I had not seen this image for some time and it is surprising the emotion that it envokes even with the passing of many years. One thing that I notice about it is the size of the plane in comparison with the building. The plane looks almost like a toy which makes the destruction that happened hard to believe.

It could be seen symbolically as the insignificant group of radicals going after the stolid giant of America represented by a towering building. I doubt the photographer had time to think about that, but the image could be read in this symbolic way.

Looking at the picture with hindsight, I see the end of an era- the end of innocence and the feeling of impenetrability which had covered America for decades. Probably not since the McCarthy era did Americans have their civil liberties quashed as they did after 9/11. The government began to spy on citizens in order to prevent this atrocity from ever happening again. Security quadrupled and now old people have to remove their orthopaedic shoes before going through metal detectors when they want to fly. People have their name on 'no fly lists' sometimes in error.

The airline delays and inconveniences are just one example of consequences of the 9/11 attack. The United States got retribution on the attackers by starting a war on Iraq--you'd have to ask the President for his rationale on choosing Iraq rather than attacking where the terrorists came from, but that is a whole 'nother political discussion.

If we could follow the trickle down effects of the war we'd probably ultimately find a child in a rural school built by railroad tracks which shakes when the trains rumble past. The government has found other uses for our tax money than to provide proper education for the children who are the future of the country.

The image shows a tiny plane about to impact a towering building, but the story is much more than the image shows. It doesn't show the long term effects and it doesn't show the near term effects of families losing their loved ones, or the personal decision that some had to make--to stay in the building and burn to death or to jump. It doesn't show the final phone messages that were left when people in the building knew their death was imminent and wanted to leave final words for their loved ones. It doesn't show the effects on people left behind or the effects on the firefighters and other rescue personnel who saw the destruction close up.

The hate and desperation behind the acts is something that is not supposed to be felt here in America. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We take the poor and hungry to live on our streets paved with gold. We are supposed to be immune from terrorist acts which happen in other parts of the world almost as a matter of course. I think the affront woke us up and I am sorry to be awake. I liked America when we lived in innocence. . . and some would say ignorance.