Five years after the attack

We've changed.

It may seem like life is the same in this small town five years after terrorists struck. After all, it was on the other side of the country.

But we'll never forget the horror of watching the second plane crash into the World Trade Center, knowing it was no accident.

Horror turned to grief and terror as the towers collapsed, the Pentagon was hit and a fourth plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

The days following were a blur of anger and confusion, and an abiding hope that more survivors would be rescued from the rubble. It became unbearable to see ash-covered family members waving pictures of loved ones, desperate to believe there was a chance.

So, in Northern Nevada, we did what we could do. We joined with city officials, church leaders and other residents in communal prayer.

School children wrote letters to their counterparts in New York, American flags flew in almost every yard, and donations poured in.

On the first anniversary of the attacks, Carson High School erected a new 60-foot flag pole and a monument of the Twin Towers at the base of the pole.

Then-principal Glen Adair told the students:

"These are times that mark our existence. I doubt you will ever forget when the towers of America were attacked by agents of terrorism."

We haven't forgotten. Although the anger, confusion, and even patriotism have mellowed with the passage of time, Sept. 11, 2001, will forever be marked on our collective soul.

In some ways the changes are obvious. Our own skyline has altered a bit as a result.

An American flag, made up of 390 panels, hangs permanently above the C on the hill overlooking Carson City. A nearly four-year effort, it was completed in April 2005 in memory of those who died in the terrorist attacks.

Other changes are less tangible. They're in the way we look at the world, in our resolution to somehow make things better.

We won't forget. We can't.