Here we are just a day away from the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. Many of us who remember September 11, 2001 are starting to reflect on the ways the event changed America and our perception of what it means to be an American.
I remember that morning well. I was thirty years old, six years into my insurance career. My shift at Securian (then Minnesota Life) began at 7:00am CST. I was already at my desk when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center at approximately 8:46 am EST. At first the media was reporting it as probably an accident, maybe a single engine plane. As more details started trickling in from co-workers who heard about it on the radio during their morning drive it became apparent that those early reports were terribly wrong.
As I think back it’s almost unfathomable how much less the world was connected in 2001. News was far from instantaneous. Mobile phones were in the hands of a select few but they just made calls and sent/received texts. The first iPhone wouldn’t be released for another six years. We didn’t even have access to the internet on our work computers back then. Twenty years ago a large majority of Americans were still almost completely reliant on TV and radio for their news.
A second plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03am EST. I had more intimate memories of this building. My parents, my younger brother, and I took the express elevator to the observation deck of the south tower 108 stories above the bustling streets on a summer vacation in 1986. The four of us stood on top of that building in awe of the beautiful and vulgar machine that was New York City running at full speed thousands of feet below. We were so high it seemed like you could see the Earth curve before us.
I would return to take that same elevator up to the observation deck of the south tower one last time in 1994. I went on a trip to New York City fresh out of college and was planning on moving to the city to be closer to publishers. Fate had other plans and that never happened.
Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37am EST. Twenty minutes later passengers overtook the hijackers of flight 93 and it crashed into a field in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Our fears were amplified. I never believed that I would witness an attack of this magnitude on mainland US soil and nearly everyone I spoke with shared in that belief.
Not much work got done the day of the attacks or the rest of the week. Minnesota Life set up televisions on rolling carts in the lobby before the lunch hour and management was allowing us to go down for as long and as often as we wanted. Wave after wave of news developed.
On that morning of September 11, 2001, as the media replayed the footage of those gargantuan Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsing in on themselves, it felt as though a great facade was crumbling as well. In the ensuing days the realization that America was no longer immune to the kind of violence the rest of the world had become accustomed to for decades began to sink in. For the first in my life I felt vulnerable as an American and a great sense of paranoia.
Within the cyclone of emotions that day, the two I remember most distinctly bubbling to the surface were shock and fear. There was speculation that more hijacked planes were in the air and as the news stories developed that speculation was confirmed.
Would there be attacks in more cities across the country?
Would our capital be under siege?
No one really knew. Commercial flights were grounded. Military fighter jets and helicopters made regular flights over the Twin Cities for weeks. Reports of more terrorist cells already within the US planning more attacks circulated widely, keeping us all on edge.
Technology wasn’t the only thing that was different in 2001. I remember how completely the tragedy brought the entire country together. Despite our differences, we were Americans first. Despite political affiliation, race, or economic class could come together against a common threat. Neighbors began speaking on a regular basis, taking care of one another.
On September 20, 2001, while emotions were still running high and wounds still fresh, President Bush stood before Congress and the American people announcing his “War On Terror”. Five days later Defense Secretary Rumsfeld announced “Operation Enduring Freedom”, a US led anti-terror campaign that would take us and our allies to war with Iraq and Afghanistan. Operation Enduring Freedom would ultimately last twenty years and cost US taxpayers $2,261,000,000,000. Although the actual cost in dollars, human lives, and all of our personal freedoms (Patriot Act) were far more substantial.
In the weeks leading up to this anniversary I’ve been reflecting about how deeply America has changed in these past two decades.
“America is the greatest country on Earth!'' We’ve heard this for most of our lives but is it true?
The data speaks otherwise. By nearly every measure America’s quality of life has worsened in the past twenty years. Over the past eighteen months, facades have further eroded to reveal an even greater divide. America is nearly split down the middle and each side seems to be living in two completely different realities. Friends and relatives who don’t share the same opinions are turning their backs on one another and severing ties forever. American citizens are mirroring the behavior of those they elect to serve us.
