Twenty years later

Twenty years ago I was sitting in a high school classroom, translating a Catullus poem, when we heard a crash, one that sounded far harsher than anything I'd ever heard. Fifteen minutes later we learned it had been the sound of the Pentagon, among other places, getting hit by a plane, in what would prove the end of the Pax Americana I and my peers had grown up in. Things deteriorated further from there.
This year, I'm mostly angry, having only learned after the whole invasion had ended in disaster that contrary to the impression we all received at the time, the Taliban actually would've handed bin Laden over just to avoided being invaded, and even that those fighting them already urged us not to do it. Back then, I think just about everyone believed the invasion had to happen, that there was nothing else to be done. Just another war based on lies.
Not to mention that right after watching us concede we couldn't save Afghanistan, that all we could do was get as many people out as possible, we all saw what happened in Texas, and looking at the voter suppression laws all over the country, now I wonder how long it will be before the same can be said for parts of our own country. Or even the entire damn thing.
I did at least finally officially attest to my status as vaccinated this week; a month after Biden announced the requirement, government bureaucracy came through with the procedures. We are not, however, required to prove it.