Remember September 11th

Twenty one years have passed. For too many of us, that’s all what it means. We live our same lives, eat our same food, drink our same drinks.

Really what has changed? On Sundays, we will all wake up. Some of us will put on our Sunday best, and visit our houses of worship. Some of us will put on our favorite player’s jersey, order up some wings, put out the chips and salsa, and get ready for football.

Population-wise two generations, Gen Y and Gen Z, weren’t even around to experience it. They have no idea what happened. They’ve never even read about that in a history book (if they still even make history books).

And who can blame them?

We seem to be as unattached to the tragedies and victories of our past than ever before.

The generation regarded as America’s Greatest Generation, who cares? What have they ever done for anybody except end a world war, create the structure that has prevented world war for more than 75 years, and stop the genocide of 6 million Jews?

Landing on the moon? Probably never happened. It was probably filmed in a sound stage in Burbank (it wasn’t).

The fall of Berlin Wall? They probably had a bad contractor who built it (for people who want to be free, the best contractors in the world couldn’t build a wall to hold them in).

As the clock turned on the dawn of the 21st century, a day occurred that should be forever ingrained into the hearts and minds of all people around the world.

It was the most heinous attack ever on US soil and the largest mass casualty event in US history.

Think of the largest mass shooting in US history, the Las Vegas shooting of 2017. It was a tremendous tragedy with 60 deaths and 867 injuries. We haven’t seen a mass shooting of that size since and we hope we never do.

To put this day that happened 21 years ago into perspective, imagine if the Las Vegas shooting happened 50 times in a row all at once. That’s the scale of that happened.

On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and redefined America.

Something called the Patriot Act was introduced so that this could never happen again. While a major attack at the scale of 9/11 hasn’t been seen since, the Patriot Act eroded significant portion of US of civil liberties and individual privacy, a trade off that some have regretted.

But there are two key takeaways from 9/11. They both occurred on 9/12.

After the initial shock of the day, there was a national unity unlike anything that we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes. We were all united towards a common cause. We felt as though our fellow countrymen were our brothers and sisters. If something happened to them, it happened to us. That’s how close we were as a nation.

With that type of unity, there really wasn’t a limit as to what our collective conscience could achieve. While that moment has passed. There’s nothing stopping us from uniting in that same way again. There is tremendous power in focusing what unites us rather than what divides us.

The second key takeaway is never forget. What started out as a bumper sticker “Never Forget 9/11” is really a cautionary message. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. The more easily that we forget what happened on September 11th 2001, the more likely we are to be attacked in that same way or even worse, a fate that no one wishes on any country.

There is great power in history. It gives people an identity. It provides a tradition that can be passed on from generation to generation. A very large chapter of our history was written on September 11th. That day showed us what true bravery looks like. It showed that we would be willing to run into a burning building for our countryman.

On the same day that we saw the very worst of humanity, we saw the very best of humanity in each other.

That goodness in each and every single one of us…. that’s something to remember on September 11th.