and were later discovered at the airport. Those bags, it turned out, had a treasure trove for the FBI — documents full of details about the hijackers and their connections. This is how the FBI was able to release photos and details about the hijackers only hours after the attacks. Imagine being the first person to open those up and see what was inside. My hands wouldn’t have been able to stop shaking.
The Queen allowed the tributes to play the Star Spangled Banner on September 12 (h/t Reddit):
Visiting the 9/11 Museum in New York last year was an experience. It’s a lot. There’s one thing after another in there. All the stories. Each person had a story. Each one connected to someone else. And all the stories that ended.
Generally, the further you go back in time, the less information we have about it until you reach “pre-history” before there’s any written historical record. Conversely, the closer you get to modern day, the more we have until we’re saturated with them. Documents, photos, video, etc.
Even an event as recent as Kennedy’s assassination only has the one clear video: the Zapruder film, which has been endlessly studied and analyzed. If there was a president assassinated now we’d have fifty high-definition cell phone videos uploaded to Youtube in minutes not to mention the live news cameras filming.
Look at how many pictures and videos we have from 9/11. Watching videos of anchors first breaking the news, it feels so surreal knowing that they have no idea all that will unfold from what they’re seeing.
You can see how quickly people realized that it was purposeful after the second plane hit:
“This seems to be on purpose.”
“Now it’s obvious. …I think we have a terrorist act.”
This video shot by NYU students showed the attitude change (h/t Reddit). (Disturbing video obviously):
It’s been eighteen years. Someone pointed out that for the first time, we’re going to have people voting in the presidential election who weren’t alive when it happened.
I’m not sure how to sign off this post. I feel like having some lesson or poignant but upbeat point would be good but I don’t know what.
Where were you? What was your experience like after and what is it like now?
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