'Try to Remember, and If You Remember, Then Follow.'

“Never forget!” It’s an urgent call that requires not only personal serenity sufficient to recollect truths, but also a strong social infrastructure able to reignite awareness.

Although the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, seem far behind us, we who have felt their impact probably agree they still deserve a place in our memories and emotions—and in some sort of “lesson plan” for the future. Shouldn’t succeeding generations examine that day through the insights of their parents and ancestors?

Yes, but Baby Boomers and others will differ about what they want to remember, maybe what they can remember. Some individuals signed up for the military. Others faced deep sorrow they want to leave behind.

We have set aside September anniversaries for 23 years in order to ponder how America was transformed in the short term and long term. We’ve seen a lot of greatness, learning, anger, fear, and grave error.

On the positive side, Americans have instituted activities which recall virtues illuminated at the time, providing inspiration and healing. President Biden and our presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, attended the 2024 memorial service to show solidarity at New York’s Ground Zero.

But the current environment of rapid change and serial crises worldwide outpaces the healing. Large groups this year have faced critiques of their reactions to the events of a newly prominent date of terror—Oct. 7, 2023. That day hearkened back to a “never forget” call issued long ago.

After the Holocaust, decades of efforts to capture that encounter with evil in words and images, museums and initiatives, and disciplines like history and philosophy built a potent but partial bulwark against blights like antisemitism.

However, no “lesson plan” can transform human nature or dictate uniform judgments about justice. Any endeavor to spell out the meaning of 9/11 will be vulnerable to changing fact patterns and priorities, not to mention our short attention spans and imperfect wisdom.

So, what can we do? As with all matters of jeopardy, let’s frame our answers in the form of a question.

We can prompt discussions about 9/11 by assembling stories from that day and its aftermath which continue to challenge us. The best stories will drill down into themes about protecting human dignity. Honest inquiries will encourage young people to reflect on connections between the personal and public, specific and multidisciplinary, fact-based and passionate, earthly and transcendent.

Jesus, following his own people’s traditions, expanded hearts and minds by asking questions and telling parables that prompt ongoing interpretation, even today.

“I will open my mouth in a parable, unfold the puzzling events of the past,” says Psalm 78. “What we have heard and know; things our ancestors have recounted to us. We do not keep them from our children; we recount them to the next generation.”

We should formulate our parables and perplexity now while we’re attuned to the mystery in our history. We’re nervous that society’s puzzles have missing pieces.

“Those of us reared on reason, logic, and basic human decency find ourselves a bit befuddled these days, trying to make sense of what is rapidly devolving into a Grand Guignol of political, moral, and cultural horrors,” Liel Liebowitz wrote in the latest edition of First Things. Questions now debated about such fundamental topics as law and order, rights and freedoms, and nationhood provide “all the proof we need that this is a grave moment for our republic.”

Our stories of concern will be hopeful but raw, confronting souls with the fog of war that rose up after the Twin Towers collapsed. We must invite help in today’s battles against isolation, polarization, and despair.

The post-9/11 secular society craves strong anchors like the wisdom of our founders, who cobbled together faith in God, ourselves, our communities, and our country to establish an orderly (albeit flawed) whole.

With those aspirations in mind, here are six components of a lesson plan, or discussion guide, which might promote justice down the road while also doing justice to those who perished in New York City, at the Pentagon, and on United Flight 93.

Help the nation come together.

Most Americans earnestly want to find unity amid our diversity, and 9/11 reactions offered a glimpse of progress, at least at first. Now, liberty seems geared more toward expressive individualism than solidarity among citizens. Suspicion toward “nationalism” overshadows patriotic pride.

NewsNation TV host Chris Cuomo recently voiced deep frustration over the societal damage done by political purveyors of violence and chaos. He opened his Sept. 16 program mulling the previous weekend, when President Trump faced a second assassination attempt.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” Cuomo said, quoting patriot Patrick Henry. “And it’s even more true today…. We need a reason to believe in who we are at our best, and we are starved of that…. And I keep seeing the use of the word ‘hate’ everywhere in our politics.”

Cuomo demanded soul-searching. “We’ve got to get out of the judgment business, unless it’s judging ourselves…. Why aren’t we caring about each other?”

The neglect of human dignity is not bubbling up from the grass roots, Cuomo assured viewers; most Americans “don’t feel a connection to [the partisan rancor] in your life.” That’s because “our communities are strong, our people are strong, we care about one another,” he said. “But there is a top-down phenomenon, and it is corroding us.”

If our leaders are obscuring the opportunity to renew compassionate camaraderie, an outline of learning from 9/11 is neither necessary nor possible.

Beware of overreaction to hatred and violence.

