DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Attack forever changed our world

In one horrific second, the world changed for us all.
On Tuesday morning I woke up and made my kids their lunches. I saw them off on the bus and into the carpool. I rushed around the house frantically looking for my car keys and hugged my husband goodbye.
Then, I turned on the car radio.
The day of the World Trade Center attack, I was to teach a class at Youngstown State University. Arriving at my classroom, I saw another instructor.
"Have you ever been in a near accident in your car?" I asked. "Where you just missed being hit -- being killed?"
She nodded. "And then, you just have to go on driving home, like nothing happened?"
She nodded again. And there we were, supposed to teach our classes, supposed to stand before students and talk about composition -- when all anyone cared about was the news out of New York City.
A half-hour later, a student hurried into the room and spoke with a seriousness I rarely see on campus. "Classes are canceled at noon," he said. "Everyone should go home."
I was in shock and wobbly in the knees.
Attempts at normalcy: Many Americans have felt like that for the last two days: in shock, wobbly in the knees, and a little like people who have just escaped being in a car wreck, expected to go on with their daily activities like nothing has happened.
It won't be so easy this time. Oh sure, the bills must still be paid. The groceries still need to be bought. In my case, my son Josh will play a soccer game; his sister Hannah will go to piano lessons.
I'll prep for my classes, and I will suddenly return to writing the good news. Things in my small personal sphere will seem to carry on as always.
But the domino effect that began with the collapse of the World Trade Center towers spread across America within hours of the horrendous attack.
Touches home: What was on a small TV screen or on the airwaves became personal almost immediately. It will travel to our doors as the days go by.
A friend of a friend is in the Reserve and his unit has been activated. An acquaintance's son used to work in the World Trade Center. Many of his friends and many more acquaintances STILL work there (worked there?).
A student explains that someone she knows is nearly hysterical -- her brother works near the World Trade Center and the phone lines are all busy.
One of our editors is visiting Manhattan. Another woman relays the story of a father on the phone with his daughter, trapped in the trade center. As he is giving his daughter instructions to go down, not to the roof as she has planned, the line goes dead. ...
Multiply me and what I have heard by 240 million Americans in hundreds of cities across the United States.
My husband says the interesting thing is, in a year, there will be other news. "We'll move on."
Awakening: I don't think so. Our naivet & eacute; about terrorism invading America disappeared with Timothy McVeigh. And now, our forgetfulness about how huge Evil can be, should be gone as well. Americans have fortitude and, surely, we'll persevere, but I don't think life will ever be exactly the same again.
I will never again cross the threshold of a government building easily. I may never visit D.C. again. I will think twice about New York City. I will be more wary when I see my children off to school. I will worry about which careers they choose to pursue.
I will worry more about my nephew who is a Marine. I will think twice before flying again. I will spend more than a few nights crying for the victims and their families.
The new world waits to be seen; but there is no question that it is a much different one today than it was Monday.
murphy@vindy.com