Across the Generations: Reflections on 9/11/01

For Americans who were alive on Sept. 11, 2001, the tragedy of the attacks lingers in their minds. Though the greatest impacts of that day were felt by those who lost life, limb, or loved one, it’s safe to say any American who was alive on 9/11 was affected by it in one way or another.

Enough time has passed now that a new generation has been born with no firsthand experience of 9/11 or the political and cultural fallout in the aftermath. However, 9/11’s significance as a historical event means even these new generations are being taught about it
and they are beginning to form their own opinions.

While some young people accept the official story of what happened on 09/11, some opinions don’t align with the mainstream narrative of this tragedy.

Whether it is an increased access to democratized opinion via the Internet, increased psychological distance due to being born later, or some other factor altogether, it’s clear that young people have a higher tendency to question the official story of 09/11 than people alive to witness the newscasts and press conferences.

To gain some personal perspective on this theory, a class of journalism students interviewed people who have a good memory of 9/11, and others who were not born until a couple of years after the towers fell.

-Introduction by Charles Butler, Jr.

These are their stories.

Sept. 11:  A Memory a Milwaukee Mother Will Never Forget

One of the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil happened 24 years ago, sending the entire country into shock. For some families, the memory of Sept. 11, 2001, is tied not only to tragedy, but also to the beginning of a new life.

My mother, Pamela Yvette Abner, 54, was in the hospital waiting room in her hometown, Milwaukee, for her daughter’s two-month checkup when she saw the attacks happen on live television.

“I viewed it on the TV before anybody,” Abner said. “I went to the lady at the front desk, and I was like, look, something just happened. This plane just hit the building. Everybody just stopped and froze, and it was just unbelievable. And then it did it again.”

Her daughter was my 24-year-old sister, Maya Abner, who had been born only two months earlier. Abner said the weight of the moment was overwhelming as a new mother. “I’m just like, I’m bringing a baby into this world, and this major catastrophe has happened,” she said. “What do I do? How’s life moving forward now?”

Abner, who works for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said she remembers how the nation pulled together. “People gave up their lives to go in and help, trying to get as many people out as they can,” Abner said. “Some people are still suffering from it with exposures and medical situations, even because of that. But nobody thought about that at the moment. So, I think it brought all of us together.”

Now, 24 years later, Abner worries that unity has faded. “We don’t need other catastrophes to happen to become unified as one,” she said. “We need to learn from what we can do, and we can stay that way as a people.”

If she had to put Sept. 11 into a single word, Abner chose “resilience.”

“Even though we look to the past, we still had to move forward,” she said. “You still have to press forward to get on with our lives and protect each other in that way.”

-By Sky Abner

Milwaukee Daughter’s Most Powerful 9/11 Story is Her Mother’s

Amanda Gray, 23, a Milwaukee native, does not have her own memories of Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, she said she learned about it from older relatives and from news coverage growing up.

“When I was younger, I knew about Osama bin Laden,” Gray said. “I didn’t realize he was connected to 9/11 until around the time he was killed. That’s when I put the pieces together, from the news and from people around me.”

Though she didn’t experience the day firsthand, Gray said the event still resonates with her. “I would still be scared for my life,” she said when asked about her perspective.

Gray said the most powerful story she knows of 9/11 is her mother’s. “My mom was pregnant with me,” she said. “She was still at work, and my dad was on the phone with her because they were scared. People at her job were asking if she was okay since she was pregnant and had kids. She was scared. My dad was scared. Everybody was just scared.”

When asked to sum up Sept. 11 in one word, Gray used “Distraught.”

She believes one of the worst outcomes of 9/11 has been division. “Countries were never really in sync, but now everything’s just out of control,” Gray said.

As a JAMS major at UW-Milwaukee, Gray said the attacks remain part of her story even though she was not old enough to remember them.

“No matter what, it’s still something that affects all of us,” she said.

-By Sky Abner

Experiencing Sept. 11, 2001, in the History Books

Stephanie Asmussen is a history student at UWM who has only experienced Sept. 11, 2001, as just that, history. 

They, just like many of the students at UWM, were either not born or not cognitive during the time of the terrorist attacks.

Asmussen views the attacks as having two effects, which include the uniting of the country over a tragic event, but also a propaganda symbol that gave the United States justification to go to war with the Middle East.

The experience of living through the attacks was different than learning about it from documentaries or footage, according to Asmussen.

“For people that weren’t alive, or at least were very, very young when it happened, they have grown up in a world where all the effects are just felt and they don’t have a sense of a turning point afterward,” said Asmussen.

