As we enter this particular new year, 2004, more than two years after the terrible events of September 11, 2001, it is particularly fitting that we consider the long-term national consequences of this event. During this winter holiday season, our country has once again been placed on a heightened level of terrorist alert. Added security checkpoints monitoring approaching vehicles at many airports augment the already familiar presence of federal security personnel and frequent snake-like lines at security stations within the terminals. Selected international flights have been cancelled, and air marshals are required on other international flights, in response, we are told, to an alarming crescendo in the volume and specificity of Internet messages by presumed or known terrorist groups. At the time of this writing, fortunately, no new major terrorist event remotely approaching the magnitude of the events of 9/11 has occurred; yet we are strongly advised to be watchful and alert, while still carrying on our usual activities. Whether the overall increased level of security in the country, intensified at times like the present heightened alert level, has actually reduced or helped abort terrorist attacks that would have otherwise occurred, we do not know. Remarkably, at least it seems to me, the public is grateful for at least the perception of greater safety, so that the sizable “hassle factor” involved in air travel and in many other daily activities, such as parcel or handbag searches at concerts or the theater, new metal detectors in many buildings, and other similar measures, are accepted with little protest. The article in this issue by Stein et al. provides us with important information about the persistence of psychological symptoms after September 11, not just in New York City but throughout the nation, demonstrating significant levels of distress persuasively related to the events of 9/11. By two months after the event, over 20% of adults remained substantially distressed, and this was equally true throughout the country. Impairment in work or school was common in this group, along with avoidance of crowds, persistent fears, and use of alcohol, prescription drugs, and non-prescription drugs. Information similar to the results presented in their study from two months post-disaster would be important to obtain longitudinally, so that Psychiatry 67(2) Summer 2004 167