What happened to 9/11?

Tomorrow is the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. This means an entire generation has grown up and finished college, and they only know about 9/11 from a history book.

I’ll commemorate 9/11 by donating blood. That’s what many people did in the days and even hours after the attack. We wanted to do something — anything — to help those in need. There are plenty of stories of people who helped those directly affected by the attacks. Many risked their lives going to the crash sites to look for survivors and help with the recovery. Several of them suffered severe health problems and have died working at those crash sites.

We regained a sense of national unity. Regrettably, it came with a hatred towards Arabs, Muslims, or anyone considered part of those communities. It also led to two decades of war, one of those based on false pretenses against a country that had no involvement in 9/11, and left generations of battle-scarred veterans with little or no support.

What happened to 9/11 is the same thing that happened to an earth-shattering event of my childhood: the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As with 9/11, the further away we get from the event, it becomes less of a tragedy and more of a confirmation of the deceit and treachery that governments can do. We became skeptical because we didn’t have enough faith in our leaders to be heartbroken.