Scott Swanson
Significant public events have a way of searing themselves into our memories.
My mother, now in her mid-80s, remembers the exact moment she heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.
Likewise, I remember Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, when I awoke to the sound of our telephone ringing. It was my brother, who lived in Japan.
“Turn on your TV,” he said. “Something bad’s happened.”
My wife Miriam and I did and, of course, before our wondering eyes appeared the images of the burning towers of the World Trade Center, objects of the worst terrorist attack on the U.S. in history – comparable in murderous audacity to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Like Pearl Harbor, 9/11 changed a lot of things for us.
One, Islamic extremism suddenly moved to the forefront of our attention – not that we weren’t aware of it before, but hey, we’re Americans. We’re not that big on geography (quick, name the capital of Canada). We live on a continent protected by broad stretches of ocean on two sides and we’re an independent, self-sufficient people (except when we need memory chips).
So why should we care about people with weird names living in places that end with “stan” somewhere on the other side of the world?
OK, I’m being a little facetious here, but you know what I’m talking about.
Well, now we’re a little more aware, and we’ve become even more so 20 years after 9/11 with the ongoing debacle in Afghanistan (another one of those “stans”).
So how are we different, 20 years after the attacks that leveled the Twin Towers, severely damaged the Pentagon, left an airliner full of people crashed in northern Pennsylvania – and killed nearly 3,000 people, injuring 25,000 others?
It’s impacted us on multiple fronts: militarily, our borders, airport and in-flight security, and possibly most importantly, surveillance on our private lives that has, to say the least, pushed the limits of our constitutional freedoms.
We’ve been involved in multiple armed conflicts – wars, even – that are a result of the 9/11 attacks. In the last 20 years, millions of young U.S. soldiers have been deployed overseas, thousands have been killed and many have returned home with debilitating physical and mental injuries. We’ve been embroiled in, really, no-win situations in the Middle East that our leaders have deemed necessary for our peace and security – Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan.
Few, if any, of us had even heard of the Taliban or al-Qaeda before 9/11, and ISIS didn’t even exist.
Our military involvement in Afghanistan, which started two months after 9/11, turned into the longest-running war in U.S. history, with a painfully disastrous ending for us.
We Americans need to appreciate the service of troops in that region. It was always a difficult situation, but seeing all that effort and all that money flushed down the drain just leaves us with a bitter taste in our mouths. Imagine what it is for those who have a personal connection to the region, who served there, who actually have had personal relationships with people in Afghanistan.
9/11 has impacted our freedoms as well, particularly our “right to be left alone.”
The National Security Agency, which is part of the 16 spy agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community, has scooped tens of thousands of emails and other communications by Americans, audits show. Fact is, a lot of that was illegal invasion of privacy but it occurred in such a volume that it was almost impossible for constitutional rights advocates to raise much of a fuss, particularly considering the atmosphere following the attacks.
One initial outcome of 9/11, not surprisingly, was the increase of suspicion, paranoia, if you will, that almost inevitably follows such incidents. As we know from the experience of Japanese-Americans following Pearl Harbor, there is fine balance between public safety and overreach is a fine line.
Thankfully, the wave of sharp suspicion and actual violence towards anyone resembling a Middle-Eastern extraction didn’t last long, but there definitely has been a lingering discomfort for many in the West towards Islam and its adherents. Again, the line between reasonable caution and unreasonable phobia and overreach is a jittery one. Bad stuff happens when people are afraid.
Security, of course, is big business in our era. Who knows where we’d be if 9/11 had not occurred, but I think Americans are more fearful now than I remember us being on Sept. 10, 2001.
Sure, there are many factors contributing to our psyches, not the least of which is COVID, but 9/11 has played a part in all of that, I’m sure, just like the Spanish flu, the Great Depression, the world wars, Vietnam and other events have permanently affected the way Americans think and act.
There have been positives from 9-11, though.
Initially, I remember a strong sense of camaraderie in my then-community immediately following the attacks. I remember a surge of interest in God, in religion. Those may not have lasted very long, but they were very noticeable.
A surge of appreciation for public safety workers, particularly the contributions and role of firefighters to our society, followed 9/11, and really have become part of the fabric of American society.
Patriotism seems to have been bolstered substantially, and has been ongoing. Sure, there were American flags hanging from porches previously, but there’s nothing like a national threat to stir the interest and passions of citizens, and that seems to have continued steadily over the past two decades.
I could go on, but I have space limits here.
Plus, there’s that annoying little reality: things we haven’t learned. Look no further than Afghanistan to see how failure to really understand the situation we’re in, and bull-headed… well, stupidity has gotten us where we are: the laughingstock of most of the Middle East, as furtive doubts are firmly implanted in most of our allies’ heads.
There were lessons to be learned from the incredibly painful experience of 9-11, and we have learned some. But America clearly can continue to learn and hopefully it will not be from such wrenching experience.
Pray for peace.