Americans are looking back on the horror and legacy of 9/11, gathering Monday at memorials, firehouses, city halls and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.
Commemorations stretch from the attack sites — at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania — to Alaska and beyond. President Joe Biden is due at a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage.
His visit, en route to Washington, D.C., from a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the nation, however remote. The hijacked plane attacks claimed nearly 3,000 lives and reshaped American foreign policy and domestic fears.
I was also in high school at a private boarding school. I had free time before lunch and went to my room to relax. A friend came in and told me to turn on the radio. We listened to the news for about 15 minutes utes before heading to the cafeteria for lunch.
One of the cafeteria workers saw me when I came in and asked me if I was ok. I said that the space shuttle had blown up, and her reaction was along the lines of “Yeah, right”. I snapped and practically yelled at her to go turn on a radio if they had one then left.
I went back in about 15 minutes later and they had a radio on at that point. The same cafeteria worker saw me and apologized for her initial reaction.
I learned about 9/11 while in my car driving to work. Needless to say no work got done that day when I did finally get there.