近距离内射合集

It was just before 6 a.m. in Tucson, Arizona, when I woke up on Sept. 11, 2001, to the voices of 鈥淭oday鈥� hosts Matt Lauer and Katie Couric coming from the television.

Couric had a breaking news story:

鈥淎pparently, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center here in New York City.鈥�

I practically fell out of bed.

At first, no one seemed to know exactly what had happened. Was it an accident? A small plane? Some catastrophic navigational mistake?

I thought it was a terrorist attack for sure right away. And it didn鈥檛 stay a mystery for the NBC crew for long.

A second plane slammed into the other tower. Another struck the Pentagon. And 近距离内射合集 Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.

America was under attack.

The first person I called was my father. 鈥淎re you watching the news?鈥� I asked him, urgency in my voice.

Then I called my publisher, almost in tears. Whatever plans we had for that day鈥檚 newspaper no longer mattered.

And I told my wife our kids wouldn鈥檛 be going to school that day.

We put out an extra edition of the Arizona Daily Star, where I was working at the time as sports editor. Later, I stood on a street corner with my father-in-law in Oro Valley, Arizona, where I lived. We were helping sell copies of the newspaper to people trying, like the rest of us, to understand what had happened. It was before the age of social media.

I remember thinking that whatever America had been when we went to bed the night before, it was going to be something different when this day was over.

Twenty-five years later, I still believe that.

Nearly 3,000 people died. Wars followed. Airport security changed. Government changed. Politics changed. The way Americans viewed the world 鈥� and eventually one another 鈥� changed.

And in some ways, neither America nor I have been quite the same since.

A quarter century later, here are five good things and five bad things that stand out.

THE GOOD

1. There hasn鈥檛 been another 9/11: America has suffered terrorist attacks since, but nothing approaching the scale of Sept. 11 has happened again on American soil. Airport security and intelligence operations changed. Twenty-five years without another attack of that magnitude matters.

2. Technology transformed our lives: There was no iPhone, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or ChatGPT on 9/11. Today, the phone in our pocket is our camera, map, newspaper, television, bank and connection to virtually anyone in the world.

That would have seemed like science fiction in 2001.

We might not see very many newspaper extra editions in the future.

3. America elected its first Black president: Whatever your politics, Barack Obama鈥檚 election in 2008 was a milestone. A country that within living memory had segregated people by race elected a Black president 鈥� and reelected him four years later. Obama was elected despite his name: Barack Hussein Obama. Twenty-five years ago, the name Hussein was associated by many Americans with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom some mistakenly blamed for the 9/11 attacks.

4. Science and medicine made remarkable advances: Cancer immunotherapy. Gene editing. Better treatments for heart disease. Rapid vaccine development.

COVID-19 demonstrated how quickly modern science could respond to a global threat.

5. America proved resilient: We endured 9/11, two long wars, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a worldwide pandemic, natural disasters and political upheaval.

Each changed us. But America kept going.

THE BAD

1. We didn鈥檛 learn when not to go to war: 9/11 demonstrated that threats thousands of miles away can reach us at home. But neither should every threat become America鈥檚 war.

Afghanistan became our longest war. Then came Iraq. Thousands of American service members died, many thousands more were wounded and trillions of dollars were spent.

Now Iran and higher oil prices and pain at the pump.

The lesson: Defend America and maintain strong alliances 鈥� but be far more reluctant to send Americans into wars with no clear end.

2. America became dangerously divided: Remember the days after 9/11? Members of Congress stood together. American flags appeared everywhere.

Compare that with today. Republicans and Democrats increasingly don鈥檛 merely disagree. They distrust one another.

Political disagreement has too often become political contempt.

3. Congress surrendered too much power to the presidency: It didn鈥檛 start with 9/11, and it hasn鈥檛 been limited to either party.

After the attacks, Congress gave presidents broad authority to wage war against terrorism and delegated considerable authority elsewhere.

The Constitution divided power among three branches for a reason. Too often, Congress lets presidents make difficult decisions 鈥� and complains afterward.

4. Mass shootings became horrifyingly familiar: Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Pulse. Las Vegas. Uvalde.

Children practice active-shooter drills. Houses of worship worry about security. Concertgoers notice the exits.

We鈥檝e become accustomed to something that should never feel normal.

5. We lost trust 鈥� in institutions and one another: Trust in government, Congress, the news media and other institutions has deteriorated. Even elections have become sources of suspicion and conflict.

Then came Jan. 6, 2021, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Imagine telling someone watching those towers burn on 9/11 that less than 20 years later Americans would storm their own Capitol.

They probably wouldn鈥檛 have believed you.

The America of 2026 is technologically stronger, medically more capable and, in important ways, safer.

But we aren鈥檛 as united.

There have been too many moments over these 25 years when it has felt as though America lost its way. Maybe we鈥檙e searching for a way back 鈥� not to the America before 9/11, because that America is gone, but to a country that remembers that more binds us together than pulls us apart.

Twenty-five years ago, I woke up to the 鈥淭oday鈥� show telling America something terrible had happened in New York. None of us knew how much our country was about to change.

The question now is whether we can find our way back to one another 鈥� without needing another terrible morning to remind us that, beneath our differences, we鈥檙e Americans first.

James Bennett is managing editor of the Journal. Contact him at jbennett@abqjournal.com.