Editorial: Never forget

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This past weekend, we marked the 21st anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

After the events of that day, it didn’t take us long to begin reminding each other to “never forget.”

For those of us who remember that day, and the world as it was on September 10th, there was of course never much chance of forgetting.

Everyone from 5 to 95 remembers exactly where they were when they learned the World Trade Centers had been hit, and can recount vividly the urge to call or be with loved ones to share in the grief and the suffocating uncertainty.

Few days change the course of nations and the world as much as Sept. 11, 2001.

But as we get further from that day, it recedes further into the ocean of history, swallowed up by the inevitable tides of new events, new crises, new divisions.

Now, 21 years later, there is a generation of adults who, not old enough or not even born at the time, can’t remember how the world changed, who have always known nothing but our post-9/11 world, for better and worse.

Over the years, our fervor for marking 9/11 as a day of mourning and remembrance across the country might not be what it once was when the tragedy was fresh in our memories. What, after all, is there really left to say for those who remember?

But we must be sure that the experience of shock, of horror, of grief, of fear and of our overwhelming national unity that each of us felt that day is passed on, and just as importantly, the feeling of security we had on Sept. 10 that was forever shattered.

Those who have never known a different world need to be given the opportunity to remember.

Let us who remember ensure that long after we’re gone, we never forget.