“If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." Howard Zinn, historian and author
Democrats and republicans spend more time fighting each other and finding ways to line their own pockets (and those of their constituents) and amass more power than taking care of us, those they are elected to serve. American infrastructure is crumbling. Our education and healthcare are also among the worst in the developed world. America’s treatment of the elderly is atrocious.
Yes, some of the division is being stoked by nations wishing to cause us harm but if we pull back the curtain, the majority of the division originates like a malignancy, consuming us from within.
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." - Robert M. Hutchins
As we mourn the lives lost during the terrorist’s attacks on September 11, 2001, and in the twenty years of wars that followed, let us think about all of the other things we’ve lost.
I'm afraid of what America is becoming -- an ugly, divided, uncompassionate, and violent nation that is growing increasingly difficult to survive in.
We need to find ways to be better, to take care of one another before the divide is too great to traverse.
"Americans are too broadly under informed to digest nuggets of information that seem to contradict what they know of the world. Instead, news channels prefer to feed Americans a constant stream of simplified information, all of which fits what they already know. That way they don't have to devote more air time or newsprint space to explanations or further investigations... Politicians and the media have conspired to infantilize, to dumb down, the American public. At heart, politicians don't believe that Americans can handle complex truths, and the news media, especially television news, basically agrees." - Tom Fenton
This isn’t a hit piece on America.
I love my country, or at least the idea of it anyway.
Questioning a status quo that is clearly failing us isn’t unpatriotic, in fact this is democracy in its purest sense. Those career politicians who are ransacking our nation from within don’t want us freed from our distractions. They will put up as many roadblocks as they can to prevent us from seeing the awful truth. You see our worst enemies’ greatest fear is that the American people will wake up and we must do exactly that before it’s too late.
Can America find a way to heal its wounds and rise to become a better version of itself?
I’m one hundred percent rooting for that. None of us individually can fix America but, collectively, we can do it. Before that happens we must beef up our mental immune systems so we can see through the lies and wild conspiracies that currently divide us. We have to become more involved in our political system and start holding our politicians accountable.
“The radical left and the radical right, each made up of people who have been cast aside by the cruelty of corporate capitalism, have embraced holy war. Their marginalized lives, battered by economic misery, have been filled with meaning. They hold themselves up as the vanguard of the oppressed. They claim the right to use force to silence those defined as the enemy. They sanctify anger. They are consumed by the adrenaline-driven urge for confrontation. These groups are separated, as Sigmund Freud wrote of those who engage in fratricide, by the “narcissism of minor differences.” ― Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Never forget...the unmet campaign promises, the lies, the deception.
I’d like nothing more than to stop feeling this complete and utter disconnect from those we elect and policies they hand us.
This is my American dream.
Before that dream is realized our politicians will have to live in the same world we do. Our elected officials will have to truly experience the fear, pain, and struggle that is modern day America before they understand.
Our politicians and their children will have to walk the same dangerous streets, go to the same underfunded public schools, and will have to trust their well being to the same broken healthcare system that we all do. Until they actually know what that actually feels like I fear nothing will change.
Never forget...we never have to remain a slave to our past.
United, we will stand. Divided, we will all perish together. Never forget.
With Gratitude,
Eric Vance Walton
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
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The irony of this write-up is that individually so many nations or third world countries would actually wish to be in a position where America is currently despite the divide, the corruption and the political strivings of many politicians to blind people from the actual truth.
I haven't experienced an account of what happened in 9/11 just like you are actually painting it. Looking at it from a different perspective i felt like that was one of the first experience of violence that seen as a young child. The second was the bombings of the army barracks in Nigeria of which thousands lost their lives, which happend around that 2001 or so. Truth is there's always someone that's always profiting from chaos or these violence.
