This week marks 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001. Every year, we get further away from that day. The visceral components fade into a more manageable memory. Like most horrors, the shock and pain still linger as we move on. But this never means we forget the terrible events or how profoundly they changed our nation.
For those who were either too young or not yet born to experience Sept. 11, the experience is naturally quite altered. For some, there’s almost a bitterness about how much that day occupies the forefront of the American mind. It’s as if there’s an undercurrent of annoyance that this day is treated with more historical significance than ones they’ve personally gone through.
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We can’t blame Gen Z for lacking firsthand experience of Sept. 11. However, we can charge them with indifference.
To some extent, each new generation feels history began with them. But whether it’s Pearl Harbor, Sept. 11, or anything else on the timeline, one needn’t be alive in order to recognize a transformative historical moment. And Sept. 11 was that.
As a 19-year-old college sophomore, I saw the events of that day and beyond with the kind of fear that accompanies the moment when ocean borders no longer provide comfort. Terror had come to our doorstep, and in no small way. It wasn’t a handful of casualties; it was a devastating attack that killed thousands on an ordinary Tuesday as they were going about their regular lives. In a moment, the collective understanding of our enemies increased. Terrorism was also something that happened on our soil, not just in those countries over there. Surveillance increased. The war on terror commenced. Immigration, always a hot-button topic, took on a new post-Sept. 11 priority. Airport security strengthened.
The day happened in a world not overtaken by smartphones or social media. The internet didn’t nearly invade our lives in the ways it does now. The pictures and videos captured an era that feels very much like the distant past. We experienced the day in a much less tangible but much more real way. There weren’t hot takes on X or Facebook.
Instead, we remember the shocked looks on the faces of news anchors as they tried to comprehend and then share the horror. We remember the stories of brave men and women on planes, in buildings, and on the ground. We have seen the pictures of the jumpers. We heard audio clips of our fellow people leaving voicemails for their loved ones, not sure if they’d make it out alive. We know the story of 32-year-old Todd Beamer, who, along with fellow passengers on Flight 93, rushed the cockpit, keeping the hijackers from their intended target. His story and “let’s roll” mean something to the public. Or they should.
To view these events as bothersome, not because of what they were but how we continue to strongly react to them, is extremely infantile. Younger generations can’t be blamed for not remembering Sept. 11. But they can be expected to recognize why it matters. Like it or not, each of us inherits the world we’re born into. Gen Z was born into a world shaped by, among other things, Sept. 11. And it wasn’t just one minor day. In all the ways that matter, it was a major shift in our priorities, hopes, and fears.
AMERICA HAS TWO HOMELESSNESS PROBLEMS
Sept. 11 is deeply woven into the fabric of our nation. It was a day of massive heartache, one that challenged our nation and its ideals in ways we were unprepared for. If you have the immense privilege of calling yourself an American, you have a duty to understand both the scope of loss and how it forced a titanic shift in our national perspective. The effort to reach that understanding isn’t pleasant, but it is necessary.
As the years roll on and newer generations are born, the same need will remain. The gravity associated with this pivotal moment in our nation’s history must be felt. Not only in the history books and in still photos, but in the memories of those who witnessed it themselves. Eventually, there will be no one left who can recall what that day felt like. We can’t control that. But we always owe it to those who died, those who lived, and those who have come after to both share and listen.