25 years later and it still seems like yesterday

25 years ago this morning I was excited to be away from home, a freshman at college for all of two weeks. I got up early to go for a run at the track near my dorm before class that morning, and when I came back into the building I noticed several people standing in the lobby watching what appeared to be a disaster movie on the TV. This struck me as an odd choice early on a Tuesday morning and I went over to see what they were doing. It was this decision that meant that I was watching when the second plane hit the south tower, and was still watching when that tower collapsed less than an hour later. 

My life is pretty different now than it was on that Tuesday morning 25 years ago. The world and this country are pretty different too. For several years after 9/11/2001 I wrote a reflection, which I shared on the anniversary. You can find most of those here: September 11 Reflections

I haven't done that for a while. Other important things, things like life, work, and five children have taken priority. But it seemed especially appropriate to write something today. 

The country is heavily divided in 2026 and symbols that brought unity in 2001 and 2002 (such as the image to the right) don't carry the same weight as they did then. Broadly speaking, pride in America is lower than I have seen it in my lifetime. And yet, I have never been more proud of this country, and the flag that represents it. 

I have worked for the executive branch of the federal government for the last 17 years. A significant portion of that time was spent telling the stories of America in the places where those stories happened or at memorials built to commemorate key people and moments in this country. 

Memorials are important. There is power in a memorial that simply can't be captured elsewhere. We are living in a strange time for memorials. Many were torn down or defaced in the wake of the overdose death of George Floyd in 2020. Now we have a dichotomy of a president who can variously appear as being primarily concerned with memorializing himself, or as a great champion of commemorating American stories and exceptionalism. We should all be able to agree that fixing the reflecting pool in and restoring fountains and memorials in our nation's capitol should be a cause for celebration, but it hasn't been. Even as we reached the semiquincentennial of this nation's founding. 

While living in Washington DC I had the chance to visit each of the 9/11 memorials, and I am very glad I did. Alison and I actually visited ground zero in New York on the anniversary the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. What you encounter at the site of the towers is inclusive, in that it memorializes, not only those who were killed at that site in 2001, but also those who perished in Washington DC, and Pennsylvania, as well as the victims of the 1993 bombing. Every day flowers are placed in the etched names of any victim who would have celebrated a birthday on that day. 

Today President Bill and Hillary Clinton, President George W. and Laura Bush. President Barack and Michelle Obama, and President Joe and Jill Biden joined Vice President J.D. Vance at Ground Zero along with former mayor Rudy Giuliani for a special ceremony that included surviving family members reading the names of those who were killed. It is a simple yet powerful memorial.

Ground Zero was not the first place affected by the attacks on 9/11 that I visited. Right across from Washington DC, the memorial at the Pentagon memorializes the 184 Americans who died there when American Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Arranged according to age (ranging from 3 yrs to 71 yrs old), each bench of the memorial positioned to indicate those who were on the plane and those who were in the building. 

In 2015, we visited the location in a field in Shanksville, PA where United Flight 93 crashed into the ground. There is more there now then when we were there 11 years ago, but even then a wall of names told the story of the 40 passengers and crew aboard that flight, many of whom decided to force the plane to crash rather than let it reach its destination in DC. 

 

There is power in these memorials and the stories they tell need to be remembered. For my children these events are no different than learning about the American Revolution or the attack on Pearl Harbor. But they should be. These are stories we need to tell, which is why I did just that with the kids last night, to make sure they understood why the flags were at half staff today. It is incumbent upon we who lived through it to ensure what happened that day is remembered and always seems like yesterday.