September 11: Never Forget
“Never forget” must be more than something we say once a year. It must be something we choose to do.
On September 11, 2001, ordinary people woke up and went to work. Parents kissed their children goodbye. People boarded airplanes. Firefighters, police officers, paramedics, military personnel, office workers, flight crews, travelers, and families began what they thought would be an ordinary Tuesday.
Before that morning ended, America had changed forever.
2,977 innocent lives were taken in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93.
But behind that number were 2,977 lives.
They were mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Husbands and wives. Brothers and sisters. Friends and coworkers. People with birthdays, dreams, inside jokes, unfinished plans, favorite songs, families waiting for them to come home.
That is what we must never forget.
We should remember the firefighters climbing stairwells while thousands of people were coming down.
Remember the police officers, paramedics, military personnel, rescue workers, and ordinary citizens who ran toward danger to help someone they may never have met.
Remember the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 who learned what was happening and made the courageous decision to fight back.
Remember the survivors who carried what they witnessed with them for the rest of their lives.
Remember the first responders, recovery workers, volunteers, and others whose health was affected in the years that followed.
And above all, remember the families.
For them, September 11 is not simply history.
It is an empty chair.
A photograph.
A voice they still remember.
A birthday that still comes every year.
A person they would give anything to hold one more time.
As Americans, we have a responsibility to treat September 11 with dignity.
Learn about what happened.
If you were not alive in 2001, study it.
If you were young when it happened, revisit it as an adult.
Listen to survivors.
Listen to first responders.
Read the stories of the passengers and crews.
Learn the names of those who were lost.
Listen to the families who have spent decades making sure their loved ones are remembered as people, not statistics.
Then share those stories with the next generation.
Tell your children.
Talk about it in classrooms.
Preserve interviews.
Visit the memorials.
Read firsthand accounts.
Share the stories of courage, sacrifice, service, compassion, and humanity that emerged from one of America's darkest days.
And when September 11 comes each year, resist the temptation to turn remembrance into another social-media moment.
Respect the day. Respect the history. Respect the families.
Twenty-five years later, millions of Americans have no personal memory of September 11, 2001. That means those who remember now carry an even greater responsibility.
Memory has to be passed forward.
Because someday there will be no living memory of that Tuesday morning.
There will only be what we preserved.
What we taught.
What we shared.
And what we chose to honor.
So when we say Never Forget, let those words mean something.
Remember the lives.
Learn their stories.
Speak their names.
Honor the courage.
Respect the grief.
Teach the next generation.
And never allow September 11, 2001, to become just another page in a history book.
Never Forget. 