Are Americans letting their guard down again?

I was at home, in small temporary apartment in Reston, Va., getting ready to start another work day. The TV was on. At first, the reports of a single plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York were sketchy. It seemed like it was a small plane involved in accident. Bad but not horrible. I kept an eye on the news reports because that was part of my job. As a journalist, I had to be aware of what was going on in the world because it would impact how my day and night would unfold at USA TODAY. It wasn't long before I was on the phone with folks in the newsroom.

Of course, Sept. 11, 2001 involved something much worse than a small plane colliding into a skyscraper. The Twin Towers were struck by two commercial airliners that were taken over by terrorists. The building that I worked in just outside of Washington D.C. was only a couple miles away from the next terrorist target, the Pentagon. The former USA TODAY building is the tallest structure in the area and some people who were at work early that day saw the plane flying low, right outside the windows, along the Potomac River. Even though Reagan National Airport is also just up the road, the jet seemed too low. Moments later, American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

It was hard getting to work that afternoon. All roads in Arlington were closed. But with my press badge, I managed to convince police to let me through. The smell of smoke was in the air. I could only imagine what the scene was like in New York. When I entered my office building, the newsroom was humming. Not only was this going to be a journalistic challenge, but it was also somewhat personal. The low-flying jet, which some people estimated to be only a couple hundred yards from our office building when it erratically flew by, hit the defense department mega structure that many of my coworkers drove by every single day and was the site of where some of our friends and neighbors worked. The Pentagon is massive and employs thousands of people from D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Yet, things could have been worse. A fourth plane that was heading to Washington was heroically taken over by passengers and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before the terrorists could guide it to their intended target.

By now, we all know the story. The tragic day has been well documented. The personal stories and official investigations have been told. Memorials have been erected in Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia. The Pentagon has been fully restored. The southern edge of Manhattan is still scarred but maybe that's not an entirely bad thing. Sometimes we need raw reminders.

I was working in New York City during the first terrorist attempt to bring down the Twin Towers. I was at The Associated Press when car bombs went off in 1993. There was a lot of damage in the underground garage but no threat of the building collapsing. That attack should have been a wake-up call.

As a teenager growing up in Rockland County, N.Y., I recall seeing the tops of the newly built Twin Towers from a vantage point near my house up on a hill on Route 301. From 30 miles away, nothing else in the city was visible other than the towers.

I also recall taking my daughter to the towers when she was a young girl. We stood at the base and looked up. It was an intimidating site for anyone, let alone a child who hadn't previously seen any building taller than several stories. I asked her if she wanted to take the elevator to the top. But she was pretty determined to simply enjoy the view from ground level. As someone who doesn't like heights, I must admit I was somewhat relieved.

While we argue about health-care reform and worry about unemployment, we also need to pause on days like today and quietly remember what happened in 2001. We also need to act, be aware of our surroundings, report suspicious activity whether it's at the airport or in our own neighborhoods. It never ceases to amaze me how unaware we are of things that are often in our immediate view. I remember a time, growing up in New York, when people called the police for just about anything. Now, at least where I live, someone in robes with "death-to-America" signs could be openly constructing a bomb in the middle of the parking lot at Chuck E. Cheese's, and no one would say boo.

It's cloudy here today, very unlike the sparkling September 11th day eight years ago. I can't help feeling that there is something in the air that indicates we are far from safe. 9/11 was a wake-up call, but Americans tend to get lulled back into a false sense of security rather quickly. We don't want to believe that another 9/11 type of event could disrupt us from going to the mall or hamper our cellphone service...God forbid.