Even at a time when news is flashed around the world in moments, few events stop us in our tracks. If people remember where they were when Princess Diana died, then 9/11 has engraved itself into the consciousness of a generation so indelibly that the simple date is enough to elicit the same deep sense of shock and outrage we felt so strongly nearly a quarter of a century ago.
We remember the burning World Trade Center towers; bodies falling like rag dolls from the sky, the immense buildings, those monuments to America’s pride, collapsing into rubble.
We saw what happened on September 11, 2001. Some were there and lived to tell the tale. We all watched it on television.
Four hijacked passenger aircraft fell from the sky in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, kill