As a Ukrainian American, who was in Kyiv in 1986 as a 4 year old, I could not help but also draw a certain parallel with how the government treated its population after a disaster. Today's (9/11/2026) NYT daily podcast covered something that's been haunting me. Shortly after 9/11 the government declared the air around ground zero safe to breathe, while the data existed that pointed to the opposite. i could not help but think about the May Day parade that was help in Kyiv 80 miles from Chernobyl, with children marching and breathing the air filled with radioactive particles. The data was there, it just wasn't shared.
Have you read the book, “The Truth about Chernobyl” by Grigory Medvedev? It’s a bit technical in places (he was an engineer there when Chernobyl was built) but excellent. He talks about how the authorities downplayed the dangers.
I have not read the book, but I will check it out. I did watch “Chernobyl” mini series and thought they carried the macro idea of government negligence well. It’s worth watching as well.
Very well done. Thank you for that. I grew up remembering discovering the horror of the Holocaust after reading Anne Frank. My Republican parents said it never happened! I have been a lifelong Democrat.
Most people are not aware that the Belarusian and Ukrainian people were, in a sense, collateral damage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Two days earlier, Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide "victory" in Belarus's September 9, 2001 presidential election — a vote that OSCE observers and most international monitors judged neither free nor fair. Then the towers fell, and the global war on terrorism was declared.
That shift in priorities made Vladimir Putin newly valuable to Washington and NATO. Consequently, the U.S. government lost what little appetite it had for constraining Russian efforts to assert hegemony over Belarus and Ukraine.
I remember coming home from school, and seeing my mum, the gardener and the painter all watching the TV - that was when I realised something was happening. I'm sure like everyone else I can still see those poor people jumping out of the windows. I do agree with you, that September 10th is something we all miss.
As a Ukrainian American, who was in Kyiv in 1986 as a 4 year old, I could not help but also draw a certain parallel with how the government treated its population after a disaster. Today's (9/11/2026) NYT daily podcast covered something that's been haunting me. Shortly after 9/11 the government declared the air around ground zero safe to breathe, while the data existed that pointed to the opposite. i could not help but think about the May Day parade that was help in Kyiv 80 miles from Chernobyl, with children marching and breathing the air filled with radioactive particles. The data was there, it just wasn't shared.
Have you read the book, “The Truth about Chernobyl” by Grigory Medvedev? It’s a bit technical in places (he was an engineer there when Chernobyl was built) but excellent. He talks about how the authorities downplayed the dangers.
I have not read the book, but I will check it out. I did watch “Chernobyl” mini series and thought they carried the macro idea of government negligence well. It’s worth watching as well.
Thanks for the tip.
Yes yes thank you. BUT as the author notes we can’t go back to Sep10.
BUT ALSO as @AdamKinzinger notes in his piece.. we should be going back to the days and weeks after to reclaim our American neighborliness
Very well done. Thank you for that. I grew up remembering discovering the horror of the Holocaust after reading Anne Frank. My Republican parents said it never happened! I have been a lifelong Democrat.
Most people are not aware that the Belarusian and Ukrainian people were, in a sense, collateral damage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Two days earlier, Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide "victory" in Belarus's September 9, 2001 presidential election — a vote that OSCE observers and most international monitors judged neither free nor fair. Then the towers fell, and the global war on terrorism was declared.
That shift in priorities made Vladimir Putin newly valuable to Washington and NATO. Consequently, the U.S. government lost what little appetite it had for constraining Russian efforts to assert hegemony over Belarus and Ukraine.
Europe is a less secure place today.
"President Claims Victory in Belarus," Washington Post, Sept. 10, 2001, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/10/president-claims-victory-in-belarus/d03fdc52-ec65-48ac-a015-43b0698bc456/
"Elections In Belarus: How Lukashenka Won And Won And Won And Won And Won," RFE/RL, https://www.rferl.org/a/elections-in-belarus-how-lukashenka-won-and-won-and-won-and-won-and-won-/30767860.html
Michele Kelemen, "Elections in Belarus," NPR, Sept. 10, 2001, https://www.npr.org/2001/09/10/1128737/elections-in-belarus
Just the start of not dealing with Putin as the threat he is,
I remember coming home from school, and seeing my mum, the gardener and the painter all watching the TV - that was when I realised something was happening. I'm sure like everyone else I can still see those poor people jumping out of the windows. I do agree with you, that September 10th is something we all miss.
Every global phenomenon has always in the forthcoming times been perceived as per the generational overview of the particular period.