People who experience it in real time got immediate information, while people like themselves had to learn about it from an established narrative curated by the media.

For Asmussen, they will only ever be able to experience the culture shift of Sept. 11, 2001, through history books and older films.

A film that came to their mind is “Home Alone” when Kevin’s family runs through the airport to catch their plane, something that can no longer happen that quickly after the attacks.

By Ethan Ainley

Generations of Effects

Karen Hechtner was with her mom and her son while working at a tanning salon when suddenly a breaking news story came on the TV and changed her perspective on life forever.

The national news interrupted a broadcast to break the story that the United States was a victim of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“It was a sad situation and awful to everyone involved whose lives were taken for no good reason at all,” Hechtner said.

It was in those moments of witnessing a shocking and devastating culture-shifting event, with her infant son and her own mother, that she was deeply impacted by the fragility of life.

“It’s dangerous, and you just never know what can happen at any time, wherever you are. You need to be aware of that,” Hechtner said.

When working as a teaching assistant for preschoolers after the terrorist attacks, the school and her students would take a moment of silence at the exact moment the towers hit, even at that young age. 

Looking back, Hechtner says that the terrorist attacks made her much more fearful and protective of her own son.

Sept. 11, 2001, was an unbelievably tragic day that both she and her mom never forgot because it forever shifted the wider culture, but also the culture of their family.

-By Ethan Ainley

The Idea of Security

Even though he wasn’t born on September 11th, 2001, Ben Schaaf knows that the emphasis on national security has increased significantly since the attacks. He just isn’t sure how effective it is.

“When it comes to security in our own country, I feel like we’ve tightened up a bit more,” said Schaaf. “I have no idea if that’s actually effective or not, but the idea of security has gotten a lot more heightened.

Schaaf, 21, a senior film major at UW-Milwaukee, admits he doesn’t know how much increased security does to prevent violent acts like this from happening. He says that it’s difficult to be hyper-vigilant about security while still respecting people’s rights.

“As long as a country is doing its best to protect the people who live there, while also preserving people’s rights, that’s good,” said Schaaf. “It’s a fine line to balance, though. It’s a hard line to figure out.”

Schaaf learned everything he knows about 9/11 secondhand, mostly in the classrooms of his middle and high schools.

“It’s never not talked about, especially on 9/11,” said Schaaf. “When it comes up every year, there’s always something to be learned. As someone who wasn’t alive when it happened, I think I know as much about it as the average person.”

While he agrees that living something and learning about it are very different, Schaaf doesn’t think that your age has a significant impact on how you feel about 9/11. He argues that your view on events such as this comes down to your own personal views and ethics, rather than whether you lived through it or not.

-By Joe Bakalars

Unity in Tragedy

She saw the smoke billowing from the towers the morning of the September 11th attacks, but what Vicki Eakins Holst remembers most is the unity that the event created.

Living in a commuter town in New Jersey, Holst was driving across the Tappan Zee Bridge towards Boston when she heard the news on the radio. She remembers seeing the smoke and pulling over as the seemingly endless procession of emergency vehicles rumbled past.

“People were stopped in traffic, and you could see people raising their arms and cheering on the firefighters and policemen and EMTs,” Holst said. “It was just such an amazing sight in that moment to think that all these people were going to help the victims. It just seemed so incredibly encouraging.

This kind of solidarity that was felt, during and after 9/11, gave Holst hope.

“People were united despite their differences,” Holst said. “People were kind, supportive, selfless, generous, and understanding. They got together in groups and just talked to each other and went out of their way to do nice things for each other.”

The hope gave her a base even when her community, one very near to ground zero in Manhattan, started to feel the effects of the attacks.

“Our town lost people in the attack,” Holst said. “Families’ lives were changed forever. We had candlelight vigils for fathers and mothers and sons and daughters who never came home from work that day. Those experiences will always stay with me.”

Holst still lives in northern New Jersey today, but she is from rural Wisconsin, where silence is normal. After living in New Jersey for years before 2001, she said a prominent difference they noticed after September 11th was the absence of the hum of transit that is almost a constant on the East Coast.

“We constantly heard planes,” Holst said. “I lived 100 feet from a train station, so we always heard trains. It was the most eerie sound, that sound of silence.

-By Joe Bakalars

A Family Legacy of Military Service

Dawn Guzman is a legal assistant in her early 40s. When asked if
she remembers 09/11, she said she remembers everything. Like most Americans that day, she remembers her normal routine. She got up and drove to work at Fritz’s, a diner-type restaurant owned by some friendly Serbian-Americans.

