9/11: 25 years later
What has happened since 9/11? Twenty-five years have happened.
It doesn’t seem possible. And yet I know it’s true. For me, 9/11 marked the beginning of a several-years-long process that led to the creation of this blog and a life I never had envisioned at the time. On 9/11 itself, the events were profoundly shocking and horrific, and I couldn’t even begin to understand them.
To go back to that day is to go back to a world that seems far more than twenty-five years distant – to another mindset, one with trouble imagining that the things we saw and heard that day were possible in anything but an action/horror movie. Now it all seems highly possible, perhaps even inevitable. But that’s only in retrospect.
I’ve watched many documentary videos recently about 9/11. I’ve watched many in the past, too. The stories are of heartbreaking tragedy and loss, of errors, of tremendous bravery, of inspiring survival, of selfless people helping people, of last loving words, of horror and evil. What does it all mean now to those too young to remember, too young to know a world where 9/11 hadn’t yet happened on a beautiful September day with a surpassingly clear blue sky? As with all history, the time will come when more and more people alive will not remember, and their views will be shaped by later events we cannot quite imagine.
I can’t speak for them. I can only speak for myself, and to a certain extent for my generation. For many of us, it was a watershed experience. Today is a solemn day and a solemn remembrance. RIP.
NOTE: Douglas Murray captures an interesting perspective here:
And here are links to some previous posts of mine about 9/11. I particularly call your attention to this post, which was part of my “change” series, as well as this one.
In the 25 years since Muslim terrorists killed 3000 people in NYC, we have given Islam much greater legitimacy and influence in our country.
Yes, and the current mayor of New York is an example.
It should have opened our eyes about Islam. Instead, the authorities insisted that we shut our eyes. GWB’s “Islam is a religion of peace” is one of the most destructive sentences ever uttered.
Several months after 9-11 I was in a class with a New Yorker. He assured me that New Yorkers would never forget.
Heigh-ho.
Sigh.
My mother told me a story about her father when he heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she said he became very angry, pounded his hand on the dashboard of the car and yelled out “Son of a B—-” several times. My mother was shocked and could sense something bad had occurred though she didn’t grasp how bad, because she had never heard him utter a curse word before or after.
I still remember watching the TV news that morning, like every morning before work, and just staring at the screen in disbelief and shock. Then my father called me on the phone to ask if I was watching the news, as we were talking the 2nd plane hit the other tower. The next day I was in the backyard thinking about that horrible scene and just then 2 Air Force jets flew directly overhead on patrol.
We all changed that horrible day. God Bless America.
Of course he captures an interesting perspective, he’s channeling Milan Kundera.
Thanks for posting. It gets very moving near the end, which is certainly apropos on this day. I either didn’t know, or had forgotten, that the passengers who charged the terrorists chose their moment such that if they forced the plane down it would be over a rural area thus minimizing casualties on the ground.
“Is empathy a virtue or a weakness?”
There’s always a first time!
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/9/public-figures-debate-whether-misplaced-empathy-pushed-western/
One response to 9/11 should have been a vigorous program to enforce the immigration laws, to reduce the annual inflow of legal immigration, to end the practice of issuing worker visas, and to establishing and implement astringent standards for classifying someone as a refugee. George W. Bush did not wish to do that and neither did John McCain. Their reason was that they did not feel like it, full stop.
Along with intense feelings about the tragedies so many suffered, on that day and how much the terrorist attacks impacted so many things afterward; how we consume media, how we view the Middle East, how we view our government, how we view religion, how we view the world… I often think about the “September 12th” feeling I, and so many others felt for the days and weeks afterwards. In most all interactions with others on September 12th and for several months afterwards, nearly everyone I interacted with held a deep sense of their humanity in how they engaged with others. And a deep sense of our shared humanity. It was truly beautiful.
On all my kids’ wedding days there was at least one moment where I had a deep understanding of what it is to be human. There were so many levels to it. My wife and I looking at this adult we raised from birth (and that she carried prior). Seeing my kids’ friends on the dance floor, many whom I watched grow up. Watching my parents and wife’s parents survey the landscape. And the joy and hope and love. And wasn’t it just last week my wife and I were dancing at our own wedding? At your kids’ weddings almost everyone you interact with has a deep look of joy and understanding on their countenance and everyone wants to help in some way. The entire room of people is simply there as a community to get these two people on their way.
That’s what every day after September 11, 2001 felt like. And it was beautiful. And I don’t mean the flags on people’s cars. Or the, “USA! USA!” chants. It was not superficial things like that. It was a deeply felt sense of community. Not a shared purpose, but a shared understanding and concern. I remember having some conversations with people while it was happening. We would talk about how good it felt. And sometimes one would say, “I wonder how long until it goes away?” Although I wasn’t cynical (I would have loved that it could have lasted), I also knew that it probably would eventually fade, and mostly disappear. It’s an odd thing about human nature that so many of us require a desperate situation to wake us to the true nature of our existence, and the existence of all those around us. “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.*” Why does it take something so dire to wake us from our slumber and why do we so often sleepwalk through life?
I think we all know some people who are always September 12th people. EMTs and nurses probably have more than the average number of such people in their ranks, but they can appear anywhere. It’s rare, but I can feel it when I meet one. In the days after September 11, 2001 I was hopeful that the immensity of that tragedy would be enough to permanently alter most of us so that we would hold dear that sense of the preciousness of our lives and the lives of all we met. Now, 25 years later, it is hard for me to even recall the feeling of those days, let alone witness it in daily, human interactions.
