Let us remember

Why remembering is important

We live in a world of moments. While we are in the moment we are connected to the past that has brought us to the now and we are building our future. Choices in the moment matter. Not choosing matters.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 changed the lives of all of us. The changes for some were inconveniences that came with cancelled flights and tighter security at airports. While others lost their lives, their loved ones, their very way of life. In remembering them we honor them. Equally important, so as they did not lose their lives in vain, is to remember what happened and who was responsible so that we can do our best to keep it from ever happening again. Unfortunately, I think in our world of hundreds of media outlets producing 24/7 infotainment to keep their businesses alive we have lost the connection to the moment. It has become watered down and has witnessed in our current moments history is something to be re-written or looked at with distain and certainly not valued as the lesson and connection to our lives as it once was, and I feel it should be.

A teacher who had some of the greatest impact on my education taught me two things that I have never forgotten and I feel are important in living our lives. History repeats itself (attributed in many cultures dating back hundreds and thousands of years) and Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.(George Santayana) I'm concerned that we are not learning and we are doomed when I look around me. I do not like losing hope. It hurts who I am. And yet I see so many people take things out of the context of the time and try to make it relevant to their now. They have lost sight of the past in context, have not learned from it and if they are not repeating it exactly they are as Mark Twain wrote "History does not repeat itself, it rhymes". To me that means that 9-11 wont happen again in the same way, but in a different way if we do not learn from it. It means that the intolerance of racism is repeated in the intolerance of those who think differently in todays world. And isn't that why America was attacked?

A non-politicized record

https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks/The-attacks