On this day 23 years ago, many Americans had hardly gotten settled into their workday when the day was shattered by the news that jetliners had struck both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, another jetliner had crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth plane still was in the air over Pennsylvania and was headed in the direction of Washington, D.C.

Of course, that last plane ended up crashing in a field alongside a wooded area just outside of Shanksville, Somerset County, miraculously sparing that community and neighboring Indian Lake Borough of what could have been a catastrophic loss of life.

The United States had become a victim of terrorism on its home turf, unlike any incident before it in this country.

Those who had planned the attacks believed that America would be shaken by what they had inflicted and that, having been victimized on domestic ground by the attacks, America would be paralyzed in terms of how to respond.

Unfortunately for them, they miscalculated how the attacks, rather than dropping America to its knees in a state of confusion, would trigger an intensely patriotic, intensely angry outpouring and determination to identify and punish the perpetrators.

It was the kind of a national response – a right-thinking-loyalty-to-America response – that would be appropriate in the current mixed-up world of national politics.

All was not right and not in agreement on America’s political front on Sept. 11, 2001, but the nation overcame that discord when threatened.

Judging from the mindset of America today, however, many people might justifiably wonder whether such true patriotism could be mustered in the same way if the evils of terrorism would strike again.

Maybe, if Vladimir Putin or the rulers of China or North Korea were behind an attack, outrage again could be evoked.

The people of America cannot be sure, though, if any semblance of overall outrage and overall unity could be mustered at this time if another domestic-terrorism incident like what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, were to rear its ugly head.

It would be uplifting if Americans on this, the 22nd “anniversary” of that horrific airborne assault on this nation, would allocate at least a few minutes to reflect on what, unfortunately, is no longer a question with an immediate, clear-cut answer.

In the days, weeks and months after Sept. 11, 2001, numerous vehicles could be seen on area roadways bearing threatening messages directed at Osama bin Laden after the terrorist leader was identified as the main perpetrator of the attacks.

Back then the attacks were understood to have been aimed at destroying the fabric of this nation’s government.

Judging from some attitudes and a large amount of shortsightedness and misunderstanding of history, some Americans today seem extremely open to such a disastrous prospect.

Let us hope that it is just a tiny minority who really think that way.

That day in September 2001 was a wake-up call to all of America. So too should be what is happening on today’s national front.

Remembering 2001 is a good way to start.