I had overslept that Tuesday in September, a symptom of Monday evening meetings and even later paper deadlines.

I remember getting out of my car on my hometown’s brick-laden Main Street and scanning a jet trail-streaked sky, so blue as if no cloud dare interrupt.

I remember my friend, Randy Pryor, yelling to me from across the street with a laugh that belied the seriousness of the situation that a plane had just flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

“Can you believe that?” Randy said incredulously. “Somebody flew a plane into that building! What’s the world coming to?”

Minutes later we learned that evil had indeed struck, that the plane, once thought to be a small private plane, was instead an American Airlines Boeing 767, and that what we witnessed live — from the falling bodies to the inferno that followed — would change our lives forever.

The horror that morning never seemed to cease. Seventeen minutes after the first plane struck, United Airlines Flight 175, bound for Los Angeles from Boston, crashed into floors 7 through 85 of the south tower. Thirty-four minutes later, at 9:37 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles crashed through three rings of the Pentagon. A fourth flight, United Airlines flight 93, crashed into the rural countryside about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburg. That plane’s crash is believed to be an act of heroism from a group of passengers who overpowered hijackers.

Seventy-three minutes after the first plane struck, the north tower crumbled to the ground. At 10:28 a.m. the south tower went down as well.

As the hours passed, and in the shadow of the former trade center, neighboring structures, weakened by the explosion of the trade centers, were deemed unsafe. Subway systems were shut down, airplanes grounded. People stranded around the globe as the world watched in disbelief.

I remember the confusion and the anger that overwhelmed any fear. I remember the tears streaming down the faces of my coworkers as we strove to put out a paper amidst the news that we witnessed on a portable 10-inch black and white TV.

I remember the gas lines and the emptying of grocery shelves as those, even in rural western Iowa, wondered what would come next. And I remember people looking to one another for hope, for strength, for courage and for support.

Twenty years ago, nearly 3,000 people were killed, including the 19 hijackers, all affiliated with the militant Islamic group Al-Qaeda and citizens of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.

Twenty-years ago thousands of husbands never came home to their wives, wives to their husbands, parents to their children and children to their moms and dads.

America reacted swiftly if not militarily. Blood drives overwhelmed capacities. Enlistment lines emerged as America’s youth wanted revenge.

Twenty years later, we face another 9/11. This one of our own making. This time there are no hijacked airplanes, only misinformed minds. This time there is no terrorist villain, only the insipid disbelief in medical science.

Twenty years later, more people die in America from COVID-19 and its ancillary causes every day than died in the 9/11 attacks. Twenty years later, while we stand for a moment of silence or attend a religious ceremony, while we reminisce with family and friends or shed a tear for a lost loved one, we need to ask ourselves why we allow a 9/11 nearly every day of the week in our country.

Are not the empty spots at the dinner table today just as heart wrenching as those 20 years prior? Have we become a nation so uneducated, so ignorant, so unbelieving, so uncaring of our fellow Americans that we allow ourselves to kill them by the thousands? Would it be different if they each died before our eyes on live TV instead of hidden in hospital COVID wards?

In September 2001, Osama bin Laden weaponized hatred to forever change our lives. When will we, as a nation, realize that we’re still treating COVID as if it’s a small plane that made a mistake, rather than the medical crisis that it is. Unlike 20 years ago, we can still change course and prevent further loss of live. Please don’t honor those lost on 9/11 while failing to protect our fellow countrymen today.