After 9/11, America lost its way. Twenty-five years later, we still haven’t found it.
(RNS) — Twenty-five years ago, when I saw the smoke coming from the first of the Twin Towers in New York City, my first response was confusion and disbelief. I could not understand what I was seeing. How could an airplane crash into the tower? No flight path would take a large airplane near the building.
When the second plane hit the other tower, I realized with the rest of the nation it was no accident. Someone had deliberately planned and executed this attack on America.
Today, everyone over 30 years of age knows where they were when they heard about the attack on New York City, just as earlier generations remembered the attack on Pearl Harbor or the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The world would never be the same.
At the time, I was editor of America magazine and living in New York City, so the attack was personal and professional. One side of my brain — knowing we would have to publish an editorial — was asking, “What happened? What are we going to say about it?”
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The other side was worrying about our staff. “Are they safe? Will they be able to get home tonight? Would there be bombs in the subways?” We…