Entering work shortly after 9 a.m., Guzman was blissfully unaware of the attacks until she found her colleagues huddled around the news; that’s when Guzman became aware of what had taken place on the East Coast that morning.

“I was still watching before the towers even fell,” Guzman said. “I remember people hanging from the windows, seeing people jump.”

Guzman remembers these raw and grim early broadcasts, before news networks began to clean up their coverage and the images shown on American TV. Fritz’s was particularly slow that day, she remembers, though business eventually picked back up to normal in the coming weeks.

Guzman reacted with the same shock and dismay as most Americans. Her family produced several members who went on to join military service after graduating high school in the early 2000s in response to this grave attack on their homeland.

Guzman saw three family members enlist: one female cousin who joined the Air Force and two male cousins who joined the Marine Corps. Of her cousin, who became an Airman, Guzman says she worked on jets. Of her two male cousins in the Marines, they went on to join the infantry, though Guzman says she does not remember either of them getting a combat deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Her family was generally supportive of the war. “Being Puerto Rican, this felt like an opportunity to show our patriotism,” Guzman said.

When asked about her understanding of the events that day, Guzman says she has no reason not to believe the official story. Following the attacks on America’s East Coast, there was a consensus amongst her family; they supported the United States. No conspiracy, no doubt about who orchestrated the attacks or about how America handled it.

-Charles Butler Jr.

Thinks 9/11 Was an ‘Inside Job’

Isabel Gil is a 20-year-old legal assistant who absolutely believes
09/11 was an inside job orchestrated for political and financial reasons. She is not callous in her belief, though. She understands the human cost that was paid on that day.

“9/11 was a historical event filled with tragedy,” Gil said. “To me, it is a day of remembrance and reverence for the heroes who died. I am always fascinated by people who recount their experiences of this day. I respect the first responders’ courage and have empathy for the people who lost their lives or loved ones.”

When asked how she feels the events and the aftermath of 9/11 have impacted her, she essentially feels that being born into a world post-09/11 has immunized her from knowing the difference.
“I don’t know a world before Sept. 11, 2001,” Gil continued. “I don’t know a world where people were able to smoke on airplanes or bring liquids over two ounces. Since I’ve been alive, I have seen the effects of that day, so that is all I have ever known.”

Gil really expounded when asked if she believes any of the conspiracy theories surrounding that day. It came to be an unequivocal “yes.”

“I do believe the conspiracy theories regarding 09/11,” said Gil, as she was warming up her hot take. “I believe the attack on the Twin Towers was actually a controlled demolition.”

Gil believes there was not only financial, but also political incentive. She believes the interested parties range from the building’s leaseholder to the top levels of U.S. government.

“The leaseholder of the World Trade Center had insurance covering terrorist attacks and didn’t come into work on Sept. 11, 2001, breaking his usual routine.”

To be fair to Gil, upon researching these claims, they turn out to be mostly true. According to an interview with Forbes in 2017, Larry Silverstein missed work due to a dermatologist appointment his wife implored him not to miss.

According to reporting by Am Best, Travelers Property Casualty Insurance, one of the insurers of the World Trade Center, submitted forms covering this sort of occurrence less than two
months prior to the events of 09/11. (David Pilla, 2004)

It is important to note that these theories and connections are heavily contested by mainstream outlets. The purchase of insurance always overlapped with Silverstein taking control of the lease for the World Trade Centers, at which point it would have been imperative to purchase insurance.

It’s also noteworthy that Silverstein has personally benefited little, if any, from the insurance payouts for the World Trade Center. Silverstein claims most of the funds have gone to the
rebuilding at Ground Zero.

Beyond just financial gain, Gil also believes the United States government stood to gain politically, as well.

“I believe the attacks were calculated and convenient for the U.S. government and allowed us an excuse for our presence in the Middle East,” she said.

-By Charles Butler Jr.

From the Perspective of an Expectant Mother

Bonnie Rayborn woke up to the sound of her phone ringing just before 9 a.m., and when she answered, her boyfriend told her, “You need to turn on the news.” It was Sept. 11, 2001.

Rayborn was 18 years old at the time and pregnant with her first child, who was due the prior week. She knew that she could go into labor at any moment, and the thought of that was terrifying.

“I just remember having this horrible, sinking feeling of this is the world that I am bringing my baby into, and I really didn’t want to have my baby that day because I didn’t want every year when there was a birthday for this to be associated with my kid’s birthday,” said Rayborn.

From the moment that Rayborn turned on the television, she knew that this would be an event that would never be forgotten.

