As I write this, the date is September 11th. The remembrances are occurring as I wake up this morning, just as the attacks occurred as I awoke 12 years ago. While sad for those affected by the attacks, let's remember that we are stopping to remember lest than 0.0001% of the American public who died that day.
Because of this loss, we, as a country, have decided to go to war in 2 countries, trampled on the constitution (especially the 4th Amendment) with the TSA, VIPR, NSA spying on the American public, the increased pace of militarization of the police throughout the years, and the utter fear that people have allowed the government to instill in us (think how the citizens were told to "shelter in place" as the militarized police come and "rescued" them from their house).
There is a fine line of remembering of what happened on 9/11 and allowing it to run our lives. We have failed as a country to the latter, giving up freedom for security and rights for safety. The terrorists of 9/11 may have won in different ways than what they thought they were trying to do by changing the American way of life for the worse.