Today is the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
As I thought about what I wanted to say on this subject today, I decided to look back at what I've written before on previous commerations of 9/11.
In the first year of this blog, on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, I wrote my first post about the events of September 11, 2001.
As the father of a 9 month old child, the events of that day weighed heavy on me and as I reflected looking back 12 years.
"With eyes raised to an empty sky then lowered in prayer to those lost on that day, my thoughts go back to when my child was a still a baby, so healthy and happy but also so very helpless, held by a father who wondered about what was going to happen next in a world changed in the course of a single morning."
Empty Sky Memorial, Liberty State Park
This is a memorial for the residents of New Jersey who died during the attacks on September 11, 2001. The two-walled structure is engraved with the names of all 746 New Jerseyites who were lost that day. The walls line up with the Manhattan skyline to direct the viewer’s gaze across the Hudson River to the place where the Twin Towers once stood.
It's kind of interesting to me that young people of my son's generation are not as invested in the emotional weight of this day. I concede that may be a gross generalization but I'm not surprised if it is on the whole mostly true.
For all of us who came before and were here for that fateful day, I wonder what exactly have we wrought from the terrible price we paid that day.
I allowed the date to pass without commentary on this blog for 2 years but I had something say on Sunday, September 11, 2016.
"In the hours after 9/11, as hurt and frightened as we were, we knew without a doubt that we were greater than those who would bring us down, we were stronger than those who thought to defeat us.
Now there are so-called "leaders" who will tell us that our country isn't great, isn't strong and will eagerly point to "others" whose fault all that is. Politicians and pundits scream at us that we are weak, our leaders are weak and only certain people can save us.
If we are weak, it's because we are divided and where we are divided, we have only done this to ourselves.
It doesn't take much to destroy. Cowards and demagogues will always find a way to knock something down.
It takes greatness of strength and spirit to build something up."
If you will note the date of that post, it was two months before the November 2016 Presidential election that would bring Donald Trump to the White House for his first term.
If you were a mere baby in 2001 or born afterwards, you look at the world that followed and wonder, what was the point?
In the grim aftermath of that Tuesday morning in 2001, we were united in grief and fear but we were also united in determination to rise up and be heard and to build.
It was a terrible moment that had the potential to galvanize our nation into being something better, stronger.
We could answer hate and destruction with love and creation.
For the 2016 post, I created a graphic using the lyrics from U2's "The Hands That Built America", an anthem to our pain and sacrifice and any appeal to what we could create and build from all that.
From death and destruction, we would stand tall and put to use the hands that built America.
So what the hell happened?
Why did we betray those who died on that dreadful day by not uniting behind a better America?
Why did so many Americans give in to the hate and fear and bitterness and divide us against ourselves, neighbor against neighbor, lines drawn based on skin color and religion and gender, anything that make certain people "other"?
On September 11, 2001, we were ALL in this together.
So again... So what the hell happened?
If you are young and do not understand the big deal behind
commemorating this date in history, maybe I can't really blame you.
In 2018, September 11th came 'round again to happen on a Tuesday and I had some thoughts on this occasion, starting with my assessment of President George W. Bush.
Here is some of what I wrote in 2018 looking back on President Bush and what he did on September 14, 2001.
"I had concerns about George W. Bush as President from the start. I perceived a lack of intellectual curiosity that I found troubling.
But Bush stepped up and demonstrated he could reach beyond himself and be a leader. He said what needed to be said, to acknowledge the tragedy, the loss, the need to mourn. To also speak to the need to respond to this assault on our soil.
Notice he does not speak of himself. He spoke for the nation that "sends its love and compassion". He only references himself to say "I can hear you!" The importance in that statement is not what he has to say but that he was listening.
Thankfully, in that moment, George W. Bush had the humility to understand his best role as President, to heed the voice of the people."
Bush spoke to a rattled nation from a position of empathy and compassion. Can you imagine the current occupant of the White House doing any better than a blustering incoherent litany of hate fueled threats to rain down fire and fury in a blistering retribution "like never seen before" blah blah blah.
I may not have liked Bush as President but in that moment, he understood the job well enough to speak to the people, not at them, to speak for the people, not for himself.
