Due to the business of this weekend, I didn’t see a message from Sam until this evening, asking for input for a school project centered around the question “How were you affected by the events of Sept. 11, 2001 as they were happening?”
First off, I’m very encouraged that they’re asking these kinds of questions in school. I thought I’d just post my reply here, since I wanted to post about this anyway, and I thought this may be a good time to do it.
I’d say that the major way that 9/11 affected me as I watched it unfold that day (other than the common shock and sorrow that we all felt) was the realization that we (as a society) would probably never be able to live in isolation from the rest of the world again. Up until that point, many other countries had experienced the pain of these kinds of attacks, as well as other conflicts, yet a large part of our society seemed to be untouched (directly) and therefore not actively interested in these issues.
That sense of separation may have originally stemmed from our geographic distance from most of the rest of the world, but these days technology has made it possible for that gap to be bridged, if we are willing.
I think that today (as a direct result of 9/11 - and the things that have unfolded in the years that followed), most Americans recognize that (for better or worse - politics aside) the fate of our country is inextricably bound to that of the rest of the world. It is impossible for us (as a nation) to live in isolation, and I think that most people now realize that.