A day the world changed

Pardon the digression we’ll get mail later on.

Ten years.

Tough to believe, isn’t it?

It’s been a decade since the towers fell, a plane hit the ground in a Pennsylvania field, the Pentagon was attacked and so many thousands of innocent people lost their lives.

Ten years.

I’m sure we all remember exactly what we were doing at the moment the World Trade Centre was attacked, some of us were driving to work, incredulous at the news, unable to truly comprehend what was happening, some of us thought at first it was some horrible accident because it couldn’t have been something done on purpose.

Do you remember it as a day of utter confusion and fear, hours and hours of asking questions: Who is this Bin Laden? What is Al Qaeda? Is this war? What could possibly be next?

Do you remember the horror of the morning? Recall being unable to comprehend what we were seeing? Those were human beings falling from the sky, for goodness sake. We watched people jump to their deaths because they saw it as the only way out. What it must have felt like, hopeless, scared, is nothing we can even imagine.

Horror.

Confusion.

Fear.

It was the seminal moment in so many of our lives, the time we truly understood the depths of evil and hatred that could propel men to commit unspeakable acts of terror and cowardice.

Life changed forever.

But where are we now?

There are far more learned people than I who are trying to figure out what’s happened in the intervening decade, but the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 touched all of at some level, we live with the repercussions today.

Is a safer world?

No.

Have civil liberties been lost in the name of Homeland Security?

Far too many, far too often and that may be the longest-lasting legacy of that morning.

We live now, thanks to the fateful day, in what a friend once termed a state of Institutionalized Security Paranoia. We scan and we x-ray and we have to use silly little plastic bags to tote tiny tubes of toothpaste and shampoo from one country to the next.

We are, sadly in many cases, far less trusting, more fearful. There are people who cast more furtive glances at those who don’t look like us simply out of ignorance and fear brought on by that day. Many have decided not to expand their horizons but to close their minds; many don’t want to know.

It’s not that we were truly wide-eyed and innocent before that day but now? Now we have come to know the feelings that so many in so many other countries wracked by religion-based hatred but it happened here, not in some bazaar half a world away and it struck us at our very core.

There have been wars waged and more innocent victims of them as a result since that day; the world seems darker in some ways, doesn’t it?

Maybe we in Canada can’t quite understand the feelings of our neighbours to the south, who have always seemed to be a bit over-zealous anyway and are now more insular in many respects than they ever were.

But we were all touched by that tragedy, by those acts of incomprehensible violence and some more than others. The people who wandered the streets of Manhattan a decade ago now, covered in dust, wondering what was next may never be the same, a decade after, two decades after, three.

We saw them, the fear in their eyes. It will be the burning image in our minds for years to come.

We mourn those who died, we feel for the families who lost loved ones, we have a new appreciation for “first responders”, a term not many were familiar with 10 years and a day ago.

We will never forget that day, never should.

Our world is different, and not in any good way.

It was the morning we will never forget.

Ten years ago.

 

Comments

[Striker 77]

Well put, Doug. Thank you.

[Glenn]

Excellent post Doug.

[Jacques]

God Bless our World.

[Andrew Gregg]

Hi Doug:

In response to this part of your heartfelt essay: "There are far more learned people than I who are trying to figure out what’s happened in the intervening decade..."

I suggest everyone read "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright. It won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 2006 and it is an first-class investigation into Al Queda, Bin Laden and how that whole day came about. It reads like a spy novel and it makes the tragedy of 9/11 all the more staggering.

AG, Toronto

[Gerry Tanner]

Great post this morning. Your comment on Civil Liberties is bang on. I wish more commentators would speak up on this topic. I firmly believe that
Ben Franklin had it right that those who give up liberty for temporary safety deserve niether.

