Every generation has one of those “always remember where you were” events. For the Greatest Generation, it was Pearl Harbor. For the Baby Boomers, it was the JFK Assassination.

September 11, 2001 is one of those dates.

It’s hard to believe that 9/11 was a quarter century ago. With the passage of time, memory fades. But those of us who were old enough to witness and comprehend what occurred on September 11, 2001 will never forget the sights and sounds that day. Planes flying into skyscrapers. The Twin Towers collapsing in a colossal cloud of dust and debris. Horrified screams and cries audible even over the television.

We take for granted the sound of commercial aircraft as the default background noise of our lives. When it’s there, we barely notice it. But in the aftermath of 9/11, when all commercial aircraft were grounded for days, we all noticed an eerie silence overhead, punctuated only occasionally by the distinctly different engine sound of a patrolling military jet.

The 25th anniversary should also remind us of the intense emotional memory of that day – the jaw-dropping disbelief, the fierce outrage, and the all too brief and transient sense of unity that we felt as Americans regardless of our political and ideological affiliations.

For more than a week, it was 24-hour a day, wall-to-wall TV coverage of the attacks. The Major League Baseball season was suspended. Americans united in outrage. It seemed that two out of every three cars had American flags flying from their antennas – flags that eventually became tattered and frayed but remained attached. We were Americans. We were the good guys. No one in those first weeks after the attacks was even hinting that we “had it coming.” That would come later, from the usual self-hating corners of American society.

We need these annual reminders of what it felt like to be an American in the days, weeks and months after September 11, 2001. We need to remember that there will always be those who hate and resent us, no matter what we do. No nation in history has ever achieved perfection, but despite what our enemies and their apologists say, we need to reaffirm that the United States has been and remains far more a force for good than ill in the world.

The 25th anniversary of 9/11 should also be a reminder that our enemies have not gone away. They have not stopped hating us. And they have duped lots of Americans into believing the lie that we “got what we deserved” on 9/11.

Sadly, in the quarter century since 9/11, a generation of older Americans has died off, taking their traditional values with them. Meanwhile, a new generation is being educated to believe that the United States is an illegitimate, white supremacist nation founded on settler colonialism and imperialism. America’s enemies are heartened by our self-flagellation and see it as a sign of our decline and growing weakness.

The 25th anniversary of 9/11 should be a time to remember and re-assert the notion that Americans need not and will not apologize for our nation’s greatness.
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[This column originally appeared in the September 10, 2026 Wakefield Daily Item.]