While you have hope that America can see the truth and be free from corruption and be great again, many have lost hope on Nigeria as a country. It's quite juxtapositing, the two situations.
It's good to see you wax lyrical about your country, it's great to believe.
Thanks for the comment and I appreciate your point of view. I don't diminish the struggles of anyone in the third world, as I know that is on a completely different level and I sympathize with that. What most of the rest of the world isn't always aware of is the America they see on television and the concept of the country they've been sold is sometimes vastly different from the reality of what it truly really is. Many of our own citizens believe the fictionalized version of what America is. Americans have the mechanism and framework to free ourselves (something some countries in the world don't have) yet we have to wake up before we can actually use it.
No no no, I wasn't actually trying to imply you did, I only pointed it out as the situation or a phenomenon that I'm used to with people around me as Nigeria itself could be considered a third world country as well. It's true, a lot of us have a different fictionised version of what American truly is and this can be really heightened by the media; mainstream and social.
I find it very enlightening that I could really read your expository and historical point of view
I remember that day. We r watching live on TV about at 5 pm to my country. It must have been a terrifying day and days.
What do u think about conspiracy theories?
That day really did change everything for us here in this country. I don't think some of those theories could be impossible but I also think we'll never know the truth about what happened. To spend precious time chasing that is kind of a waste of time. I think that energy is better spent trying to change a system that could, potentially, have allowed something like that to happen.
This is how I know what we are fed is false. The information is far too simple, and far too unvarying. What kind of entity has the power to do that, to get news sources world wide to report the exact same few facts? Not one I trust.
This is why I value travel and reading so much @owasco. In a certain sense only when we travel outside our borders can we see through some of the lies we've been taught.
This is a monster subject, Eric, and I appreciate your attempt to tackle it, fairly…
Here’s how one informed friend put it: going to a “20 years after 9/11” lecture?
If you hear nothing about Guantanamo, profits of military-industrial complex, surveillance and reconnaissance, white nationalism, drones, military weaponry circles back to our inner cities, hundreds of thousands of murdered Iraqi and Afghan civilians, and corrupt alliances with dictatorial regimes worldwide, ask yourself whose narrative is being told & whose silenced.
Demand better.
Here is his column that attempts to touch on these complicated matters:
https://religionnews.com/2021/09/10/america-and-muslims-have-come-a-long-way-since-9-11-we-have-a-long-way-to-go/?fbclid=IwAR3UrKP45BwY9sJxXUu9I67n0_PwXsKQKrZXrac0hBmqDcuTDqEQg9zWSlI
A monster subject is correct, and I barely scratched the surface of it in this piece. Thank you very much for the link, I’ll give it a read!
I think it’s as natural to be proud of one’s country as it is of oneself — but, it thwarts our growth to do so, uncritically. Because we are One, when we harm others, we harm ourselves.
What is the spiritual cost of disproportionate revenge; are we still innocent; do we forego the right to play martyr when we have blood on our hands?
These are questions on my mind on the eve of September 11. I hope you appreciate article 🙏🏽
My point was the polar opposite actually. I feel disconnected and opposed to the direction the country is heading. Those questions are all good ones to ponder. Your words are so true, we are all one, it's never been more apparent. The article was very enlightening. Thanks again!
Yes, of course, I sensed your disenchanted and self-interrogation and that was why I was emboldened to speak up on your platform — addressing those who might perceive your position as unpatriotic.
To truly love oneself, others, one’s nation, I feel we should demand better, remembering the ideal that we might have strayed from. That’s why I shared the column which I’m grateful that you appreciated 🙏🏽
I sincerely don't believe we live in a open democracy and free state anymore. Everything that has happened through my life time so far. The United States is not free. It is a illusion or a hashtag at this point.
I'm not sure how old you are but I think things really began to change here in the 1960's with Barry Goldwater and the Nixon administration. This is well before my time but from what I've read this seems to be when the tide began to turn.
