Good to see someone else who hasn’t forgotten. I’m not naive, I know how we got here but I still can’t believe the US today. It seems like just yesterday I was a teenager, growing up 40 miles from ground zero and seeing flags on every car, neighbors doing anything they could to help one another, and understanding we are all equal in one sense at least… bleeding red white and blue, conceptually anyway.
Discussion
Do you remember September 10th, 2001?
It was rare to see an American flag. If I recall correctly, even Perkins was starting to neglect their giant flags. The greatness of America was beginning to be questioned by the average Joe. We were suffering in a recession from the Yahoo dot-com bust. Inflation was about to hit hard from widespread bankruptcies. It was common to hear people discuss the Keynsian perspective that only a war can bring us back to prosperity.
Then, we wake up one day, and sim-sala-bim everyone is a Patriot!
Haha yeah you’re absolutely right, even if I don’t personally connect with those memories. I was a sophomore when it happened, so still living in la-la-land, oblivious to economies, bubbles, bursts and the like. As a newly “over the hill” old guy who’s done a lot of reading over the years, I see it now, but it’s always hard to shake the nostalgia of unity of those days.