Author: Blazingcatfur

It was an eerie scene.

But for the activity of the rescue and recovery personnel and the rumbling machinery they used, it was a still, quiet night. Too still and quiet for Manhattan at any hour. This part of the city was closed for blocks around to all but those with passes indicating they should be here.

I was one of them, and at this moment I stood atop FDNY Engine 10 Ladder 10 looking out on what had once been the World Trade Center as one of the firefighters explained the operations taking place before us under something like stadium lights.

It’s almost a cliche, hackneyed even. A big event happens, and people say they will never forget where they were when they heard about this or that.

But I suspect nearly everyone around the world above the age of 30 really does remember where they were when they heard about, then watched in real time, the most audacious, most dreadful terrorist attack on the United States unfold.

Over the past few days, I have been talking to people not only who remember where they were, but how it upended their lives

Have you ever wondered what American schools teach about 9/11? Here is a partial answer. I’ve reviewed five of the most popular American history textbooks for high school.

At the Twin Towers, cops and firemen showed they really were New York’s Finest, New York’s Bravest.

From the very first moments of the World Trade Center horror, the valor and élan of New York’s firemen, together with that of the city’s police and emergency forces, have transfixed the whole nation—especially us in rural America who rarely see the real Gotham. Danger was nothing to them, courage and honor everything. They responded instantly to the explosion and fire, all drawn to, rather than repelled by, the inferno—and without regard to their own safety or the consequences of their possible incineration upon their loved ones at home. We now know their last radio cries: “Move away from the towers! Everyone move away from the towers!” Silence. . . .