9/11 reverberations
Nine eleven. 9/11. Sept. 11, 2001. No matter how you say or write that date, it is more than a block on the calendar. It is an expression that encapsulates the fear, shock, and dismay Americans experienced when the extremist group al-Qaeda committed the most devastating act of treachery ever visited on this country.
Some 2,900 people died in the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia, as compared to the 2,400 killed during the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt later declared that Dec. 7, 1941, “is a date which will live in infamy.” And it did — until Americans born after that date outnumbered those who were alive before it.
That’s the nature of time and is why citizens born after Sept. 11 may respectfully acknowledge the shock inflicted on the nation, but never truly understand the pain that followed.
How, then, can a population that did not experience an event be made to understand its lasting effect on the American way of life? In the case of 9/11, it must be by doing everything we can to protect what the terrorists ultimately targeted: our national treasure and once greatest export, our democratic principles.
Ironically, our response to the attacks did the heaviest damage to those very principles. As the Council on Foreign Relations observed this week, the subsequent “War on Terror” prompted democracies to pass expansive surveillance laws, restrict civil liberties, and tolerate human rights abuses.
In this country, the passage of the Patriot Act incorporated all of the above. The public went along, willingly giving up personal freedom in exchange for safety and order. It was only six years ago, in 2020, that many of the Patriot Act’s provisions were finally allowed by Congress to expire.
It’s for that reason that people need to realize 9/11’s effect on America continues to reverberate through society. So, when saying “Never forget,” Americans should reflect on that horrible day, but also be reminded to guard against those who would exchange America the Free for America the Secure. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”