In the aftermath of what we lost on September 11, 2001, we had so much to gain from a united spirit of compassion for each other. This is what the hell happened: We traded that in for suspicion, fear and anger.
Revisiting 2001 from the MAGA mangled world of Donald Trump was on my mind in 2019. I thought of what we lost from our 9/11 experiences and how it connected to a recent disaster.
A hurricane had decimated the Bahamas leaving people in desperate need for help. Here's what I wrote about that.
"A mere hundred miles or so from the Bahamas is the United States, a potential refuge for many people in such desperate need.
Trump said "No".
His reasoning, such as it is, is that there could be some bad people who might slip into our country under cover of the hundreds of men, women and children who are in such real and desperate need.
I have questions for Mr. Trump and those who support him.
- When did the United States of America become so small?
- When did our nation become so weak?
- When did this country become so afraid?
On September 11,2001, we were afraid but we had something to be afraid of. But we stood up, stood tall and confronted that fear.
Now, Donald Trump, a man who likes to think of himself as a tough guy, cowers in fear from the bad guy that might lurk in the midst of people who are hungry, sick and in need of help.
We can’t help the many because the few might hurt us.
I have tried to look at September 11,2001 as a crucible that tested us and did not find us wanting in courage and strength.
Today, the leadership of this nation and those who would follow such people are lacking in courage and strength."
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we had the potential to be so much more, to dust ourselves off and stand up, strong, proud and united.
We failed to live up to the price paid on that day to be a better nation.
If the events of September 11, 2001 lack relevance to your life, to your perception of America, well, it's because we let everyone down, the people who died on that day and the people who survived.
I added these comments to the 2019 post.
The lesson of September 11,2001 is not that we can be hurt. No, the lesson of September 11,2001 is we can rise up from the hurt.
I revisited these sentiments in my post on 2020.
"The days and nights that followed that terrible Tuesday morning were fraught with tension and worry. But as time passed, there was a growing sense of something greater than fear, better than worry. It was a growing sense of confidence, of determination that this would not defeat us."
Again, I mourn not just for what we lost that day but what we failed to hold on to in the aftermath.
On September 11, 2023, I wrote a post called "Is September 11th Still a Thing?"
"Over the intervening 22 years, half of our country has been taught that the other half is the enemy.
Politicians and pundits rail and sputter into their microphones that those who do not agree with their political philosophy HATE America, that they are the true ENEMY of America. So called leaders who strut and preen extol the "virtues" of a specific demographic of citizens who voted for them as representing ALL Americans. There are political leaders who have sacrificed the IDEALS of America in pursuit of PERSONAL power."
Here we are in 2026 and I'm sad to report that nothing has changed.
OK, that may not be true.
Things have changed in that the sacrifice of American ideals to the naked quest for personal power has only gotten worse.
It's been 25 years gone since that fateful morning in 2001.
I remember with perfect clarity the details of that day, the coolness of the day, the first hints of fall within the lingering warmth of summer.
The infant child in my arms whose life and future I had pledged to protect.
The fear I felt that I may not be able to honor that pledge as the gut wrenching sorrow and fear gripped me, watching the swirl of smoke and ash in the rubble of our dreams and aspirations. The destruction in New York City. At the Pentagon. In a field in Pennsylvannia.
The flickers of light and hope as we gathered ourselves, dusting ourselves off, making the choice that this would not break us.
Here today, on September 11, 2026, I wish I could say we have proven worthy of the pain and loss we paid that day.
On September 11, 2001, the world rushed to our door to offer their support, their defense.
25 years later, we stand as the world's pariah. Our enemies emboldened, our friends uncertain and wary of our country.
To those who gave their lives on 9/11....
To those who survived and thought we would come out of that day stronger and better somehow...
To those who were the children of that day and since...
To all of these we owe them so much better than what we are.
On 9/11, we survived the devastation brought by outside forces of evil.
Today, can we survive the devastation we have brought up on ourselves?
If the commeration of this day is to have any value, it is to remind us we do have the power to be united.
It is our choice to stand up, dust ourselves off and make that choice to save us from ourselves.
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