What I Miss the Most About Pre-9/11 America

September 11, 2026 // 7 Comments »

My condo surveils the hallways. The city’s facial-recognition cameras are on every corner, tied to license-plate readers, tied to our digital lives. Vast databases assure us no detail—no one—is too small to monitor.

I learn to follow orders at the airport. After becoming an Iraq War whistleblower, I was placed on the SSSS list and sent to secondary screening every time I flew. I never knew who put me there or why. The agents searching me didn’t know either. They were following orders. An algorithm tagged me for something I had no idea I’d done.

People once said, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” Older people still joke about it. My kids don’t know the joke. They grew up assuming this way of life is simply part of life.

That’s what we’ve lost, and what I miss most about pre-9/11 America.

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.

Posted in Democracy, Iraq, Post-Constitution America