Do You Remember 9/11?

Tomorrow marks another anniversary of the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001. We now have an entire generation of people who were not even born. However, those who were living could most likely tell you where they were and what they were doing when the airplanes hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City early that morning.

I was in my teenage daughter’s room braiding her hair when we heard that an airplane had hit the first tower. I naively assumed that a private pilot had lost control of his airplane. This is a normal assumption for me because I live in a world where there are hundreds, even thousands of privately-owned airplanes flying around the area.

I was standing at the doorway of my Seminary classroom welcoming my students when two of them reported that a second airplane had hit a second tower. I knew immediately that something intentional was happening. I later learned that there were two additional airliners involved in the attacks on our nation. One of them hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the other was forced down by heroic passengers in a field in Pennsylvania.

I returned home to learn that the skies were closed to all aircraft, and I wondered about the whereabouts of my new daughter-in-law who had boarded an airplane the previous night. My son told me that his wife had called to let him know that she had arrived safely home in Salt Lake City just prior to the closing of the air space.

My son had remained longer in Alaska to do some hunting with his father. They were fortunate that they had planned to drive to the hunting location rather than fly. They spent the day preparing to leave the next morning as we anxiously listened to the news reports. My husband needed something from the shack at the airport, so I volunteered to go get it.

I drove to the Lake Spenard/Lake Hood floatplane base and drove around the lakes to our tie down spot. I did not hear a sound or see any other person in an area that is usually busy with aircraft landing and taking off. It was totally spooky!

The next few days were silent because the usual sounds of airplanes were absent. With an international airport, an Air Force base, and the world’s largest floatplane base in the Anchorage area, there are always aircraft in the air. Yet, there were no sounds at all – except for the occasional military jet taking off to confront moose hunters who were innocently trying to return from their moose hunting trips.

Tomorrow we will remember the nearly 3,000 Americans who were killed on that beautiful September morning. Life changed after September 11 – the differences in the “before” and “after” situations were huge. This was the first terrorist attack on America and the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).

Americans were frightened as our leaders took actions to find the source of the attacks. In their attempt to provide national security from future attacks, Congress and the White House expanded “military, law enforcement and intelligence powers aimed at rooting out and stopping terrorists, at home and abroad.” Numerous policy changes were made with five significant changes discussed in an article published at this site by Dave Roos. The five changes are quoted/paraphrased/summarized below. 

1. The United States began its global War on Terror. Less than a month after 9/11, American troops were invading Afghanistan with the “support of the American people and the back of NATO allies.” The goal was to “dismantle al Qaeda, crush the Taliban and kill Osama bin Laden, the murderous mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.” American military personnel were in Afghanistan for the next twenty years.

2. Air travel was changed to prevent future hijackers from boarding commercial aircraft. Security lines became a nightmare for innocent travelers. For the first time, we had to tell our friends and family members goodbye before going through security. We now have to remove our shoes and jackets prior to going through metal detectors or other full-body scanners to determine if we are carrying dangerous weapons or materials. We can no longer carry liquids or other fluids over three ounces. We must take our laptop computers, other electronics, and even food out of our carryon bags. Every single time that I go through security, I think about what the terrorists did to America!

3. Anti-Muslim Violence Grew with Americans attacking Muslims – or those they thought were Muslim. Anti-Muslim attacks ballooned from 12 in 2000 to 93 in 2001. The number of attacks continues to grow.

4. Surveillance Increased due to the passing of the Patriot Act six weeks after 9/11 “as lawmakers scrambled to fix the intelligence failures that allowed known terrorists to enter the United States and execute the deadliest plot in American history.”

5. America Became Safer, But Altered. Since 9/11, “Americans inspired by jihadist ideology have killed 107 people in domestic terrorist attacks (as of September 2020) … but there have been no large-scale terrorist attacks on U.S. cities….

“The security measures put in place after 9/11 appear to have foiled or discouraged another ambitious plot by foreign agents on American soil. But in the process … the country has faced an 'endless' War on Terror that has indelibly altered the fabric of American life.”