It's ironic that today - of all days - we are still confounded by the security and other precautions surrounding the visit of Pope Francis that is now just two weeks away.
After all, this is the day that everything changed.
This is the day that terror arrived at home.
This is the day that 3,000 people were killed.
It's still hard to believe it was 14 years ago, as glorious a morning as you will ever see, then suddenly that radiant blue sky stained forever by a plume of smoke emanating from the World Trade Center.
It's easy to forget what life was like before Sept. 11, 2001.
How easy we came and went. Got on airplanes. Gathered in public places.
Today we live in a different world.
The pope will take part in three very large, public events during his stay in Philadelphia. Many people like to point out we didn't go through all these precautions when Pope John Paul II celebrated a similar outdoor Mass on the Parkway back in 1979.
They are right. It went off without a hitch.
Hopefully, it will this time as well.
But you can't compare the two.
We live in a different world.
Today, of all days, we should realize that.
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