The sights and smells are still fresh in my mind

Just about everyone old enough remembers where they were when they heard about the attacks on 9/11/01. But too many Americans remember the attacks but have forgotten the collective national pain and why we were attacked.

It was 21 years ago, but the memory of driving into Manhattan at six a.m. September 11th, 2001, is still fresh in my mind. For some reason, as my car made its way over the bridge leading to the Midtown Tunnel that Tuesday morning, I gazed downtown at the twin towers thinking that it was a particularly beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. That was the last time I would ever have the twin towers and beautiful in the same thought.