By DAN JUNEAU

Six months have passed since America was jolted to the reality that war and suffering could occur on our shores as well as in foreign nations.

What has the Sept. 11 awakening taught us since that time?

The first and perhaps most important lesson is that, in a time of crisis, we still have the ability to come together as a nation. As the smoke rose over Manhattan, northern Virginia, and Pennsylvania, we stood as Americans – angry at the attack launched against us and committed to rooting out those who intentionally kill the innocent to “advance” their cause.

Americans will never forget the events of Sept. 11 but, more importantly, they will never forget the unified response of the nation to those events.

From a military standpoint, the wide public support for President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism has confirmed the nation’s commitment to unite behind the Commander-in-Chief. There were no protests to speak of as American military men and women entered Afghanistan, only prayers for and pride in them as the campaign began.

Doubts about our military’s ability to handle the hostile environment in Afghanistan were quickly replaced with awe over the accomplishments of such a small detachment of warriors in a mountainous nation the size of Texas.

The strategy of not deploying huge American and allied ground forces early on was heatedly debated in some circles.

But the ability of our special forces to coordinate Afghan militia attacks and target air strikes with precision not only led to quick success, it also successfully minimized American casualties.

From an economic standpoint, recovery from the Sept. 11 attacks has been amazing. Much of the nation’s economy came to a screeching halt as air travel stopped in the wake of terrorism.

With business travel curtailed and tourism undermined, employment plummeted, leading some analysts to predict a long-term recession for an already weak economy. Those prognosticators did not factor in the strength of our free enterprise system and the character of American entrepreneurs and workers.

Talk of a deep recession in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks has now turned into a debate about whether a recession really occurred.

From the standpoint of politics, pundits are still analyzing the impact of Sept. 11.

Certainly President Bush’s popularity soared after the attacks. The nation rallied around him and found confidence and comfort in his handling of the attacks and their aftermath.

Elected officials of all parties and ideologies got a bounce in the polls. Partisanship evaporated in Congress for several months (but is now returning in full force).

Perhaps the aspect of Sept. 11 that still remains most in doubt is the safety of air travel. The events of that day exposed the weakness of our air security system.

The current system obviously still has gaps, as numerous incidents since Sept. 11 have pointed out. The great debate in Congress over whether airport security should be taken over by the public sector or remain in private hands ended with the public sector in control.

Whether the new system will instill confidence in the traveling public remains to be seen. All in all, America has responded strongly and positively to the terrorism visited upon us. In a real sense, we may never live again in the world we knew before Sept. 11.

But we have also proven as a nation that we can rise up to meet the unexpected, and we can reach far and strike hard to punish those who would harm us.

DAN JUNEAU is the president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.