The September 11 post

I've never been particularly patriotic. I don't think I ever will be. But I feel the need to write something about what happened six years ago today. I think there are a few events throughout history that are world-changing. When these happen, people alive at that moment know immediately that the world is different. September 11, 2001 was one of those times.

What I'll remember most about that day is the confusion and the uncertainty. We live in a very certain world, especially since widespread use of the Internet became common. We have instant access to whatever information we want. The Drudge Report homepage crashed the morning of September 11. A page that normally saw 2 million visitors per day crashed. My cell phone was instantly disabled because of overloaded phone circuits and then by Virginia emergency managers in case they needed the voice bandwidth. People were literally running around the office spreading rumors about things that were important to them. Our government affairs people were saying there were car bombs on Capitol Hill. People from the West Coast were saying Los Angeles was next. And this is exactly what was supposed to happen. A scattered, every man for himself attitude that would make us vulnerable.

No one can deny that we've learned a lot in the past six years about emergency management. But we've also seen that no matter what you do, it's hard to protect yourselves. A hurricane pretty much eliminated a major American city just two years ago. Next month will mark five years since the snipers were at large and active in the DC area. Personally, those were some of the most terrifying and bizarre days I've spent on this Earth. I went to the Home Depot in Falls Church where one of the shootings happened tonight. This was close to me. Months ago, we saw a mass killing on a university campus. I'm not going to pine for the "old days," or say that things have changed. What's changed is that we know about everything now. Katie Couric was on the Virginia Tech campus less than 9 hours after the shootings. There are three ways to get news from a TV channel. Read the crawler, watch the face, or view the graphics. Or do all three. We can know everything.

We need to continue to remember September 11. Very few events in the history of this country can match the emotion tied to it, and it's odd that after just a few years, people are already trying to push it to the background. A few weeks after the attacks, I remember wondering when the day would come that I wouldn't think about September 11, or talk about it, or make reference to it in some way. It hasn't happened yet. And our world is changed. Forever.