Not since the Kennedy assassination has America been so affected by one single event. The attack of 9/11 left us shocked, confused and distraught.
At 8:13am on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 is the first of three planes to be hijacked. According to various timelines, the pilot makes no distress call. A few minutes later, the transponder is turned off. At 8:22, flight attendant Amy Sweeney manages to call in the hijacking, speaking with Michael Woodward, an American Airlines service manager. At 8:46am, Flight 11 hits the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Sweeney continues to talk with Woodward until Flight 11 crashes.
At 9:03 am, United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the South tower of the World Trade Center. Just 36 minutes later, American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the west side of the Pentagon.
At 9:45am, an operator receives a cell phone call from a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, who says that the flight has been hijacked and the passengers are going to fight back.
Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, PA at 10:07am.
Where Were You?
Most of us remember where we were on that day. The videos covered every channel and we all stood and watched in horror as the Twin Towers collapsed in fire and smoke.
Initially, the attack made us stronger. It brought us together. We were "One" again, united with each other, race, gender and religion all set aside. America will never be the same, we said and at the time, we believe it was true.
But here we are five years later. Has America really changed?
Not really.
Certainly, some things have changed. Our sons and daughters, husbands and wives fight in a war far overseas. Some have come home. And sadly, some have not. We live in a world of color-coded threat levels now, moving from orange to red and then back to orange again. Boarding a plane is like pulling teeth and we have become oh so suspicious of anyone that doesn't look like us. Well, okay... that's not really a change is it?
But for the most part, life has gone on as it always did. In an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Steve Levin notes that "Church attendance, volunteering, blood donations -- none changed appreciably in the past five years, despite the initial spike in numbers common following disasters. After a brief hiatus, partisan politics, government boondoggles, celebrity scandals and sports obsessions also returned."
How true, how true.
Our fixation with the rich and famous continue to dominate our media and our lives, while wars, poverty and literal genocide wage on in lands too far away to be worried with. We shop, we work, we drink a beer out by the pool and all is good. Of course, that doesn't mean we've forgotten, does it? We still remember.
Don't we?
According to an August poll published in the Washington post, 30 percent of Americans don't remember in what year 9/11 occurred.
And perhaps more telling is that we're still so lacking in so many of the really important things. There's no real tangible security when it comes to shipping items instead of people. Our ports are wide open, despite continued protests from citizens and politicians alike. The "love your neighbor" mentality has slowly disappeared and we seem to be back to being our naturally aggressive and selfish selves.
Have we really changed since 9/11?
Maybe, but clearly not enough. Not even close.
