You know exactly where you were 20 years ago on Sept. 11 at 6:46 in Denver.

The date evokes memories and a sense of patriotism and unity, and a renewed fear it could happen again.

I sat on the edge of the bed in the Edison Walthall Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, a half block down from the governor’s mansion. The remains of my usual room service breakfast was left on the desk in the room and the TV was on. I covered politics for the Biloxi Sun Herald, months before I shoved off to Colorado.

The tenor changed from the morning chatter on the “Today” show, and I stepped out of the bathroom to see. Katie Couric was trying to sort out what was going on at the World Trade Center. I thought of maybe one of those tourist helicopters. That was the safe room in my mind I tried to build.

American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 93 passengers and crew, pierced the north tower between floors 93 and 99, and fireball bellowed out.

“We have some breaking news to tell you about,” Couric said. “Apparently a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center here in New York City. It happened just a few moments ago apparently. We have very little information available at this point in time”

She cut to a witness on the phone, Jennifer Oberstein, who thought it might have been a bomb. “Maybe it was a plane,” she conceded.

They quickly cut to another phone call with NBC producer Elliott Walker, who said an aircraft the size of a DC-9 flew past the window of her apartment in Lower Manhattan. 

“Oh my,” Matt Lauer said, as the newsroom gasped.

Walker was still on the phone when United Airlines Flight 175, with 65 aboard, crashed into the south tower 17 minutes after the first plane.

America was under attack, and I couldn’t see the future, but I expected retaliation.

Colorado remembers the date each year in most towns with bell-ringing, flag flying and a local trumpeter playing “Taps.”  The ceremonies range from rural fire stations to renowned speakers at the CELL education center in Denver.

That’s the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab founded by Denver philanthropist Larry Mizel. The CELL is dedicated preventing terrorism through education, empowerment and engagement. The exhibit and lecture facility opened in 2008, and it’s worth your time to see. Take the kids.

During last year’s observance at the CELL, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock spoke virtually alongside his predecessor, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.

“On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists not only attacked our airliners and buildings, they attacked our way of life and the very freedoms we hold dear,” Hancock said. “Yet, our nation’s response in the aftermath showed our resolve and our values of democracy, equality and liberty.

“Tonight, we remember the many innocent lives that were taken that day. They will never be forgotten and will remain in our hearts forever.”

I was in Colorado when the fifth anniversary came around in 2006.

First thing that morning I went to Castle Rock, where the fire department staged a remembrance in the street outside the fire hall. It was an unusually frigid morning, but dozens showed up.

During a moment of silence, a freight train rumbled through downtown, a fact of daily life in Douglas County.

“For many, 9/11 is a distant memory,” then fire chief Art Morales said. “For many, life has never been the same.”

Then-Mayor Randy Reed said, “Every emotion I think I have, I went through that day.”

He talked about the nation’s unity after the attacks.

“It showed what we were made of,” Reed said.

By lunchtime, I was up in Boulder at another remembrance at the University of Colorado.

The school dedicated a stone marker outside the Wolf Law Building to honor the 10 CU alumni who died on 9/11.

I reported for the Denver Post:

“Mike Faughnan, a graduate of Colorado State, had slipped on his brother’s CU ball cap. Chris Faughnan, a 1986 CU graduate, was on the 103rd floor of the North Tower, at work at Cantor Fitzgerald. His remains were never found.”

“Today is less about remembering the events of five years ago and more about celebrating the beautiful lives that were lost that day,” Mike Faughan said.

Denver hasn’t forgotten, and one the ways to remember is perfectly Colorado.

You see, in 2005, five metro Denver area firefighters who were friends met at a downtown Denver high rise to climb the equivalent of 110 stories, the journey of the 9/11 responders, in full gear to honor the 343 New York City firefighters who died at the World Trade Center.

The Denver Memorial Stair Climb has raised more than $6 million for the Fire Department of New York and the National Fire Fighters Foundation.

On 9/11 we can remember and look back. The day after we should look ahead. President Trump’s disastrous pullout from Syria in 2019 and President Biden’s albatross in Afghanistan have made the world more unstable. Russia is in ascendancy and America needs friends again.

Any day we could again see our country assaulted. I fear the answer as to whether we could stand together, and stand behind our president at least long enough to retaliate.

God help us.