We all know what happened on Sep. 11, 2001. In an orchestrated act of terrorism, four planes were deliberately crashed, causing 2,996 deaths. It shocked the world. And because it involved our commercial airlines, air travel changed immediately and profoundly. It has been almost 20 years, and we’ve grown accustomed to inconveniences we would never have accepted before 9/11.
We always before had the ability to make people remove their shoes and be searched and scanned before getting on an airplane. We could have formed a governmental security agency to put us in long lines and add an extra 30 minutes to an hour of travel time each time we fly. Only after 9/11 were we willing to accept those extra costs and inconveniences because the world changed.