“I just remember thinking about how scared I was to be bringing a baby into this world,” said Rayborn. “When it first happened, we didn’t know if America was under attack.”

With all the uncertainty of what was happening, Rayborn wondered if there were going to be any attacks just outside of her hometown, Carpentersville, Ill.

“Was Chicago going to be next? Was I going to be bringing a baby into a war zone? We didn’t know if another country was attacking us,” said Rayborn.

~ By Dorothy Carpenter

From a “Faraway” Perspective

For many traditional college students today, Sept. 11 is a historical event that took place before they were born. Nina Marks, a 21-year-old double-major journalism and communication at UW-Milwaukee, is part of this demographic of students.

Despite not being alive in 2001, Marks recognizes the importance of honoring those who lost their lives on Sept. 11.

“The farther we get away from it, the easier it is to start viewing people more as statistics, instead of really remembering those lives,” said Marks. “It’s important to remember the lives that were lost in this tragedy were each individual people leading their own lives and not just a number that we think about every year.”

Marks described her viewing on the day as from “a faraway perspective” and considers herself lucky for this.

“It was only ever history to me,” said Marks. “I’ve gotten the privilege to view it from a further standpoint, but the people who lived through it and watched it happen have an entirely different perspective.”

~By Dorothy Carpenter

A Mother’s Race Against Fear

Glenda Carter, 61, a retired children’s advocate from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said that Sept. 11, 2001, is a day she will never forget. For her, the day is not just about the national tragedy, but also about a deeply personal and primal emotion: a mother’s fear. She was at work when she learned what had happened, and her first and only thought was getting her three children out of school and home to safety.

“The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news was that I needed to get my babies,” Carter said, recalling the urgent, overwhelming need to protect her family.

 “I had a sense of urgency and fear that I had never experienced before.”

She vividly remembers the chaos of picking up her children from three different schools. Each phone call and each drive was filled with anxiety and a desperate need to get to the next destination. It was her focus on her family that allowed her to block out the larger world events unfolding around her. At the time, she was an advocate for children with disabilities, a role that had trained her to remain calm in a crisis, a skill she relied on that day.

When asked what lessons the country has learned, Carter’s perspective has evolved. She believes the country initially learned about unity and resilience. She remembers a time when people came together, and racial and political divides seemed to temporarily fade away.

 “We came together as a country after that, but that sense of unity didn’t last,” she said.

Over the years, she said her opinion has changed because she has seen the country’s divisions widen again. She now believes the most important lesson is that even in tragedy, we must be vigilant about maintaining the compassion and unity that came so naturally in the immediate aftermath.

Carter does belive that age plays a factor into how 9/11 is remembered.

 “It is one thing to be taught about a tragedy in a history book, but it’s a completely different thing to have a physical and emotional response to what happened,” she said.

She added that the fear she felt on that day, and the fear that millions of other parents felt, is a powerful memory that informs her views on the world today.

For Carter, the one word that sums up 9/11 is fear.

-By Donnie Claybrooks-Carter

Gen Z’s Unemotional Take on 9/11

Chawndell Hulon, a 25-year-old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a Graphic Design major at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, works as a server at a local restaurant. He says the 24th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, holds a different meaning for him. Hulon was three months past his first birthday when the attacks happened, and for him, the event is primarily a historical one, learned about through documentaries and classroom lessons. He does not have a personal emotional tie to the day, and he believes that the public’s perception of 9/11 is steeped in hypocrisy.

“I was born a year and three months before it happened,” Hulon said. “I wasn’t emotionally invested in it, so it’s hard for me to have the same reaction that people who lived it have.”

 He learned about the attacks in school, but he has also done his own research, leading him to believe the attacks were an inside job orchestrated by the U.S. government. For Hulon, the most significant lesson from 9/11 is not about unity, but about the government’s ability to manipulate public opinion. He sees the “Never Forget” narrative as a selective form of patriotism.

“Every year we’re told to ‘never forget’ 9/11, but then when Black people speak up about things that happen to them, they’re told to ‘get over it’,” Hulon said, his tone reflecting a sense of frustration.

“The country has a double standard for what it chooses to remember and what it chooses to ignore.”

 He feels that the country’s response to 9/11 and its subsequent War on Terror has not been consistent in its approach to domestic issues. Hulon believes a person’s age and experience with 9/11 are extremely important to their perspective.

“A person who lived through it has a different level of understanding than I do,” he said.

He believes his distance from the event allows him to look at it with a more critical and less emotional lens. He is able to question the official narrative and consider alternative theories without the personal pain of having lived through it.

