This blog is the seventeenth I have written about 9-11 14, starting with Lesser Sons of Greater Fathers in 2008. 9-11 at Twenty-Two notes how well we have moved on from the confusion and devastation of the attack on the Twin Towers.
9-11 at Twenty-Two
“It’s the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and a great testament to this country’s strength and resiliency is the fact that we’re not going to spend a lot of time worrying about an al-Qaeda terrorist attack today. The world will always have problems, but even the most frightening problems are surmountable with time and effort.”
Jim Geraghty writing on Sep-11-2023
I watched the 15th-anniversary version of 9-11, the Gaudet brothers documentary about a probationary fireman in New York that morphed into compelling footage of the impact and aftermath of the attack on the Twin Towers. I was still moved watching the tragedy unfold but was also impressed by the updated footage that tracked many of the firemen profiled as they moved into new roles. They had translated what they had experienced that day into new procedures and new infrastructure that enabled them to be much better prepared for the next high-rise fire.
One useful phrase that transforms an after-action review from a lament to a forward-looking planning session is substituting “if only” with “next time.” The New York firefighters had clearly taken a lessons-learned approach that we would do well to follow in how we handle the next pandemic.
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- Pearl Harbor to 9-11 to the Panopticon
- Lee Harris’ Insights on What 9-11 Means
- Second Sight: A Meditation on Silicon Valley and 9-11
- Remembering 9-11: Our Children Will Also Live in Interesting Times
- Take a Minute To Remember 11 Years Ago
- Remembering What Happened
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- Take a Minute to Recall 8 Years Ago, Part 2
- Take a Minute to Recall 8 Years Ago
- Lesser Sons of Greater Fathers
Image Credit: “Calendar with Push Pins” by Mykola Komarovskyy Licensed from 123RF