Fifteen years later, 9/11 is still part of our lives
It was 15 years ago today that smoke and dust obscured the clear blue sky over Manhattan.
It was also the day that a portion of the Pentagon was reduced to rubble and an airplane plunged to the ground near Shanksville. By the time the carnage came to an end and Americans were reassured that no more planes would be used as missiles, close to 3,000 people were dead. It’s an indication of just how horrific Sept. 11, 2001, was that the death of “only” 3,000 people could generate relief, after some initial estimates placed the toll much higher.
For anyone who was alive and aware that day, memories remain vivid and painful of what has now become known by the shorthand “9/11.” That a decade-and-a-half has gone by is sobering. That means that students in high school today only know 9/11 through what they have heard from their elders or from history classes. A four-year college student on track to graduate this spring would have just started first grade on Sept. 11, 2001. And consider that 15 years is the amount of time that passed between the end of World War II in 1945 and the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, or the birth of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in 1965 and the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The world can shift seismically in 15 years.
The residue of 9/11 is still a part of our daily lives, even if the initial panic has long since subsided. Getting on an airplane has become vastly more grueling, we’re liable to be “wanded” if we enter a sports arena or stadium, and we’re much more likely to be subject to surveillance as we go about our daily lives. The balance between assuring both privacy and public safety has still not been resolved and likely will remain nettlesome when we mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 on Sept. 11, 2021.
The terrorist attacks of that day changed our political landscape, providing a focus to what had been until then a largely shapeless George W. Bush presidency. Bush’s presentation of himself as an unflinching commander-in-chief was among the reasons he was able to pull off a narrow re-election victory in 2004. His presidency was undone, however, by our misbegotten engagement in Iraq, which was sold to the American public as a measure to prevent further 9/11-style attacks. His public opposition to the war as an Illinois state senator helped propel Barack Obama toward the Democratic presidential nomination and the White House in 2008. Our inability to completely free ourselves from either Iraq or Afghanistan has made us gun-shy about other foreign interventions, as we have seen in the debates on whether we should make our presence felt in Syria, and our reluctance is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
In the days after 9/11, Bush commendably underlined that the United States was not at war with Islam, and “there are thousands of Muslims who proudly call themselves Americans, and they know what I know – that the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion.” However, 15 years later, the standard-bearer for Bush’s party has blithely tossed that notion aside, arguing instead that we need to make bigotry and discrimination part of our laws by banning Muslims from entering the United States. To their everlasting shame, all too many other Americans have been eager to join Donald Trump in fanning the flames of Islamophobia.
In just another five years, a full generation will have gone by since Sept. 11, 2001. And, as time advances, memories fade and wounds heal, Sept. 11 will once again become just another day on the calendar. That thought actually provides some comfort.
In the meantime, however, the day will inevitably summon heartbreaking memories of destruction, terror and dread.