I'm pretty young 27 years old so wasn't around during Nixon times
Me either, I wasn't old enough to remember his Presidency anyway. It's worth reading up on. Some of the stuff that went on behind the scenes in government were atrocious and laid ground work for much of the shenanigans we are experiencing today.
The post-9/11 "unity" was used as a tool by the political class to justify starting two decades of unjust wars and two decade of ballooning domestic police state abuses. The attacks were instigated by even more decades of foreign intervention in our name by the usurper in D.C.
Corporate cronyism, rampant corruption, and other consequences we have seen are features of democracy. The incentives of the political class and the voters are all perverse.
9/11 revealed the lie of Bush's "humble foreign policy" and the supposed Democrat principles of peace.
It's easy to believe how this could be correct. The amount of money the defense contractors made these past two decades is staggering and then the equipment left there by the military all but guarantees many more paydays for them.
I was out in my car installing cable modems. Had no clue what was going on until around 11 or noon when I got back to the office and no one was doing any work. It was crazy. It has been pretty sad to see us become so divided. My hope would be that it doesn't take another attack or war to draw us back together though.
I bet that was a total shock to return to the office and learned all of that had transpired. I hope it doesn't take another horrific event to pull us together either.
I cannot believe that 20 years have passed. In April that year, I travelled to Tokyo, never imagining how international travel might change. It did. I remember that afternoon (it was for us), and how the dial-up internet went down. We had no radio or TV at the office and we waited on phone calls for news. There was an air of surreal disbelief. We went home and for the first time, ever, turned on the TV and watched, aghast at what had, until then, just been the stuff of movies.
A few years later, I visited Ground Zero. I have been contemplating writing about that.
From your lips to God's ears.
I know! In many ways those two decades feel as though they passed in a blink. I had only flown out of the country once prior to 9/11 and it was to Cancun Mexico. Pre-TSA things were a lot more relaxed. I actually brought a Leatherman multitool with me on the flight not realizing that it would be an issue (I was very naive back then). The flight crew took it, locked it up during the flight and gave it back to me after we touched down. These days I wouldn't have been detained for that.
We spent a lot of time in NYC in 2017-18 but I couldn't bring myself to visit Ground Zero. Maybe on some future trip.
I was a journalist back then and working in the foreign affairs department so I remember well those hectic days and very long nights. I would add to what you said about Americans standing united that all of the free world stood with you, and that's another thing that was lost in the past 20 years.
As for what's happening today in America, I think it's very sad. My impression is that your country is being destroyed from within. A country that brings down the statues of the man who discovered this land, a country that attacks its Founding Fathers and puts trigger warning on its Constitution, this country is doomed I'm afraid. Yes, it could be saved if people walked united, but they won't let them I'm afraid.
I can't even imagine being a journalist during those days. I bet you didn't sleep for days on end. You're right, the entire world is becoming just as divided as America. That's something that I was blinded to as I was working on this piece because I was so singularly focused on America. I've probably put hundreds of hours of research into trying to figure out better places to live but it's not easy. The YouTube channel Nomad Capitalist is always on my watchlist.
Politicians and the Elites fleeing to the US for a better life and yet the same US have their own problems to deal with.
We are actually wishing to become US citizens to save ourselves from our country, to find greener pastures. But yet, America is going through there own share of same thing we're gunning to leave our country for.
There's no paradise on Earth. We must each learn to make out lemonades in the lemons that comes in form of tragedy, terrorism and even bad governance.
I hope democracy don't get snuffed out in the coming years. The attitude of our leaders here in my country scares me. I only know to pray for now, that, I will do.
Your words are very true, There's no paradise on Earth.
I've been researching countries and experiencing them personally through travel for years. What I've learned is it's impossible to know what a place is like until you spend time on its soil, converse with its people, breathe its air, and feel its vibe.
