Just out of curiosity, I looked through the headlines of the Boston Globe from Sept 10, 2001. What did we think about and write about and care about before the following fateful day? Some people had their pulse on the impending doom:
DOES GEORGE W. BUSH APPRECIATE WHAT FIRE HE IS PLAYING WITH WHEN HE STIRS UP THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT? IT IS ALMOST AS IF WE ARE ON THE ROAD TO RELIGIOUS WAR. In so many corners of the globe, people are brutalizing their neighbors because each is convinced that he has a direct pipeline to the true deity, while the outsider is a dangerous infidel.I remember I had recently watched an episode of Frontline about bin Laden, so when we were told of the news at my new job as an assistant 3rd grade teacher, apparently the first thing I said in the break room with the other faculty was, "I bet it's Osama bin Laden." I don't subscribe to the inside job conspiracy theory, but I do think we could have and should have been expecting it, unfortunately.
Whether in the Middle East, or Ireland, Iran or Afghanistan, state- fomented religious intolerance is the great blight on the right of ordinary people to live as they choose, as well as a grave threat to the peace. (Kuttner, Robert. "BUSH IS PLAYING WITH RELIGIOUS FIRE." Boston Globe Sep 10 2001. ProQuest. Web. 3 Sep. 2015.)
Coulda woulda shoulda -- it happened. In addition to the wars and tumulty to follow, what did it make us forget about? Shondra Levy, Elian Gonzalez, Bush V. Gore and the stolen election...