He said that if he had to sum up 9/11 in one word, that word would be hypocrisy.

-By Donnie Claybrooks-Carter

Empathy, not Sympathy

Those who weren’t alive for 9/11 tell a different story from those who survived it. Learning lessons and watching footage can evoke sadness, but it doesn’t compare to those who lived it.

“I was in middle school when I first started to learn about the 9/11 attacks,” said Kaylee Conaway, a 20-year-old from Mukwonago. “I know that there are so many different emotions that survivors experienced that day, and I know that it’s unlikely that I will ever feel those same emotions.”

Many people born after 9/11 watched similar videos in school, often archived news footage from the day of the attacks.

“I remember watching footage of people committing suicide by jumping out of the towers as they burned,” Conaway recalls. “That was probably the first time I got emotional learning about 9/11.”

Learning about 9/11 early on in school changed opinions for many of those who weren’t alive for the attacks.

“I think today, those who weren’t alive for 9/11 became desensitized to violence through learning about the attacks,” said Conaway. “Not because they downplayed it, but because it’s talked about every year, and obviously, we will never be able to feel those same emotions that they did.”

Conaway left me with a powerful statement:

“I can always empathize with those who lived through it, but I will never be able to sympathize with them.”

-By Alexandra Craker.

Pregnant During 9/11

Tracy Dinnel, a 55-year-old from Janesville, Wisconsin, was five months pregnant with her first child on September 11, 2001.

“I walked into work that morning and everyone was in the break room huddled around the tv in just pure shock,” She recalled. “We watched the first plane hit, and then the second, and then the third. We didn’t know what was next or when it was going to stop.”

At the time, she was home alone as her husband was traveling for work.

“My husband was supposed to be on a flight that morning to Pennsylvania, making me even more fearful,” she said. “When I was finally able to get a hold of him, we had no idea when he was going to be able to return home because getting a rental car seemed impossible.”

After the 9/11 attacks, many Muslims in America faced scrutiny and discrimination. Dinnel recalls feeling scared to bring her son into the world when there seemed to be so much hate towards others.

“You want to feel stable when you bring a child into the world, but there was so much uncertainty left, I just didn’t feel that way at all,” Dinnel said. “I didn’t want my son to be fearful of others or the world in general.”

The world changed drastically that year. Traveling was never the same, and the impacts of the attack are still present 24 years later.

“I think that every anniversary, you reminisce and feel those same feelings again for a short moment,” said Dinnel. “You look back and just realize how much things have changed and realize that traveling, and so many other everyday activities, just aren’t the same anymore, and probably never will be.”

-By Alexandra Craker

Shock at the Hilton Hotel

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Letesa Evans was at work inside the Hilton Hotel downtown when she first heard the news.

“It was the morning, and we were all just starting our day when everything suddenly stopped,” Evans, 54, said. “Everyone was shocked.”

She and her coworkers crowded around televisions in the hotel lobby, struggling to process what they were watching. Evans remembered seeing the second tower collapse and the room going quiet.

“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” she said. “It felt unreal, like something you only see in movies.”

Two decades later, Evans still sees the anniversary as both painful and instructive. She said the main lesson is that peace and safety are never guaranteed.

“The world can change in an instant,” she said.

-By Jajuan Evans

Images Shape a Younger Generation

Amber Walton is too young to remember Sept. 11 as a living memory. Instead, she grew up hearing stories and seeing images of the tragedy replayed.

“The horrific part to me was seeing people falling out of the buildings,” Walton, 21, a student from Milwaukee, said. “That’s what made me realize how bad it really was.”

Walton said she first learned about the attacks in school, but her understanding deepened as she got older. She said watching documentaries and seeing photos made the events feel more real, even though she wasn’t alive to remember them.

“I think people my age see it more like history, but for older people, it’s a memory,” Walton said.

She believes the main lesson is not to take safety for granted.

“It showed that even the United States isn’t untouchable,” she said.

-By Jajuan Evans

A New Generation’s Experience

It has been 24 years since the tragedy of 9/11, and although Emera Harris was not born at the time, the feeling she gets anytime there is a reminder remains.

Emera Harris, 19 years old, grew up in Atlanta but moved to Milwaukee her first year of high school. Her memories do not go as far back as when it happened, but she does remember the feeling she received once she was capable of understanding what was happening. Her emotional connection is not as deep as those who were there to experience it.

“I do believe I am experiencing the aftermath trauma that America is going through. I am living through the changes made because of the terrorist attack,” she said.

