Never Forget? But Have We?

  For all of us who lived through that day, I am sure there are things we will never forget.  Like where we were, when we first realized what was happening. For me it’s the fear I felt until I was able to reach my wife and my parents. I remember what a crisp clear day it was. I remember the anger I felt at who had done this, even before I knew who had done this.

I remember thinking we were under attack, and wondered what would be next. I remember coming home and watching for hours, the images, over and over.

Of course there are people who have more intimate memories of that day, people who lost friends and loved ones in the tragedy. Members of the brotherhood of firemen and police and other first responders. People who went to war, who never came home, and their families.

This event had far-reaching effects on our nation, which continue to this day, fifteen years later. The fear is ever-present, and those who feel the need to put forth a face of fearlessness, who say they have no concern of future attacks, are lying to themselves. The danger is real, the threat is to all Americans. It is when we have again become complacent, and distracted, our enemies will again strike.

I have spent the day scrolling through Facebook, I have seen the never-ending memes that say, “Never Forget”. But how true is that? I don’t intend to call out individuals, because those who lost family and friends, I am sure will never forget. Those who responded to the event, will never forget. Even today, some of those first responders are under the threat of cancer from the material dust they breathed, in the days following, searching for survivors.

On the individual level, non of us who lived through it, will ever forget.  But as a society, and a nation, have we forgotten something very important from that day, and the days following?

I also remember the days following the tragedy, how we suddenly remembered we were all Americans, and it didn’t matter whether you were white, black, Republican, or Democrat. You could talk to any stranger and get the same response about what had happened. We came together to support each other, we recognized, many of us for the first time, what “United We Stand” actually meant.

So, while I believe people when they say they will never forget, I think what they really mean is they won’t forget we were attacked, but will we as a nation remember the lessons learned on that clear September morning?

I think we need only look at our current political atmosphere to see, we have forgotten, we have become more divided than any other time in the history of this great nation, maybe since the Civil War. We have lost and forgotten that sense of being American. We have reverted back to being white, black, Republican and Democrat. We have forgotten the need to stand united, we have forgotten how it felt that day, to know thousands of our fellow Americans were taken from their families in the blink of an eye. We have forgotten what freedom really means.

We have again become complacent and distracted. We are more concerned with a liar, on the one hand, and a mad man with bad hair on the other. You would think, the election of our president, the free and peaceful exchange of power, which is the hallmark of our Republic, would give us pride and courage. Instead it divides us like any third world nation in the world.

If, we were never to forget the lessons learned, would we see the reaction to a man silently protesting what he sees as an injustice. Would we see reactions towards him, which we would expect from the type of people who flew the planes into the Towers that day?

It seems as if the only thing we as a nation have taken away from that day, the one thing we will never forget, is the anger.

We are better than that, we have seen times in this nation which, without our founding principles, would have destroyed us as a nation. The fact we were able to put this nation back together following the Civil War, not as a new nation with a new Constitution, but under the same principles and values, is a testament to the strength of our system. This does not mean however, we are invincible, and when we fail, it is most likely to be due to internal turmoil, rather than some outside force.

So yes, I will never forget the fear, the anger, and I will never forget the pride I felt as we came together to comfort each other, to say to the world, “Don’t mess with us”.

I get the feeling our enemies have been waiting for just the type of division we are seeing today to strike again. Let us not forget, 9/11 came about following the 2000 election between Bush and Gore, and how divided we were at that time.

Because, “United We Stand”, is more than just words.