A Pinch of Salt: The day the world changed

Long Beach

Sept. 11, 2001.

Most of america telephone it 9/11. It is the time everything changed for Americans.

The unthinkable had happened — we were attacked connected our ain soil. People dedicated to ending everything we held ineffable hijacked American airplanes and flew them into American buildings.

Those airplanes were afloat of Americans — 1 acceptable of American passengers managed to regain power conscionable agelong capable to clang into a tract alternatively of a building. But 3 different jets were flown into iconic buildings afloat of people.

Both 110-story towers of the World Trade Center successful New York City were hit, and yet collapsed. One broadside of the five-sided Pentagon subject office successful Arlington, Va., was hit, sidesplitting 189 people.

Twenty years later, I tin inactive vividly callback the daze of John Blowitz waking maine with a telephone and a bid — “Turn connected the TV.” I retrieve the numbness arsenic I watched the towers collapse, the footage of archetypal responders rushing to the country and the reruns — the uncounted reruns — of the rider pitchy flying into the 2nd tower.

Soon enough, the demands of putting unneurotic a paper took over. My exertion astatine the time, Kurt Helin, and I tore up the planned Grunion and scrambled to get each the Long Beach quality and effect we could.

Stories included constabulary and occurrence preparations successful fearfulness of an onslaught locally, radical with ties to the places already attacked, archetypal takes connected what needed to beryllium done to debar aboriginal attacks and more.

For that archetypal year, beauteous overmuch everything we did was tinged with a 9/11 grayness. There was the archetypal onslaught of the War connected Terrorism that would signifier overmuch of the adjacent 20 years. There was the undeniable interaction connected the economy, implicit with formation restrictions, information checks and a wide leeriness astir going out.

This whitethorn beryllium up for interpretation, but I deliberation the destructive polarization we’re experiencing present had its roots successful that year. There were hardcore us-against-the-world types acceptable to fight, and determination were the that’s-exactly-what’s-wrong-with-the-world factions — besides acceptable to fight, but astir wholly antithetic things.

9/11 brought location the world that Americans are not universally loved, and are not impervious to attack. I’d similar to deliberation these facts person prompted a renewed look astatine ourselves and however we interact with others. I person to acknowledge, though, they besides person prompted a telephone to arms successful immoderate sectors of our society.

We’re successful the midst of different alteration the satellite infinitesimal with COVID-19. But this Saturday, prevention a infinitesimal to retrieve the past time the satellite changed.