Emera feels that if it were not for the attack, the changes that have made in response, such as the airports, would not be there.  It deeply affected people; it traumatized America as a whole, so much so that newer generations felt that.

For her, she learned about 9/11 since elementary school, but it was not until she was in middle school that she understood the importance of what she was taught for years. Before she describes it as having no choice but to feel any other emotions but sadness.

“But then I got older and understood what happened, and that emotion came on its own. It feels dark on the day. It always felt gloomy, and at school, it seemed like all the lights were cut off. But the last two years, it almost feels like everyone is either healing, forgetting, or we are getting used to terrible stuff happening.”

-By Lasierra Flowers

Times Change

The 24^th anniversary of September 11^th is a reminder to Charlotte Harris that time waits for no one; it’s changing and going by fast.

Harris is a retired police officer, and on that day, she was on duty, only a few states away. When she was told of what was going on, everyone in the station stopped what they were doing and watched the TVs.

“It was complete silence, and it felt very uncomfortable. When we saw the first building collapse, I could’ve heard everyone’s stomach drop. Oh, I felt sick. I felt sick for everyone. I did not have family out in New York, so I could not exactly experience what people have who did have family, but for a split second, I forgot that I was not physically there.”

Harris explains that it matters how people remember that day. If they do not remember, then that could have stemmed from trauma, but if they were not alive, then it is on the older generation for treating the day like another piece of history.

She does not know what she would have done differently had she had the chance to go back. She is only grateful that her daughter was not born at the time, not knowing where time would have led them.

“I can only appreciate the changes in how we operate when it comes to protection and safety, and the compassion we have grown. It was something America experienced together. We were there for each other, we knew how to come together.”

One word Charlotte uses to describe 9/11 is devastating.

-By Lasierra Flowers

‘Terrible‘

A flashback 24 years ago to one of the most horrific days that changed American history has left a huge scar on many people. Kenny Luckett, 35, expressed his description of a school day he
would never forget.

“The teachers brought all us together and told us to stand up,” said Luckett. “They said God bless America as well as we looked toward the flags with disbelief.”

Luckett also believes that the younger generation should be informed on two major things that can hurt society: racism and terrorism.

“These young kids need to learn about terrorism and racism and also how they are a common thing in different states,” said Luckett.

-By Babtunde Otukoye, Jr.

A New Mom

Amy Ohmer was a 28-year-old new mom with a month-old baby on the couch when the news of the September 11th tragedy reached her. Her sister-in-law called to break the news, sharing she could not get in touch with her husband, Ohmer’s brother, who was working in New York City at the time.

“It was terrible, because for hours there was no information,” Ohmer said. “The whole time in my head, I kept thinking, ‘I have this brand new baby and what kind of world have I brought her into?’”

Her brother eventually made contact with family and joined a nationwide carpool with co-workers to travel back home to Pinckney, Michigan.

Ohmer expressed that over time, the real lesson to be learned from the attack was that people can’t stop living life out of fear of something terrible happening. She stated that the unification of that nation that came out of this event should be something we strive for, and that people should continue to help each other out.

“You need to go out there and try, and hope that you’re living your life in the right way and that you can do some good.”

-By Shannon Knowski

Social media Can Help Educate & Unite

Johnalyn Brzostowski, a 23-year-old psychology major at UW-Milwaukee, shares what it was like to learn about September 11th growing up, instead of experiencing it firsthand.

“I want to say I knew at most 45% of the information about the event,” Brzostowki said. “I learned bits and pieces from social media, along with either television shows and such.”

Brzostowski recounts having felt the first true impact of the tragedy at age 18, after attending a commemorative event that UW-Milwaukee had hosted in memory of those who died, and allowing a chance for attendees to pay their respects.

She also spoke about how, despite not being alive at the time, Generation Z has the chance to learn about the events through social media, and help be there for one another through the accessibility of the internet.

“We have multiple ways to be able to advocate and also help out our communities,” Brzostowski said. “We have so many resources and technology to be able to help anyone, whether it affects them or if they’re a part of it.”

-By Shannon Knowski

‘I Thought the Worst‘

Like many others, September 11, 2001 has brought extreme shock to the country worldwide and kept people guessing if there were going to be more attacks to occur like this.

Thirty-five-year old Amanda Lucas, who is a local grocery store manager, recalled her experience of how 9/11 traumatized and impacted her life.

“I thought the worst,” said Lucas. “I thought we were going to get bombed or something, you know, somewhere along those lines, I was young and didn’t know. So I thought something else
bad was going to happen as well, like to our city or state.”

