We Are Still Only Beginning to Understand What Sept. 11, 2001 Meant

Twenty-five years after al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist attacks on the United States, the meaning of Sept. 11 remains unsettled.

The article opens with a personal memory: the writer had just entered a daycare center to pick up a daughter when the head of the institution approached and asked whether the writer had heard about “the accident” in New York.

That brief exchange captures the shock and uncertainty of the moment. The attacks changed many aspects of life, the article says, but people are still only beginning to understand what they truly meant.

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the accident that happened in New York