There is no perfect place but there are many countries that offer a higher overall quality of life than America. Those countries have their share of issues as well but they have a robust social safety net, and some measure of equality, freedom, and security. These places are easy to find through a simple Google search. The Netherlands tops the list for me, most all of the boxes are checked there. For me it's all a matter of finding a place to call home that is as closely aligned to your personal values as possible.
I wish the best for your country. I know the Nigerians themselves are tremendous people. That's what I find all across the world, the majority of folks in every place I've visited are all mostly good, giving, interesting people. Universally, all the average person anywhere really wants is to be happy, raise a family, and have the freedom to pursue their dreams.
Rightly said.
When the tragic events of that day began to come across the television I was knee deep in my morning housework routine. I could hear the television but not clearly enough to tell what they were saying. I could tell by the tone however, that something important was happening so I left my chore to go into the living room. My eyes were glued to the screen in disbelief and shock. As the news got worse and worse and stories of more possible terrorist planes in the skies were mentioned I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. My son was in first grade at a new school built in close proximity to the backside of Orlando International Airport. I panicked and drove over there and scooped him up lest there were any incidents involving the planes there.
On that day, in that hour I became a different person. I began to prepare. I have been what some call a prepper ever since. Did I know what I was prepping for?? Nope, aside from war on American soil. It has come to pass in these last couple of years, though not from other nations wishing to invade, but from our own disillusioned citizens and the cartel that is our own government. That old saying don't foul your own nest should apply here but still we constantly see people burning and looting their very own neighborhoods. I don't get it!
I appreciate you sharing your story Tamara! I'm sure you were absolutely terrified for your family.
I think my reality started to be reframed during the whole Y2k scare. I began to think about what were to happen if all the things we take for granted like our food supply, water, and power were to become suddenly unavailable. That was the first thing to shake me from my slumber. 9/11 and all of the events that came after only solidified it.
The closest we came to fleeing with a bug out bag came last spring during the riots in St. Paul, MN after the George Floyd killing. People were withdrawing all their money from banks and anyone with a cabin up north or another place to go left. Our city is still horribly unsafe and those in power don't seem to think the safety of its citizens is a priority. The only people I've noticed trying to make a difference are private citizens with the means to spark some kind of change.
If this division continues to grow there will be a mass exodus from US cities. I fear many of our cities will end up like Detroit, burned-out shells that will take decades to rebuild. I understand people's frustrations but I wish we all would use that energy constructively to work together towards real and lasting change. America has a super complicated set of problems to overcome. Some of the people who set fires here weren't even from Minnesota but had traveled from hundreds of miles away to incite violence. I feel for people who don't have the means to escape situations like that. My family was stuck in a dangerous neighborhood in the 80's when the crack epidemic exploded in the Midwest. It wasn't fun. These kinds of things are always a million times more complex than what the news reports.
Fear is one of the great motivators. It becomes even more powerful when a major event happens in your own backyard. I can only imagine your fear for your family during the riots in St. Paul. I would most likely have been one of those who took to the north.
Those in power have such a different agenda than we do. Our safety is of no concern to them contrary to what we are told. Being an ordinary citizen in a sea of ordinary citizens, I swim through my day to days without giving much thought to government officials or those in power. At least that's how it used to be and Lord, how I miss those days.
You are so right...the people are the answer. We are the change, but only if we stop going in a million different directions. If we could only agree to go in the same direction, our numbers would be so strong that we would most assuredly make progress toward a better life for all. The wedges they keep driving into the population is certainly fracturing the resolve of those who find it easier to cave than to stand.
Stay strong!
Fear is the best motivator. The riots and that feeling of vulnerability changed how I view life in the city, any city really. It's incredible how quickly civilized society can dissolve. For the first time in my life I feel the urge to buy some acreage and build my own home.
It's true, those in power don't care because they live in a completely different world than we do. Somehow we need to pull them back into our world.
Thanks for your comments. I hope you and yours stay strong as well!
