I was 9 years old, in my second week of middle school, 25 miles from lower Manhattan when the world changed.
asserted
world → change → Manhattan
I remember being gathered on the carpeted floor of our homeroom when the principal’s aide delivered a note to our teacher.
asserted
aide → remember → teacher
She read it to us with a perplexed look on her face, unaware that the plane she described as having been involved in a tragic accident had passed just a few miles from our school along the Hudson River only minutes earlier.
asserted
she → read → River
We’d soon learn this was no accident.
asserted
this → learn → ?
We were too young to understand the magnitude of what was happening, but old enough to know something was terribly wrong.
asserted
something → understand → magnitude
For millennials, September 11, 2001 was the moment that divided our lives into "before" and "after."
asserted
that → divide → before
There is an innocence in the photographs and memories from before 9/11 that is hard to explain.
asserted
that → be → 9/11
The people and the streets look the same, but everything feels different because we know what they did not yet know was about to happen.
asserted
they → look → ?
And in the weeks and months after that tragic day, everything changed.
asserted
everything → change → day
We remember the anthrax scares, the new airport security measures, and the fear that another attack could happen at any moment.
uncertain
attack → remember → moment
But we should remember something else, too: the extraordinary sense of unity that followed.
asserted
that → remember → unity
For a kid growing up just outside New York City, the shared sense of patriotism and American flags seemingly everywhere is impossible to forget.
asserted
sense → grow → patriotism
In those days, before social media became a force for division and politics consumed so much of our national conversation, Americans seemed determined to stand together.
asserted
Americans → become → conversation
I still vividly remember watching President George W. Bush’s first pitch before Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium a little over a month after the attacks.
asserted
I → remember → attacks
In a city still grieving, our leader in a bulletproof vest humming a strike right down the middle felt like a small but powerful sign that America was still standing, too.
asserted
America → grieve → sign
But 25 years later, September 11 is becoming history rather than memory.
asserted
September → become → memory
We cannot let that happen.
asserted
that → let → ?
As the last generation to have firsthand memories of September 11, it is incumbent on us to remind younger Americans of the extraordinary things ordinary Americans did when confronted with the unimaginable that fateful day.
asserted
Americans → have → unimaginable
If you’ve visited any of the three September 11 memorial sites — the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the Pentagon Memorial or the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. — you understand why remembrance matters.
asserted
remembrance → visit → Shanksville
Nearly 3,000 people died that day.
asserted
people → die → ?
Innocent people who had simply shown up for a normal day at work were suddenly forced to make horrific decisions that no person should ever have to make.
asserted
person → show → that
And for countless others, the consequences of that day never ended.
asserted
consequences → end → day
First responders and others exposed to the toxic air at Ground Zero have spent the decades since battling cancers, respiratory illnesses and other health problems tied to September 11.
asserted
responders → expose → September
There was Betty Ong, the American Airlines flight attendant who helped authorities understand that Flight 11 had been hijacked.
asserted
Flight → be → ?
There were the passengers of Flight 93, who fought back against their hijackers and prevented the plane from reaching Washington.
asserted
who → be → Washington
There were Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark, strangers who miraculously helped one another escape the impact zone of South Tower after it was struck.
asserted
it → be → Tower
And there was Rick Rescorla, the Morgan Stanley security chief who evacuated thousands from the South Tower before returning inside to help others and never making it out himself.
asserted
who → be → it
We were the children who watched the towers fall and the teenagers who grew up in the shadow of the two wars that followed.
asserted
that → watch → wars
We are now the parents, teachers, and citizens responsible for explaining to the next generation why September 11 mattered.
asserted
September → explain → generation
We need to tell them about the first responders who ran toward danger while everyone else ran away, the passengers who refused to surrender, and the strangers who helped strangers.
asserted
who → need → strangers
And we need to tell them why we must never let it happen again.
asserted
it → need → them
The Aporia
