I was just starting a journey that I hoped would prepare me for a life in public service, and suddenly the world changed in a way none of us could have imagined. That day changed the trajectory of my time at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Everything changed.
Two and a half decades after 9/11, the most striking reality is not just how much time has passed, but how much the US has altered. There are adults working in America today who have no memory of that day. Some were too young, others were not yet born. They vote, serve in the military, raise families and participate in a political culture shaped by the aftermath of that tragic event without ever having lived through the trauma itself.
That generational gap matters. The America they inherited, the one many of us now inhabit, barely resembles the country that existed on 10 September 2001.
Shorts
The America of 2001 was slower. It was a country with a quieter public square and a very different pace of political life. The world of Donald Trump, with policy announcements thrown out on social media with little or no warning, would seem so alien.
