I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll ever forget. I still remember the twin towers falling like it was yesterday. I was sitting at the same breakfast table where I eat today mesmerized by something on television that I didn't think was possible. As I ate breakfast today, it was very clear that a lot has changed in nineteen years. The weeks and months following the attack were probably the last time that all Americans were united about anything. There were no cries to defund the police. Our police and first responders were national heroes nineteen years ago. In our neighborhood, almost every house was flying an American flag. It was a troubling time, but I miss the sense of unity we felt then.Of course it didn't last long. In retrospect, we should have just nuked Tora Bora when we had Osama bin Laden cornered there and called the score even. Endless wars in the Middle East didn't prove anything. Pointless wars with the lack of an end game actually sowed the seeds for a lot of the discord and unrest we are facing today. Each year as we celebrated the anniversary of 9/11, things just became more and more muddled. Senior citizens like my Dad had to take their shoes off at the airport and undergo invasive searches while absolutely nothing was done to restrict the travel of people who clearly shared the beliefs of bin Laden. A special department of the government with almost unlimited funding was set up to track the movements of these people. Nobody was arrested. It wasn't long before the NSA started tracking ordinary citizens as well. The war on terror was about as successful as the war on drugs. Basically, it was a total failure.
I wonder a lot why the country has become so divided. I think we have lost something special that my parents took for granted. The idea that our country was a great melting pot where people from all over the world with a diverse set of beliefs could come to Ellis Island, renounce their past and adopt a common set of values as American citizens was central to our national identity. This common set of values was what allowed my parents generation to win World War II. We were a tough, bad-ass country and we owned it. Nothing could stop us.
This didn't last long either. Our definition of diversity changed over the years and the whole idea of the melting pot was lost. Instead of adopting a common set of values, people were encouraged to keep their traditions, beliefs, and language. It took a while, but tribalism gradually replaced the melting pot. Now we are an extremely tribal nation where people's loyalties don't extend very far beyond their own tribe. I don't see how you can even have a country where the citizens are just a bunch of special interest groups.
I'm not really surprised that a lot of young people just want to scrap everything and start over. If I was young in today's world I might want the same thing. One of the few benefits of age is experience. I'm lucky to have experienced a world where nobody locked their doors at night. I grew up in a world where none of my friends had peanut allergies or autism and our Moms let us wander around all over town without supervision. I ate dirt, took family vacations in cars without seatbelts and grew up confident. It's hard to convey to a younger generation how valuable this was. Pretty soon there won't be anyone left who actually saw the twin towers standing. I've taken the elevator to the top of the South Tower and looked out over the city. It was a fun place to work when I was young. I took this picture many years ago from my hotel room in the UN Plaza. Times were good. I'm glad I had no idea back then what the future would bring.
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