And here in South Africa so many of us would give anything to live in America as it looks like a dream country from the outside.
I was so disheartened when we had those awful riots that I told hubby he needs to find his grandfather's family as he came from Luling, Texas. He was a German American who came to our country during the 1st world war, but then decided to stay here!
Crime is getting out of control here mainly because of unemployment; our police force is incompetent, way too laidback and plain lazy while the politicians, just like yours, are too busy lining their own pockets, but I totally agree with you on this which holds true for many countries in the world:
Many communities are forming Crime Watch groups with patrols, messaging on whatsapp with some armed response companies on the group as well. We pay an armed response security company and if there's any crime issue, we call them first and then the police as they do not have enough resources and often don't even answer their phones!
BUT...we need to stop the blame game and start acting!
I always say America must have an excellent PR team to project that image across the world. It's not all bad, it really isn't. Like almost anywhere, Americans are generally good. You have to spend time here to see the complexity that is the real America.
I recently read that in 2019 over 60% of US adults took oxycontin. If that number's true it's telling of a few things...first, the big pharma's infiltration of our government/medical system but also how many people are trying to "escape" the pain of their day-to-day existence.
The stories of how you all came together to help restore order over there was inspiring! Somehow people need to learn how to see through the bullshit our leaders are spewing. I'm not sure what it's going to take.
I really appreciate what you tell us in this post.
You are absolutely right with this statementHello dear friend @ericvancewalton good day
"Never forget ... we never have to remain slaves of our past."
That day I can never forget; I worked under a dependency relationship and we had a management meeting, we discussed insignificant things about the business, something that did not deserve to invest time in it, our direct boss was determined to screw our lives with those insignificance.
At one point I asked permission to leave the meeting and there I saw the news, you cannot imagine how what I saw impacted me, there I realized the true value of life and that I was wasting time in my work
That day was when I decided that I had to resign, the year ended and the first days of January I quit my job and returned to my hometown.
My whole life changed after that brutal attack
Thanks for sharing those memories. That kind of thing is hard to erase from your memory and can reframe everything in your life and make you reexamine priorities. It sounds like the event set you on a better path. You seem very happy and content now.
It's hard to believe how long ago this was. I first heard the news of the first plane hit from the Howard Stern show while driving in to work...
Technology sure has changed a lot since then. Cell phones were becoming common but I wouldn't have one until 2003 or 2004. The very first camera phone didn't arrive in the U.S. until near the end of 2002. I already had broadband at home and internet at work but the internet was a different place then. I was still using CRT TVs and monitors...I think i had a dual Pentium III system on my desk... If this attack had happened just a few years later, there would have been millions of cell phone photos and videos but as it is, there are really only a relative handful.
In a way, it is easy to blame technology and the Internet for many of the problems we have. I don't think it is that though centralization of social media has certainly played a role. Otherwise, the massive increase in the availability of information should be making everybody more well informed. Unfortunately, it isn't always easy to filter out the opinion, fake news and other faulty or incomplete information.
Tech sure has progressed by leaps and bounds. I think I had a cell phone around 2002 or so but it was a very primitive grey Motorola flip phone with green digital numbers. I had a dummy terminal connected to a mainframe and an ancient Mac on my desk for desktop publishing.
I do agree that tech and social media have ushered in a new level of f*ckery. It gives those in power so many more ways to manipulate the masses. If you haven't seen them already these two docs highlight some ways in which it's happening...
https://www.netflix.com/title/80117542
https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224
We're about to enter an even more frightening world with the advent of A.I. and more sophisticated deep fakes.
This event is one of the most tragic events in humanity's history. I can never forget how innocent lives were taken. I really feel sad for their families :<< Thank you for discussing this!
Thanks for reading!
!LUV to America 🌹
<><
@ericvancewalton, you've been given LUV from @opidia.
Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. (3/10)
Good congratulations
HIVE!D
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