Twenty-five years.
It is hard to believe that an entire quarter century has passed since September 11, 2001. For those of us who lived through that day, I don’t think September 11 will ever arrive without taking us right back to exactly where we were when the world changed.
I was working at Coke in downtown Atlanta, gathered around a television in a conference room on the 11th floor with coworkers, leaders, interns, maintenance workers and people who, in that moment, were simply fellow Americans trying to comprehend what we were watching.
Years later, Honey and I took the boys to Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. They obviously don’t remember September 11, 2001 themselves, but it was important to us that they understand it. We walked through the museum together, heard the stories of those who were lost and those who ran toward danger to help and saw the pieces of remembrance that make something from a history book incredibly real.
Now our boys are young men, and an entire generation has reached adulthood with no memory of that day at all. I suppose that makes our responsibility to remember, to tell the stories and to honor the lives lost even more important.
Twenty-five years later, I still remember the horror and fear of that morning, but I also remember what followed. I remember the helpers. I remember the flags. I remember the extraordinary bravery and kindness. Most of all, I remember how, for a time, we looked at each other not as strangers or people on different sides, but simply as Americans.
On this 25th anniversary, I am remembering the nearly 3,000 lives lost, the families forever changed, the first responders and countless heroes of that day and the many who have carried its consequences in the years since.
The words we saw at the museum all those years ago still say it best:
“No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
Twenty-five years later, we remember.
Never forget.
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