There are a few pieces out there in the blogosphere regarding September 11th that are worth paying some attention to.
First, The 2996 Project was back again this year and many people have marked the day by posting something about each one of the victims of the attacks.
Second, there was something extraordinary on Twitter last night. Hot Air’s Allahpundit spent the better part of two hours talking about his memories of September 11th from a vantage point just down a Manhattan street from the World Trade Center, the entire stream has been collected here and is definitely worth reading.
Finally, Tommy Christopher posts about his own memories of September 11th. Another post that’s well worth reading.
I keep thinking that I’ve read everything there is to read when it comes to personal memories of 9/11, but, this year, Tommy and Allahpundit have proven me wrong.
For example, Tommy makes this point:
What has always surprised me about the attacks of September 11 is the notion that we can be “kept safe.” Many questions remain unanswered about the events leading up to this particular attack, but as I left Newark that day, I was struck by the collective “failure of imagination” that let us all be shocked by this event.
What those hijackers did was not remarkable, required few resources, and little planning. Sure, we can lock all the cockpits now, and this type of attack will probably never happen again, but the sobering reality is that the only thing that’s absolutely necessary to kill thousands of people is the will to do so.
(…)
It is the thing we call civilization that makes us feel safe, or as safe as we can. At times, it can feel like an illusion. I know it did during those hours eight years ago. Illusion or not, however, it works pretty well. It worked as night fell eight years ago, and people banded together to help each other out. It works every day by keeping at bay those things which we call “unimaginable,” but are, in fact, difficult not to imagine.
That’s something I found myself thinking about all too often in the months after the attacks as I drove around the D.C. area, to Tyson’s Corner Mall during that first Christmas season after 9/11, or up to my parents’ place in New Jersey. So many points of vulnerability, most of which could never be fully protected even in a militarized state. I was convinced that we’d see more attacks, more deadly attacks, in the near future and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in having those those thoughts. At some point, that sense of foreboding lessened and, while the thought of a mushroom cloud appearing over an American city still wanders into my mind every now and then, the truth is that September 11, 2009 doesn’t seem all that different from September 10, 2001.
The illusion of civilization has reasserted itself.
