Never Forget

Twenty-five years ago this week, the world watched as four planes changed the course of American history in a single morning. Nearly three thousand people went to work, boarded flights, or simply started their day, and never came home. Firefighters ran into buildings that everyone else was running out of. Passengers on Flight 93 chose to fight back rather than let their plane be used as a weapon. Strangers carried strangers down smoke filled stairwells.

We remember September 11th not because we need reminding that it happened, but because forgetting is its own kind of danger. The people who lived through that day, the first responders who gave everything, and the families who still carry that loss deserve more than a passing mention once a year. They deserve a country that remembers what unity looked like in the days after, even if that unity didn't last as long as we wished it would.

In the years since, 9/11 has become something of a dividing line in how we talk about American policy. It shaped our foreign policy, our approach to national security, and the way an entire generation thinks about safety and sacrifice. Understanding that history, the decisions that followed and the debates they sparked, is part of what this project is about. Policy doesn't happen in a vacuum. It grows out of moments like this one.

Today isn't a day for politics though. It's a day to pause. Light a candle, say a name, thank a first responder if you know one. However you choose to mark it, take a moment to remember.

Never forget.