Apparently 35% of Americans weren't alive in 2001, then you account for those who were <6, you are getting close to 50% having no actual memory.
Kids had a bunch of questions at dinner tonight. I think the thing about living through it, beyond the horror of experiencing it, is that we were advanced enough to have enough information at our fingertips, but still not enough to be reliable. There are YoUTube videos of CNN, FoxNews, ABC, whatever, in real time, and the amount of stuff that just didn't happen that they "reported" on was insane. It made a scary situation even scarier. Pearl harbor, nobody knew about in real time. JFK was in real time, but it was isolated. You rewatch those broadcasts, there are reports of a car bomb at the State Department, a gunman in the Capitol. Then you had the anthrax and Richard Reid shortly thereafter, there was a sense of fear that I think goes beyond what this country has ever felt.