*Samuel Johnson
I hate Islam. And most Muslims.
Re; Islam then, Islam now
Before 9-11 most Americans knew little of Islam. The attack was violent, shocking and we didn’t understand it.
However, although half of the US and Europe have lost the plot since then, the rest of us have gotten smarter.
We know that Islam is a violent, supremacist belief system, which is incompatible with Western values, as well as providing a safe, humane, prosperous culture.
Perhaps not as many know that we are in an existential struggle with Islam.
That much is different this time.
Let’s roll.
I registered to vote for the first time soon after. Voted for the first time in the next midterms…
I was there 25 years ago as a Lieutenant in the FDNY. This year is particularly difficult because that generation is “late in the 4th quarter”, so to speak. I was forced to retire four years ago as a Deputy Chief ( i refused to get the “vaccine”.) Many veterans of 9/11 were waiting till the 25th anniversary to retire.
A young school teacher asked me to speak about the events that day. I declined. I wrote her some notes about my thoughts and experience.
“Never Forget” is a cliche since so many have forgotten. We have to stay vigilant. Western Civilization is worth defending.
neo on September 11, 2026 at 11:46 am:
“Yes, and the current mayor of New York is an example.”
I wonder if Cuomo had emphasized to the wider NYC electorate that electing Mandami would make him mayor on the 25th anniversary of 9/11; that such a horrid idea might have incentivized more voters to come out and also vote for Cuomno or the other guy?
RTF, great comment in regard to “Sept. 12th” feelings. And that that feeling would fade with time, because it had to bump up against the question of Islam on the other side of the wall, where a rather different and more aggressive and realistic mindset had to apply. Huxley (at 3:20 pm) has already said it better than I might:
“However, although half of the US and Europe have lost the plot since then, the rest of us have gotten smarter.
We know that Islam is a violent, supremacist belief system, which is incompatible with Western values, as well as providing a safe, humane, prosperous culture.
Perhaps not as many know that we are in an existential struggle with Islam.”
In that vein, of the several essays you might read about 9/11 yesterday or today, I recommend you consider this one as well:
https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-heavy-yoke-of-9-11/
The Heavy Yoke of 9/11 Brian T. Kennedy 9/11/26
Davemay, thank you for your service in the FDNY!
I’m so sorry you were hit by the idiot vaccine mandate.
Actually, I’m furious.
…
Kate: “GWB’s “Islam is a religion of peace” is one of the most destructive sentences ever uttered.”
Yes. GWB held such an arrogant, elitist view.
We continue to pay a high price.
…
Huxley, R2L, Irish otter, Art Deco, Selfy, and others:
I agree more than words can convey.
The bizarre “political correctness” & misplaced guilt created such foolish policies wrt Islam.
…
If only we — peers, friends of Neo’s blog — were a majority!
Rick Rescorla.
RIP
Never Forget — do what is right even if everyone else thinks you are just paranoid.
But they did what he told them to do anyway.
https://notthebee.com/takes/i-will-as-soon-as-everyone-else-is-out
The Murray commentary is outstanding, as he usually is, and especially his dry wit.
(Just a few notes, all of it is interesting and important, maybe not 100% accurate transcription.)
At 13:00 he notes the transition from the American public’s rational reaction to the attack on the US by Muslim extremists, to a dominant mindset that is more afraid of being accused of Islamophobia than of protecting our liberal (original meaning) values and freedoms. regrets the slide into self-degradation and belief that America is not fundamentally good.
The interviewer ponders how our successes following 9/11 lulled us into complacency.
At 15:00 he notes that “complacency fades into amnesia” and wonders how Murray would address how that can be corrected for the young generation who “can buy into stupid ideas because they don’t have to fight for their existence.” IOW “luxury beliefs.”
At 22:00 Murray explains why he is totally opposed to blaming every possible ill of the world on the people of the West, no matter what their individual situation regarding some alleged injury.
At 28:00 they discuss changes in Saudi Arabia, and their perception of those. Also observations about other countries in the Middle East.
At 32:00, Murray gently (ahem) chides the people like Gore Vidal who still can’t seem to figure out who did it. “How about the people who told us they did?” Murray segues into the propaganda techniques of the Left and their exculpatory conspiracy theories (also the same methods used by the Right and every variety of fringe faction). “Try keeping any secret in Israel.”
At 37:00 the evil of NOT telling young people the truth, and the inability of the public to keep these putrid people from poisoning the body politic. Then addresses how it may have happened. Every major publication started carrying water for Marxism and anti-capitalism.
About 43:00 “Every evil comes in the guise of compassion,” seldom explicitly as evil, then expands on that thought. Things like MAID rather than “kill the elderly,” and even infanticide can be cloaked as compassion. The 9/11 jihadists popularized the phrase “we love death more than you love life” — he believed them then, and knew them as fanatics, but wonders why have so many other people embraced that worldview.
Jews say “there is nothing wrong in loving life,”
Advices us to remember all the messages sent out from the Towers and the planes, which we have seen more of this year, all of which were about love.
“A powerful distinction not to be missed” and one of the greatest factors in our behalf.
At 47:00 the decision of the passengers to wait a few minutes for their attack and thus choose a rural area for impact, thinking of others even while knowing they were going to die, was a great expression of that reverence for life.
— Art Deco
Not just ‘didn’t feel like it’. ‘One World’ thinking is so ingrained in the upper class that they almost can’t even imagine anything else. There are lefty and righty versions, but both are One World mindsets.