Lucas also suggests that the borders would play a significant role in tight security to prevent potential terrorist attacks and threats.

-By Babatunde Otukoya, Jr.

‘The World Has Been in a Bad Place for Years Now’

Twenty-four year old Anthony Schmitz didn’t know much about the 9/11 attacks, but as he got older, he paid closer attention to society’s problems and how the world should take notice of reacting to them.

“I wasn’t shocked when I first heard about it,” said Schmitz. “I mean I know the world’s been in a bad place for a while now. I also grew up around school shootings and all that, so I suppose my perspective might be a little different.”

Now that Anthony is older he addresses all of the issues that he believes 9/11 led to. “Better access to social services getting out of foreign affairs. There’s a lot more paranoia and fear happening due to the attacks.

-By Babatunde Otukoya, Jr.

How Unity Can Be Forgotten

Ndiloma Musa, 37, still remembers being in his elementary school classroom watching the Twin Towers get hit on 9/11 on television. At the time, this 13-year-old did not understand what was happening until his world was changed forever.

“Now there is a negative stereotype being Muslim or being from Afghanistan, Iraq, and all of those Middle Eastern countries,” Musa said. “It’s like a pre-determined fear that people have, just seeing people with a hijab or someone who claims to be Muslim.”

Musa said that when he is in the airport, he gets stopped half of the time; he believes it is because of his last name, and the other half, he is unsure.

Before TSA was as advanced as it is now, Musa said that if you were going camping, you were able to bring a small pocketknife into the airport. Now, there are many different security measures they go through, making sure to be more cautious.

When 9/11 first happened, the United States came together, and in that split moment, it did not matter your sub-identity of American; everyone was unified. As the years passed, the division came back and our lesson of being stronger together was a distant memory.

We have been taught to never forget the tragedy that happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and to keep informing others on this historical challenge. This is a day that changed everyone’s life, forever.

-By Kavina Spinks

A Look on 9/11 After 2001

John Savage, 25, is a car salesman who says 9/11 was a huge turning point for America. He believes this is one tragedy everyone can agree on being bad.

“It’s definitely still sad and it’s definitely not one of those things that can happen and goes forgotten,” Savage says.

Savage says that there are still people who are uneasy in the airports, and they are anxious. Savage says, “Even if you’re having a bad day, you cannot bring that on an airplane,” there is no room for “errors.”

With social media being a big part of the society today, Savage says that if he did not see anything on 9/11 about the never forgotten tragedy, he would be concerned. This is a major historical depression that we should never forget.

Devastating is the one word that Savage would use to describe 9/11.

-By Kavina Spinks

Home Grown Canadian gives his perspective on 9/11

9/11 is a very significant event to many Americans and continues to be told from the perspective of Americans. However, the story of 9/11 is remembered very differently for some outside of America.

Nathan Morales, 19-year-old retail worker from Toronto, Canada, was not alive nor lived in the U.S when 9/11 happened. To Morales, 9/11 does not connect with him on a personal level, but it serves as a reminder of how tragic the world can be.

“For me personally it does not mean much,” Morales said. “But if I look at it as a historical event, it serves as a reminder of how tragic the world can be sometimes.”

For morales, He sees coverage on 9/11 about the conspiracies on the event and people wanting to know what really happened.

“I see a lot of conspiracies and a lot of questions unanswered,” Morales said. “I see a lot of people who are very speculative about certain things that happened that day and had questions that were never answered and might never be answered.”

“Why do you think those questions will never be answered?” he was asked.

“It could be too dangerous for the general public to know,” Morales said. “It might cause outrage or riots.”

Morales continues to explain what might happen if this information about 9/11 was available to the public.

“It might cause an overturning of the government,” Morales said. “It to uncertain about what information would be out there and what the outcome of the information being available would lead to.”

By: Luke Urback

School Teacher recites her memory on the day of 9/11

The 24th anniversary of Sept. 11 is a day of reflection and for some, they remember their thoughts of how pointless this terrorist attack was. For 59-year-old teacher Christel Gorman, she remembers just how pointless she thought this attack was.

“It makes me very sad for the people who lost their lives,” Gorman said. “It makes me think about how pointless things like what happened on 9/11 are.”

Gorman talks about the sentiment of spending time with loved ones and how that might be even more relevant for people who went through this tragic event.

“I hope people have learned from this event to spend as much time as you can with your loved ones,” Gorman said. “You never know when they’re going to be gone.”

