Looking back on Sept. 11

In just over two weeks, the nation will honor the 25th anniversary of one of the worst days in the history of this country.

I hesitate when using a word like anniversary. To me it’s always meant something positive and happy and Sept. 11, 2001 was far from that.

I’m 57, so for my generation, that’s our Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination or Neil Armstrong’s moon walk. A moment when you can quickly remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard.

For me, I was living in Hawaii and working as a sports writer on a daily paper in Kona. My normal morning routine was to wake up and turn on ESPN to see if there were any big sports news that day. I did just that but quickly realized something was very wrong. Every channel was on the news. Hawaii was six hours behind New York, so the attacks had long since occurred when I turned the TV on.

And then I saw the footage of the Twin Towers being hit and the aftermath. People running away from the carnage as first responders ran toward it. I may have been 5,000 miles away but like many, I felt like I was a New Yorker.

It didn’t take long to see that the Pentagon had been hit and then later a plane had gone down in Shanksville, Penn., only to find out later that its target was the U.S. Capitol. The terrorists probably would have succeeded in their efforts had it not been for a group of brave individuals who cut that plan short while, in the process, losing their own lives.

After realizing what was going on, I called my editor to see what I could do. As part of a two-man sports desk, he asked that Brian and I both come in early (we normally worked a 2:30-10:30 p.m. shift). While the other reporters were busy getting comments from residents, as well as tourists who were then stranded on the island since airports were shut down, Brian and I put together a 10-page special section made up mostly of Associated Press photos, which came in at a fevered pace. It was heartbreaking and some photos were not easy to look at.

On the front page of the paper the next day we ran a headline in huge print that simply stated… ATTACKED. One of the most memorable headlines I saw was from the San Francisco Examiner that read BASTARDS! Below it a photo of one of the Twin Towers being hit. That was all that was on the front page aside from a subhead at the bottom that said, “A Changed America.”

That summed things up. The country WAS forever changed and still is in many ways. The History Channel’s website lists five ways Sept. 11 changed America in the aftermath of the attacks. They are:

1. The war on terror began

2. Air travel was transformed

3. Anti-Muslim violence grew

4. Surveillance increased

5. America became safer but altered

If anything positive came from that horrible day it was that Americans of all races, religious backgrounds, and political beliefs came together as one, as the world gave the United States a huge embrace. I wish that togetherness could be felt these days.

As we approach Sept. 11, 2026, I hope our nation can once again come together to remember the 2,996 lives lost that day and the countless who have died since as a result of the aftermath and heroic acts of those trying to save them.

Lest we forget!