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That feeling in the depths of my guts rekindled past horrors Wednesday afternoon.
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Empty. Agonizing. Sick. It was the same old sourness and fear that has been a sporadic companion for 22 years.
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A tidal wave of emotions sent me hurtling back in time to Sept. 11, 2001, and New York City where thousands of my fellow citizens were dead, countless missing and a gaping crater was torn out of its heart.
That was a lifetime ago, but it never really goes away.
And now it appears terror has visited us once again in the form of a car blast on the iconic Rainbow Bridge connecting the United States and Canada at Niagara Falls.
![Travellers wait to cross into Canada at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, Ontario, August 9, 2021.](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/torontosun/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BORDER-2021-10-15.jpg?resize=1000%2C750&ssl=1)
Officials say that around 11:20 a.m., a car with Ontario plates sped up to 100 km/h before tearing through a fence separating inbound and outbound traffic and slamming into a border control booth on the American side.
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The vehicle — believed to be loaded with explosives — blew up, obliterating the two people inside the car. A U.S. Border Patrol agent suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The area was littered with debris from the blast.
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U.S. law enforcement sources told Fox News the incident was an attempted terrorist attack with explosives discovered in the death car.
All four bridges to the United States on the Niagara Frontier have been closed.
![(FILES) This file photo shows Edward Fine covering his mouth as he walks through the debris folllowing the collapse of one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York. - On the morning of September 11, 2001, New Yorkers woke to crisp blue skies following a storm that had soaked America's northeastern seaboard the day before. The cloudless, beautiful sky was little portent of the dark, history-changing day that was to come but would remain etched on the memory of those involved. (Photo by STAN HONDA / AFP) (Photo by STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/torontosun/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/AFP_9EX6BR.jpg?resize=1312%2C2000&ssl=1)
Late in the afternoon, Toronto cops said they, too, were increasing patrols in the city.
In New York, by sundown on that terrible September day in 2001, there were 3,000 dead. The mastermind was a Saudi rich kid named Osama bin Laden, who became the most reviled figure on the planet.
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But in these days of social media, campus calamity, and “recontextualizing” terror, the sicko sheikh is getting a reevaluation, courtesy of TikTok and a bunch of stupid kids.
If you have ever heard the sickening sounds of bodies hitting the ground, had numerous strangers sobbing on your shoulder, and attended hundreds of funerals for cops, firefighters, stockbrokers, janitors and secretaries alike, this idiocy will twist your stomach.
![The 9/11 terrorists, whose evil machinations left thousands dead, targeted a fifth jet but were foiled, a new report reveals.](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/torontosun/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2149256SP001_wtcblast-scaled.jpg?resize=2220%2C2560&ssl=1)
If this is a terrorist act, there will be little doubt these homicidal actions are connected to the daily horror show emerging from the Middle East.
Canadian sources have told numerous outlets they are operating under the assumption that this was a stab at terror and cold-blooded murder.
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One witness said the car was going from the United States and heading into Canada.
The purpose of terror is to terrorize. In the days, weeks and months following 9/11, every day was filled with fear and foreboding. Would al-Qaida hit the nuke reactor at Indian Point, the subways, more planes?
We just didn’t know.
Social media wasn’t around then and people seemed to have a better fix on right and wrong. No one was “recontextualizing” the slaughter of innocent people, or celebrating bin Laden (except for the head of the American Nazi Party).
These are different times.
The question will be whether we give Wednesday’s horrific explosion the old faculty lounge treatment. Maybe indulge some more acting out on our streets?
Or, like a man in a coma, will we finally wake up to the fact that the world is not one big consciousness-raising session at a liberal arts college?
My hope is for an epiphany, my fear is more of the same.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
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