January 6 Still Hurts - And So Do the Others

Watching 9/11, Sandy Hook, and January 6 in real time — and what their aftermath reveals about America

I watched 9/11 as it unfolded.

My girlfriend’s mom called early that morning and woke us up, screaming about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I told her she must be watching a movie. But she kept yelling for us to turn on the TV. We did—and there it was.

At first, I thought it was a catastrophic failure of air traffic control. A terrible acci…