Thread by @nytopinion

Reflections on 9/11:

“America launched a bad-faith global crusade to instill democracy in the Muslim world and ended up with our own democracy in tatters,” writes @michelleinbklyn. “We thought we knew what had been lost on Sept. 11. We had no idea.” nyti.ms/3E4nWe1

"Time can attempt to heal all wounds, but 20 years later the tears still come unexpectedly and the smell of jet fuel lingers. Please do not forget what happened to America on that day and the people who were lost forever." #NYTLetters nyti.ms/3hoQ1CO

"People of my generation will never know again what my children’s generation only tasted: an innocence and obliviousness about threat and danger," writes @CharlesMBlow. "I am — we all are — covered forever with a bit of the ash from those towers." nyti.ms/38VKkYv

"The first and most memorable responses were heroism, unity, nobility and sympathy."

Twenty years ago, Serge Schmemann wrote The Times's lead article on 9/11. He looks back at poetry from students who responded to his words in the wake of the tragedy. nyti.ms/3hmcZur

“Whenever people would ask me, ‘Oh, what religion are you?’ I knew to lie.”

Two decades after 9/11, millennial Muslims are starting to understand how the event shaped their lives, their faith and who they are today. @_meher spoke to dozens of them. nyti.ms/3lbDaoS

New York’s next mayor “will be judged not by the next day’s newspapers, but by the next generation," @MikeBloomberg writes. "It’s his job to look beyond the light at the end of the tunnel and start building more tracks, even when it’s unpopular to do so." nyti.ms/3E2w6nb

“Ever since insurrectionists invaded the Capitol, we’ve heard that Jan. 6 closed a chapter in American history,” writes @attackerman. “But Jan. 6 is less a bookend to the Sept. 11 era than a manifestation of it.”​​ nyti.ms/3E59CSq

“I think one of the enduring legacies of 9/11 will be the weaponization of fear and patriotism in our politics,” @Team_Harbaugh tells @JaneCoaston on The Argument. nyti.ms/3hbK5xc

“If we are to ‘never forget,’ then we must remember not just the pain and grief we felt on Sept. 11, but also the aggression and violence that our government unleashed,” writes @LailaLalami. nyti.ms/2VvgSW7

“I know now, in a way I did not fully appreciate two decades ago, that fallible or outright malign policymakers can take my service and twist it into fruitless or even cruel ends,” writes @ExumAM, a veteran. “Yet I would do it again.” nyti.ms/3E7idUG