About 103 million people living in the United States are 24 or younger.<\/p>\n
On any other day of the year, that ranks as little more than a random fact. But it hits quite a bit differently on this one.<\/p>\n
So many of us who remember Sept. 11, 2001 as if it happened yesterday. The exact moments they heard commercial airliners flew into the World Trade Center\u2019s Twin Towers in New York City or the Pentagon or a field near Shanksville remain memories that shaped lives, changed them, even destroyed them.<\/p>\n
Those horrific events became a shared tragedy for all Americans able to witness and try to make sense of them. But it isn\u2019t that way anymore. The passage of a quarter century was always going to change that, but it still is a harsh statistical reminder that about 30% of the United States population is too young to have any personal, lived experience or even a\u00a0 memory of the attacks. There are Americans who didn\u2019t experience that time who are old enough to teach school children about that day, to fight and die for our country, to run for office in a nation forever changed by that day, to professionally write articles like this one.<\/p>\n
For older generations, the events of 9\/11 will always remain a vivid, defining trauma in our lives. For younger ones, it is a chapter in a textbook. That was always an inevitability. But on the 25th anniversary of 9\/11, we must consider the importance of what those who weren\u2019t there must know about how the rest of us pressed onward, forward into an unknown world.<\/p>\n
We were asked to \u201cnever forget.\u201d But to keep that from becoming an empty slogan, we must make the effort to enforce the best of America\u2019s responses.<\/p>\n
People forget facts, after all.<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t forget feelings.<\/p>\n
There are lessons in the feelings of that day and its immediate aftermath that can take us and our nation to places it hasn\u2019t been since. Places, we believe, we must find again as a society.<\/p>\n
The most valuable lessons worth teaching and remembering as we get further and further from the events of 9\/11 are the ones that were put on full display by average Americans as the tragedy unfolded.<\/p>\n
The 9\/11 attacks provided countless examples of true American heroism. In the midst of utter chaos, so many saved lives with the full understanding that they\u2019d likely lose their own in the process.<\/p>\n
First responders approached the Twin Towers that day, smelled the burning jet fuel, had to have noticed the thick, black smoke billowing out of the upper floors, and ran into the buildings and up the stairs toward a smoky grave anyway. They got people out of those buildings safely, and the buildings collapsed around them. What a standard of duty to humanity.<\/p>\n
The same goes for those who thwarted the final attack in the air, overcame armed terrorists and took the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 to the ground in Somerset County. They gave their lives to protect those in danger. Talk about a true standard of love for country and fellow man.<\/p>\n
With a fondness born of distance from the idea, we pine for the feeling of community that dominated nationwide after the attacks. It largely wasn\u2019t a thirst for revenge that drove it at the time, but a recognition of fulfilling needs for family, friends and neighbors. Nobody seemed untouched by what happened, and it helped to galvanize Americans in their grief. It seemed as if people were there for people, that petty differences and political affiliations mattered very little.<\/p>\n
Everywhere we looked in those days, there were leaders. They weren\u2019t just in elected positions of power, but in the streets of New York City, eschewing sleep and family time and their own health to pull as many bodies as they could from smoldering rubble. They were in local police departments, helping to rebuild a nation\u2019s shattered sense of safety. They were in classrooms and town halls and even homes, helping to enforce a hopeful view of the future during the most challenging of presents.<\/p>\n
We must ask ourselves if we\u2019re doing all we can to meet those lofty standards as a country 25 years later.<\/p>\n
The textbooks might tell a story of hate. They\u2019ll talk about hijacked aircraft, a country caught off guard and the price it paid for it.<\/p>\n
But, for those who weren\u2019t there, we should consider the value of the positive lessons so many were forced to learn in the hours, days and weeks after the attacks.<\/p>\n
Courage, we can prove to them, isn\u2019t the absence of fear, nor is it reserved for those who act in official roles. Courage merely is the willingness to defend and help others when crisis strikes.<\/p>\n
Unity, we\u2019ve seen, does not require a uniformity of thought or belief. It just needs us to understand that we\u2019re all human, that we all hurt and struggle and grieve and should all be able to rely on each other to get through those feelings.<\/p>\n
Real leadership doesn\u2019t come with tough talk or emanate from action without a realistic plan. In times of uncertainty, it is best seen through honesty, a consistent presence, no shortage of emotional intelligence, and a further willingness to put others\u2019 needs before our own.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t simply tell younger generations about the facts of the day and expect them to walk away understanding the best of lessons that came from it. Even those who did not live through our darkest hours can inherit the resilience, selflessness, and sense of community that brought the nation through it. But we have to emphasize those through action, and not just words.<\/p>\n
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