DemDaily: 9/11: Remembrance and Retrospect
September 11, 2026
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States -- when a group of al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airplanes and, in a coordinated plan, carried out one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in human history.
It is difficult to pass the day without acknowledging the tragedy -- one that continues to have a profound effect on the lives of many Americans.
It also comes as political violence has become commonplace for the everyday citizen in a nation that is suffering the repercussions of its own homegrown terrorism -- and still has much to learn from the past.
The Attack
At 8:46am on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight #11 was forced to crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City's lower Manhattan.
17 minutes later, at 9:03am, United Airlines Flight #175 crashed into the South Tower, resulting in the collapse of both 110-story buildings within an hour and forty-two minute period.
24 minutes later, at 9:37am, a third plane, American Airlines Flight #77, crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, leading to a partial collapse of the building's west side.
The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight #93, believed to have been headed for the US Capitol, crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03am -- after its 40 passengers and crew bravely sacrificed their lives to thwart the hijackers.
| In total, nearly 3,000 people across all three locations were murdered that day, and more than 6,000 injured. The Trade Center attack remains the single most fatal incident in US history for firefighters and law enforcement officers with, respectively, 343 and 71 of their ranks killed in the buildings or on the ground. Fifty-five military personnel died at the Pentagon. |
While every September 11th brings an awareness of the devastating 2001 assault on our country to a new generation of Americans, those of us living during the attack will forever remember where we were at the time, and the reality that pierced our way of life and the seemingly safe bubble of our homeland.
The Victims
For the families of responders and victims who subsequently died from toxic exposure and the thousands of those who continue to suffer long-term health effects, the assault is still very real.
The CDC estimates that the health of up to 400,000 people was affected. Diseases related to the dust and smoke produced by the collapse of the Twin Towers 25 years ago have now claimed three times as many lives as the attacks themselves – and new health problems continue to emerge.
Medical examiners still work daily to match the remains of the 2,753 ground zero victims, 40% of whom have yet to be identified.
Following the 2001 attack, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) was created to provide compensation for any individual, or a personal representative of a deceased individual, who was killed, suffered physical harm or who have since been diagnosed with a related illness as a result of the September 11th attacks.
The VCF, which is administered under the Department of Justice, is available to first responders, recovery and cleanup workers and volunteers, as well as people who lived, worked, or went to school in the exposure zone. It is funded through the year 2090.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (Zadroga Act), signed into law in 2011 by President Barack Obama, created The World Trade Center Health Program (WTC), which is administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
WTC provides high-quality, compassionate medical monitoring and treatment services for WTC-related conditions to first responders, volunteers, survivors and those directly affected by the September 11th attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That includes first responders from all 50 states and abroad who came to the city to help with the clean-up process in the aftermath of the attacks.
The WTC Health Program, which also funds medical research into physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11 exposures, was extended in 2015 and the program is authorized through 2090.
The funding formula, however, didn't keep pace with rising costs, so Congress passed a fix in February 2026 (the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act) that secured funding through 2040.
| As of June 30, 2026, over 145,275 people were enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program -- an estimated 9,400 of whom have died. Researchers have identified more than 70 types of cancer and two dozen other conditions linked to Ground Zero exposures. Nearly three victims a day die of a 9/11-related illness. |
The Threat Within
The increasing divisions in our country, fueled by the incendiary political rhetoric and racist policies of Donald Trump, are playing out in social unrest.
Far-right extremism has proven to be the deadliest ideological threat in the country. Data from think tank New America shows that since the 9/11 attacks, extremists associated with alt-right ideologies – an umbrella covering white supremacy, anti-government, militias, and anti-abortion ideologies – have contributed to the most deaths on US soil, including jihadism.
Since the Spring of 2020, the FBI has almost tripled its domestic terrorist caseload.
Three months after Trump incited the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his extremist supporters, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testified that "Domestic violent extremism poses the most lethal and persistent terrorism-related threat to our country today."
Five years later, the 2026 annual "Preventive Priorities Survey," conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action, rates "Growing political violence and popular unrest in the United States" as a Tier I contingency: "High Likelihood; High Impact."
We are at a critical turning point.
The immediate national unity we felt as a country following the September 11 attacks eventually broke down over partisan policy debates, setting early precedents for executive overreach and political turmoil that continues to threaten -- sometimes violently -- our civil rights, are voting rights, and the dignity of our nation.
Each September 11th is a painful reminder of those we lost, but also of the way Americans came together and triumphed in spirit over those who attempted to divide us.
It is a history lesson, we hope, that continues to teach and inspire.
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Sources: CDC, 9/11 Memorial, AP, White House, WTC Health Program, 9/11 VCF, Mount Sinai, Scientific America, US Congress, BBC, SoufanCenter, Council on Foreign Relations, Homeland Security
