Post-9/11 World
I remember the first time I heard someone say "everything is different now, we're in a post-9/11 world."
At this point in time, the events and impact of 9/11 are not looming so much in the conscious mind, but more as an ever present background tapestry. But it still is there, altering the collective unconscious permanently.
However, from time to time, there are reminders, typically witnessed as increased
security. Some of it appears to function a bit like public pacifiers - such as tight security in relatively small, nondescript office buildings of no import where a terrorist threat seems inconceivable.
Occasionally we find national guardsmen with machine guns in subway stations. The most frustrating are the restrictions in areas of interest to visitors, both resident and non-resident. One primary example is the lobby of the Woolworth Building. The lobby was a favorite "secret" of mine. At night, one could visit and see the magnificent vaulted lobby with blue and gold glass mosaics, murals, marble and the sculptured caricatures. See a previous article here. Now, you cannot enter the lobby unless you have specific business in the building. And this type of saga is replayed in various ways and places throughout the city.
The sentry guards in the photo were on the upper level of the west side highway during fleet week, near the Kearsarge - see that posting here. Their silhouettes, cutting out shapes in the skyline against a dramatic sunset was a silent and poignant reminder that we are in a post-9/11 world ...