The lessons of 9/11 are in danger of being forgotten 21 years later

It was 21 years in the past, a watch blink in historical past. But for a lot of America, the teachings of 9/11 – these of unity, power and love of nation and one another – are willfully being forgotten.

Practically 3,000 individuals had been slaughtered by Islamic butchers on Sept 11, 2001, within the worst terror assaults ever perpetrated on people. But the anniversary may need passed by nearly unnoticed.

The annual ceremony on Sunday in New York Metropolis commemorating that darkish date – the highly effective and chilling studying of the names of the useless – acquired little TV protection, even within the cities from which so lots of the victims commuted.

The networks did not air all of it reside, utilizing solely snippets between breathless information updates concerning the demise of the British queen.

Cable networks had been equally detached, awarding minimal protection between Mucinex commercials.

Solely New York 1, a channel that airs solely in New York’s 5 boroughs, aired it in full. Commentators on NewsMax persistently talked over the names as they had been learn, and even the moments of silence on the occasions every of the planes hit the World Commerce Middle towers, the Pentagon, the sector in Shanksville, Pa., and when the skyscrapers collapsed. The channel lower away earlier than it was over.

I watched the ceremony on-line. After some time, it appeared that Vice President Kamala Harris, who confirmed up in the beginning, was nowhere to be discovered.

Vice President Kamala Harris attending the 9/11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan on September 11, 2022.
Vice President Kamala Harris attending the 9/11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan on September 11, 2022.
REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

Many faculty districts are guaranteeing that future generations received’t know concerning the darkest chapter of US historical past. Solely 14 states have mandated instruction on 9/11: Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and New York. Even governments in New Jersey and Connecticut, two states that misplaced numerous individuals who got here to work in New York’s fallen World Commerce Middle, haven't seen match to require that every one faculty children study why some dad and mom or grandparents failed to return dwelling someday in September. Nor are there mandated 9/11 classes in Pennsylvania, the state by which a downed jet crashed right into a subject, killing everybody aboard.

One of many first audio system on the ceremony honoring the fallen was palpably offended on the manner the nation has fractured politically within the years since 9/11.

“It took a tragedy to unite us,” stated the person, who recognized himself because the cousin of a sufferer of the 1993 terror assault on the commerce heart. “And I need to remind all of you there it mustn't take one other tragedy to unite our nation as a result of if I've to face at this podium once more or one other podium for an additional occasion due to lives misplaced due to dereliction of obligation it’s gonna damage identical to it hurts me. … I’m gonna proceed doing this till the day that I die and I'm joined with my household up there.

“God bless America.”

Highly effective phrases.

I simply hope they had been heard.

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