Every generation has its "moment," sometimes more than one. I remember atomic tests from my youth, the Kennedy and King assassinations, the arrival of The Beatles, the fall of the Berlin Wall. All momentous, but none quite as singular as 9/11. Out on the West Coast, I woke up to the news, and then watched the plane fly into the second tower. It was numbing. And it was civilizational. Where the Twin Tower once stood now live the Oculus, the 9/11 Memorial Pools, and Freedom Tower. Yes, for all the wrong reasons, it's been renamed One World Trade Center, but for this citizen, it remains Freedom Tower. IIt stands for what it means to rise from the ashes and re-proclaim the strengths and values that the 9/11 terrorists sought to destroy.
