What we did not have on 9/11

Re “State of our union,” letters, Sept. 10

One thing was missing from the coverage and letters about the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack: what wasn’t there in 2001.

There were no smartphones, there was no Facebook, and there was no Twitter. Amazon was still mostly an online bookstore that was losing money.

Yet, the deaths of almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania united us in a way that the deaths of more than 650,000 Americans from COVID-19 has not.

Was the community we once felt part of always an illusion, or has social media destroyed something once believed indispensable? Lynne Culp

Van Nuys

I am quite the reader of letters to the editor. I call them the funny pages.

On Sept. 10, I was amazed at the collection of well-written, thoughtful letters.

Thank you, Times readers — you have restored some of my beleaguered hope.

Gregg Ferry Carlsbad