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Twenty-five years ago, America was shaken to our core. A seemingly unimaginable terrorist attack left nearly 3,000 Americans dead, altered our landscape and fundamentally reshaped our government.
Today, we remember and mourn the airline passengers and flight crews who perished in the airplanes flown into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. We remember and mourn the people who died in the World Trade Center and Pentagon. We honor and mourn the firefighters and other first responders who rushed into the danger to save lives.
We honor, and must more fully support, the first responders and others whose health was forever damaged by exposure to harmful chemicals and materials as they worked to find survivors and those who had perished.
Certainly, many mistakes were made after the attacks as American society and our government were remade in an effort to keep us safe, and wars were fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Warning signs about the 9/11 terrorists were missed and ignored, yet we permanently changed how we fly, allowed a massive expansion of government surveillance, and remade our driver’s licenses. The border with Canada, nearly non-existent in some Maine border communities, was hardened.
This Sept. 11, we set aside time for mourning and reflection.
We in no way mean to minimize the violence and loss of that day. But, we also remember the days immediately after when uncertainty and fear gave way to unity and support. It was a time when America, and the world, came together to condemn violence and celebrate the ideals that have marked our country since its founding.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were a violent act of terrorism. Yet, they brought out the best of Americans, and our allies. Canadians particularly stepped up to help, housing thousands of airline passengers who suddenly found they had nowhere to go when American air space was shut down as a precaution. Gander, Newfoundland, in particular, has been recognized for its hospitality. Residents of the small town took in nearly as many airplane passengers as lived there. They housed and fed the stranded passengers, without asking for repayment.
Americans around the country, no matter their ethnic or religious background, stood together to offer help, whether it was to donate blood, supplies for search dogs or money. Leaders and people around the world proclaimed “We are all Americans.”
Today, we remember that unity.
America today is in a time of division, fear, and even anger. We face existential questions about who is an American and who is protected by our Constitution and its Bill of Rights. We are having serious debates about what constitutes fundamental rights and who pays to keep Americans safe and healthy. We face big decisions about the limits and protections of our democracy, about whether more limits should be placed on our elected leaders.
These debates are essential, but they can’t be used to permanently divide us, to tear us apart from one another, just as we can’t turn our backs on, or worse, perpetually insult our neighbors, allies and friends.
We can’t let differences of opinion drive us so far apart that we have forgotten the sense of unity and common purpose we felt in the days and months after Sept. 11, 2001. An unthinkable tragedy unified us. Remembering that is one of the best ways to commemorate that horrific day.
