Sunday Summary

Few people who were alive back then will ever forget where they were ten years ago today, when they heard about the 9/11 tragedy.  This author was just walking into a college political science class, when he noticed the classroom television on, a live report of the burning world trade center, and the words, written on the chalkboard next the television, "Pearl Harbor II".

Most of the historical facts of the event are fairly clear after ten years:  On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 Islamist militants coordinated the hijacking of four passenger jets taking flight from several airports on the east coast, with the intention of flying them into several economically and politically significant buildings.  Two of those planes were each flown into a tower of the World Trade Center; another smashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA; and the fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field, after passengers attempted to take control from the hijackers before they could reach their intended target.  Both towers of the WTC collapsed, significant damage was sustained by the Pentagon, and after all was said and done, nearly 3,000 people perished.

Despite an investigation and report by a congressionally legislated commission, some of the other facts of 9/11 remain murky, at best.  A significant number of individuals and groups, both as witnesses and researchers of the tragedy, assert that the explanations of the events offered by U.S. government, the 9/11 Commission, and the mainstream media, are inconsistent to a significant degree, which suggests either a cover-up of the authentic causes, or complicity by, if not the explicit responsibility of, those in power at the time.  These individuals and groups have, for the past several years, called for a new investigation of the events.

Though all the facts may never be known, or at least publicized, what is most clear is that 9/11 changed daily life, as we knew it in the United States, if not the world, and in some ways that are not insignificant.  Most significant, is western civilization's perception and fear of "terrorism", put in quotes here, as the term itself has become so politically and emotionally charged, as to lose a clear definition.  Ostensibly, 9/11 was an act of "terrorism" as most of us understand the term, today, and because of it's tragic nature, security officials go to extreme lengths, if not, at times, pushing, if not exceeding their constitutional authority, in order to ensure that anything like that never happens again.  Hence, if we're not fearful of another "terrorist" attack, we are fearful of being investigated, interrogated, or searched as a possible "terrorist" ourselves.

To be sure, and from a historical perspective, living in a state of fear is not really new to the American populace.  For that matter, it is nothing new to civilization, itself.  For a time, the Romans lived in fear of the Carthaginians; Europeans lived in fear of the "Black Death" of the Plague; during WWII, British citizens lived in fear of being bombed by the German Luftwaffe, while Americans citizens lived in fear of another attack by the Japanese Navy; after WWII, pretty much the entire western world lived in fear of communism.  In fact, historically, civilizations have most often lived in fear of something.  What changed on 9/11 was the object that fear, namely, "terrorism", and although acts of "terrorism" were certainly nothing new ten years ago, for the first time, it had a direct and lasting impact upon a significant number of American people.

Such impact is the reason why many of us are likely to take time today to reflect upon the horrific events of this date, ten years ago, and to remember the lives we knew back then, that were suddenly and forever lost to us.