9/11 is a topic that I have discussed several times. Being from where I am, with my home being no more than a mile or two from the Pentagon, the topic naturally has a good deal of relevance to me. However, I was born in 1996, and therefore, I have no memory of the day itself since I was only in preschool.
Although I have very vague memories regarding the cultural 1990s, it is still historically interesting to me. The optimism which the 1990s had was fueled with what was fundamentally a first-world isolation from the misery that was wracking the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, as well as to a lesser extent in the former Soviet Union. This vanished as soon as the first plane hit on 9/11. What followed was the world that I recognize, the only one I recognize, since I was so young when this terror ensued. I have not lived a life without arduous TSA screenings in airports or with our troops never in the Middle East for one reason or another.
My parents had a large map of the world on the stairs leading to their room in the house I grew up in. It was there I learned geography and history and became aware of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was a child when they were going on, and in new ways, they are still going on. It’s a sobering thought - that a battle which was on the rise when my parents were the age I am now is still going on.
The 90s, therefore, seem strange to me when I read about them. They seem so similar and yet so different, without the cynicism that is a hallmark of politics to this day. I can't remember a nation without the truly massive security state that was established in the aftermath of the attacks... The PATRIOT act has been in effect for most of my life; most of elementary school, all of middle school, high school, and college.
As an Arlingtonian, reading about the day is rather disturbing. The plane that rammed into the Pentagon followed Columbia Pike, one of the big east-west roads of Arlington County. I remember that road for being where I would go to meet a close friend of mine in elementary school and having to cross it to go to the Toys ‘R’ Us that had Lego sets. However, now that memory is tainted with the events that happened on 9/11.
Arlington even now has the scars; they have faded but they are visible. When I was in school the moment of silence at the beginning of the day was always longer on the anniversary, and every anniversary we’d fly the banner a school in New Jersey had sent us. In another realm, when the anniversary fell on a Sunday they sang "America the Beautiful" in place of a standard Catholic tune. The town felt somber on those days since so many remembered that day of fire and anguish, smoke and fury, terror and fear. We will always remember the terror of 9/11, whether it's our parents' memories they share with us, or our own spotty flashback from when we are in kindergarten. Regardless of how we know about 9/11, we all still feel the pain to this day.