Gorman goes on to explain that she believes everything happens for a reason. There is always a chance that some good can come out of a tragedy like this. Gorman also recalls where she was when the news broke.

“I remember family members saying oh my goodness turn on the tv and look at what’s happening,” Gorman Said.

Gorman was on vacation staying in a cabin when the news broke. She was there watching on a small tv and then started driving home after vacation listening to the radio.

“It seemed like nobody was on the road,” Gorman said. “It seemed like an apocalypse, it was kinda scary.”

Gorman was also a part of a small women’s group that talked about the event the day after.

“People were saying as much hatred as you might have for the people who caused it like the pilots, the first thing my friends did was pray for those people,’ Gorman said.

-By Luke Urback

A Uniform Salesman Never Forgets

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 may have happened over 24 years ago now, but 51-year-old Randy Dynek from Milwaukee remembers in vivid detail where he was that day as the terrorist attacks unfolded. 

“I was just waking up, walking across my kitchen and making breakfast when I saw smoke coming out of the [World Trade Center] on TV,” Dynek said. “I thought, ‘This doesn’t happen. There’s no way that plane hit that building by accident because they’ve got planes flying around that thing constantly.’ Then the second one hit, and my wife and I were just like, ‘Oh my God.’”

Like many other Americans on that tragic day, Randy was glued to his television screen as all he could do was watch in shock and horror as the terrorist attacks unfolded in real time. Even when he had to go to work that day at the same police and firefighter uniform salesman job he still has to this day, Dynek recalls how no one could get anything done that day with the events that transpired.

We all just sat there and watched the TV, Dynek said. “Nobody did anything that day. We were all in shock. I mean, just the sheer panic look in everybody’s face, it was like nobody knew what was going on.”

Another lasting memory from Sept. 11 for Dynek was the eerie calm that came from the nationwide ground stop that followed the terrorist attacks.

“It was very surreal not hearing a plane taking off because they cut off all the air traffic, Dynek said. We’re used to hearing the planes taking off since we live by the airport, but when it’s quiet, it’s like, ‘wait a minute, something’s not right.’”

Dynek believes that the lessons of 9/11 are being forgotten too quickly, especially in light of recent events like the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“The Charlie Kirk assassination took away from this anniversary of 9/11 because it divided the country more and distracted people from a moment in time where the country was brought together,” Dynek said. “The unity is what I miss in this country. I don’t want another terrorist attack to bring us back together.”

Dynek hopes that even though some people, like his kids, won’t see the events of 9/11 in the same way that he experienced, it will leave an impression that makes this event an unforgettable lesson that brings us closer together.

“My kids and I actually went to the 9/11 Memorial, and the reaction from my wife and me was totally different from my kids,” Dynek said. “The kids were learning about it, but we saw it firsthand, and they have phones there where you can pick up, and it’s the actual recordings from the people on the planes talking to their loved ones, it gets you every time. I just think that if you didn’t witness it, you don’t understand.”

By Stephen Wielebski

A Canadian Gains Perspective About 9/11

It has now been more than 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people and forever altered the landscape of American politics, national security and foreign policy. However, while countless stories have been shared from those on American soil who were around to see these events unravel in real time, some have stories to tell who weren’t alive to see the towers fall or even born in the United States.

Pierre Theberge is one of those people. He’s a 19-year-old sophomore business, finance, and accounting major at Marquette University who grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, didn’t move to Milwaukee until 2018, and wasn’t born before the events that unfolded on Sept. 11. However, Theberge does recall how, as a child, his mother would tell him about the events of 9/11 she experienced.

“I remember my mother telling me stories about 9/11 when I was younger,” Theberge said. “We lived near the airport in Montreal, and she told me about how she saw planes diverting in real time to Montreal’s airport. I remember her talking about how she had to listen to the sound of jet engines for two days straight as planes were stranded on all the tarmacs with nowhere else to go.”

It wasn’t until he moved to Milwaukee in 2018 that Theberge fully began to understand the gravity of this event from a historical standpoint.

“I first learned about 9/11 in school when we held a moment of silence,” Theberge said. “At the time, I didn’t fully understand why. It wasn’t until later in class that we watched the infamous footage—the planes crashing into the [World Trade Center] and the collapse of those buildings. Definitely shocking, you know?”

Theberge’s personal connection to the chaos of Sept. 11, even from a distance at times, underscores the global reach of the terrorist attacks. His reflections also shed light on a rapidly shifting political and social landscape.

“We never thought about that before,” Theberge said. “That day showed us that, even though we’re number one, we can get destroyed internally.”

By Stephen Wielebski