Thank you

[doug]

extremely well put..I feel for all the victims, families and the horrible impact of that day...but also as I mentioned to a friend I feel the U.S. is like a relative,friend we all know who has lost a loved one and gets stuck in the grieving process or won't let go and it has changed forever who and what they are...the U.S..politicians have used fear moving forward, and the segment of the population that will always exist as we saw in the McCarthy years has used 9/11 to move forward their agenda of fear/hate and a controlling of the message....we are defined by how we react in crisis, whether on a individual level, or nationally...and to me the spirit of the British is what I have always admired from the seconfd world war when they were being bombed constantly , to after 9/11 when they themselves were a victim of a terrorist attack, yet there reaction was to open the underground the next day and get on with it....Churchill had a profound effect on that country, in a time of crisis he led by example and in there nowhere was a message of fear.....fear paralyzes people and to sit and watch what the states has become and also as a consequence us as well just makes me sad and wonders that the events on 9/11 by those terrorists not only are still being felt today but politicians/certain segment of the population and the use of fear are still allowing them to win to this day,hopefully time heals, but what has been lost will never be regained I feel....good choice of a song by the way..

[Lorie]

Some days it's music; some days movies; and sometimes we even read some basketball here. And you always make it entertaining. But today? Thank you so much, Doug, for your eloquent essay: for the heartfelt sharing of your thoughts in this way about this day of days.

[Zow]

Well done !

[john g]

The sad part, in my mind, is that the US (and us) are now moving in a direction towards less freedom, more police powers, more government powers concentrated at the top, greater concentration of wealth in the few, while the Arab world is in the midst of popular rebellions to gain more democratic freedoms, all the work of the people, whereas the countries the US invaded in the name of democracy are now failed states.

[Diego]

Touching.

[doug]

and this is the legacy of 9/11 encapsulated so brilliantly by our own esteemed leader....politics by fear, people have to quit buying into this crap....

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/09/11/sept-11-attacks-a-constant-reminder-terrorism-harper_n_957302.html

[LeeZ]

Great piece, Doug, and very well put. Also well put by Doug the poster. @Andrew Gregg: agreed, the Looming Tower is brilliant. Reads like a thriller. Even though you of course know the ending, the suspense sends chills down your spine, and it's also an extremely informative book about the genesis of radical Islam. I may be mistaken, but I've heard talk it will be made into a movie. @Gerry Tannier: the Franklin quote is bang on. @John G: agree wholeheartedly; mind you, they were failed states to begin with, but I hear you. Doug (Smith), the one thing I would take issue with is your use of the word "cowardice". To paraphrase Bill Maher, the terrorists in those planes were many things: completely misguided, wrong, cruel, heartless and, in a very real sense, evil. One thing they were NOT is cowards. They didn't parachute out. This was a suicide mission, and that takes courage. Absolutely perverse courage, to be sure, but courage nonetheless. One final thought; in so many parts of the world, 9/11 is a monthly (if not weekly or even DAILY) occurrence.

[Tim H.]

What can I say? A fantastic piece of writing that succinctly sums up how, what happened a decade ago, is still having an effect on the world today. One of your best! Thanks!

[Nihir Morzaria]

It's easy to forget the feeling we all had that day. To see the most powerful country in the world scared, confused, and looking worse than any apocolyptic movie was frightening. The last few days re-living the memories and feelings reminded me of what it was like 10 years ago.

Not knowing how many more planes were still hijacked. Not knowing how many were in the buildings. Not knowing who did this or why. It felt like war.

[coachd]

Hi Doug,
Not ashamed to admit it, but when the names of those who perished during 9/11 were being read during this morning's memorial at Ground Zero I had tears streaming down my face. It is day I will and can never forget. My prayers and thoughts are with those families that suffered and continue to suffer so much. Thank you for today's post.

[jon]

....so no Raptors news?

[Avinash]

A great post Doug. An honourable tribute to a day that forever changed the world. Thank you for doing so.

[TLI]

Thanks, Doug.
Very well said.

[ET]

Thanks Doug,