Twenty five years later, it’s time for America to renew its dreams | Steve Collins
25 Years After 9/11, Maine Columnist Reflects on a Nation’s Enduring Transformation
By: Maine News Now
Published April 2025 – Column by Steve Collins, former journalist and current columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News
September 11, 2001, will forever be marked as a day that altered the United States in ways no one could have imagined. For Maine’s own Steve Collins, the anniversary brought a personal look back at how that morning shifted the course of a generation.
Collins, who began his journalism career in 1987 and has worked for daily papers in New York, Connecticut, and Maine, recounts the first moment the world changed. He was in his Connecticut backyard, pulling weeds after dropping his son at school, when a neighbor burst across the street and shouted, “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.” The shock of those words, he says, “came like a heartbeat in a quiet, blue‑sky morning.” He hurried inside, flipped on the television, and watched the planes strike the Twin Towers—a sight that left him with an ache in his chest and a memory that would never fade.
“I’ve never seen anything so horrible,” Collins writes. “The images of the buildings falling, the dust, the steel—those are the images that have stayed with me.” He went on to describe how, in the months and years that followed, his family made pilgrimages to the sites that still bear the scars of that day. “We visited Ground Zero in Manhattan, saw the charred walls on the shattered side of the Pentagon, and paid homage at the farm field in Pennsylvania where heroic passengers brought down one of the four hijacked planes.” The visits served as a ritual of remembrance and a reminder of the human cost.
The article also takes a broader look at the legacy of 9/11, noting the sweeping changes in national security. Collins observes that the United States has “quietly accepted a growing cadre of armed agents, security lines, cameras and metal detectors.” The increased presence of these measures, he argues, has reshaped everyday life, from airports to public spaces. He adds that while these steps were intended to protect citizens, they also reflect the lingering fear that “even on the best, brightest days, something dark might intrude.”
The columnist also addresses the geopolitical fallout. “The war that sent our young men and women into a hodgepodge of troubled countries,” Collins writes, “is rooted in those brief hours when 19 hijackers turned passenger planes into missiles aimed at the heart of America.” He points out that, “We couldn’t even say coherently why we were there,” underscoring the confusion and disorientation that followed the attacks.
Despite the enduring changes, Collins reminds readers that America remains a nation with the capacity for hope and renewal. He quotes Langston Hughes, a poet he admires, saying: “Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed – Let it be that great strong land of love.” Hughes’ words, Collins suggests, are a reminder of the ideals that still drive the country.
In concluding, Collins reflects on how the nation has evolved and what it still struggles with. He writes that “we are capable of a vibrancy that can be astonishing,” yet acknowledges that “we haven’t been at our best in a long while.” The anniversary, he says, is a moment for both remembrance and assessment of how the collective memory of 9/11 continues to influence policy and public sentiment.
Steve Collins became a columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April 2025. With a career spanning over three decades, he brings a seasoned perspective to the ongoing conversation about security, memory, and national identity in the wake of September 11.
