Every year on the Fourth of July, we gather. We watch fireworks light the sky, we wave flags, and we celebrate the birth of a nation built on an extraordinary idea that freedom is worth fighting for. But honoring that freedom requires more than a backyard barbecue. It requires memory with purpose.
Like many Americans, I understand sacrifice, having served over 23 years in the Army Reserve and the Iowa Army National Guard, including a deployment to Kuwait and Iraq as a company commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom. I led troops in harm’s way and came home when others didn’t. I have informed loved ones when their sons died in the line of duty. Those experiences shape everything about how you see the world, how you choose to serve your country, and what your country means to you.
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Sept. 11, 2001, formed an entire generation of heroic Americans.
On that fateful day, nearly 3,000 people were killed, including hundreds of first responders who rushed into burning buildings. Even in the midst of this devastation, America answered in the days that followed. Enlistment offices overflowed. Strangers held each other in the street. As a nation, we said we would never forget.
But over time, that unity and shared memory have faded. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, we haven’t remembered the way we promised.
Saturday marks 250 years since this great nation was founded. Sept. 11 marks the 25th anniversary of the 2001 attacks. The weight of these milestones demands our collective attention and action.
More than half of Americans alive today were under 10 years old on 9/11. Think about what that means. There are people voting in this year’s elections who weren’t even alive. Even many of our current service members were in mere diapers back then.
A 2022 YouGov poll revealed a troubling generational divide: Young adults feel far less connected to the events of Sept. 11 than older people, with many millennials and Generation Z respondents admitting they don’t know what we’re supposed to never forget. The defining moment of a generation, a day that stopped the world, is quietly becoming history that must be explained rather than remembered. The shift is not inevitable, but reversing it requires intention, urgency, and action. That is exactly why the 9/11 Legacy Foundation was created.
The foundation is seeking to meet this moment. I’m grateful for its efforts to educate current and future generations about the lasting impacts of the attacks and to build monuments of memory that will stand the test of time. America cannot lose the acts of heroism, resilience, and courage that endured from that unthinkable day.
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Independence Day and Sept. 11 may feel like opposite ends of the American experience — one a celebration, one a wound. But they are connected by the same truth: Freedom is not free, and it is not self-sustaining. It must be defended, and it must endure. Remembrance without action is just sentiment, but the 9/11 Legacy Foundation is turning remembrance into action. I hope countless more will join its effort.
We celebrate freedom on the Fourth of July. Let’s commit to protecting it by never forgetting those who paid for it on Sept. 11, 2001, and the days that followed. We remember so that they never forget. It’s not just the foundation’s motto. It should be every American’s.
Joni Ernst is a senator representing Iowa.