The average American’s direct experience from 9/11 was not hatred or violence, but literally terror. In 2024, hatred and violence seem to have spread organically.

Too many thought-leaders have found that fear—whether personified by migrants or “extremists” or other assorted labels—is a powerful influence. It’s fertile soil in which to plant seeds of enmity, promises of protection, and risks of overreaction, military or otherwise.

We can remind young people of a legendary leader, Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), who told us, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is fear.”

Terrorism claims many victims. Besieged individuals take cover. Nations “watch over” their people and take action abroad, perhaps overdoing one or the other, or both.

When President Joe Biden met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after last year’s murderous raid by Hamas, he combined his appeal for humanitarian aid to suffering Palestinians with an admission of guilt.

“Justice must be done,” Biden said as quoted in The Guardian. “But I caution that, while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”    

Cherish first-responders, “look for the helpers.”

Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks on September 11. According to the United Nations, more than four hundred first-responders lost their lives in New York alone.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed out on the twentieth anniversary in 2021 that firefighters and others headed toward the World Trade Center that day, “with many making the ultimate sacrifice, exemplifying the very humanity and compassion that terrorism seeks to erase.”

Before turning our heads away from documentaries about that day’s horrors, or from coverage of other human tragedies, it is wise to recall the script-flipping guidance of a more grass-roots influencer, television personality Fred Rogers (1928-2003).

This host of the long-running gem for children, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, is known for the timeless advice he offered for viewing scenes of terrible harm and fear. Quoting his mother in a scene archived on YouTube, he instructed, “Always look for the helpers. There will always be helpers….”

Self-sacrificial instincts for heroism, seen every day in big and little forms, are a worthy subject for meditation in the post-9/11 world.

How can people develop this preferential option for service? The Gospels, with the Beatitudes and the parable of the Good Samaritan, are a good place to start.

The Tunnel To Towers Foundation has created a “9/11 Institute” website with educational resources. They’re intended to teach children “about the extraordinary heroism and goodness of everyday people who inspired our nation and demonstrated the strength and resilience of America’s spirit.”

Be prepared.

It’s neither cliché nor sexist to admonish people with the traditional Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared.” Today’s Boy Scouts of America has emerged from bankruptcy and welcomes girls as members in such programs as “Scouts BSA.”

The BSA website says its mission is “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law.”

Here’s the oath: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

What’s the law? “A Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, & Reverent.”

We could add to that checklist of holistic health a diligent pursuit of excellence, an embrace of teamwork, and the kind of fortitude which enabled so many emergency workers to perform grueling duties at Ground Zero for many months.

Much of what we can absorb from the Boy Scout oath was taught in a mightily adult way by the passengers of United Flight 93 as they resisted their captors in the skies above Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Speaking to families at that memorial site on the twentieth anniversary of the terror attacks, former President George W. Bush highlighted even deeper qualities all citizens should be prepared to display—such as sympathy, empathy, self-reflection, and loving memory.

“Today,” he said, “we remember your loss, we share your sorrow, and we honor the men and women that you have loved so long and so well.” Across the country on the day of terror, “there was shock at the audacity of evil and gratitude for the heroism and decency that opposed it.”

Bush continued: “As a nation, our adjustments have been profound. Many Americans struggled to understand why an enemy would hate us with such zeal. The security measures incorporated into our lives are both sources of comfort and reminders of our vulnerability. And we have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within.”

Be imaginative.

There’s one form of preparation in which America proved insufficient on 9/11. It may elude us more than ever in these times of passive, indifferent spectatorship and addictions to entertainment and sloppy thinking.

We should never forget the insightful warning found in the Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The 9/11 Commission’s observation about the failures which led to that disastrous day has eye-popping relevance to this moment before our 2024 elections:

“The most important failure was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat. The terrorist danger from Bin Ladin and al Qaeda was not a major topic for policy debate among the public, the media, or in the Congress. Indeed, it barely came up during the 2000 presidential campaign.”

We must demand more of our government even as contemporary democratic governance demands more of us. If indeed this year’s selection of a new president is largely about each candidate’s character, as some pundits argue, we must seek characteristics that go way beyond those cultivated by partisan machines, superficial popularity, and political paralysis through fear or personal animus.

A lack of candid, informed, and widespread debate in the public square about crucial issues deprives us and our leaders of outside-the-box ideas and ingenious, foresighted overviews.

Find the Cross at Ground Zero.

Good questions about, and good uses of, imagination lead us into the world of philosophy and theology. Many people today—whom we might place in such categories as relativists, positivists, materialists, progressives, or the depressed—limit their own power for creative thinking. The 9/11 Commission would probably call that limitation suicidal.

“When you are anxious or worried, you shut imagination down,” wrote Robert Evans Wilson Jr. in a Psychology Today blog. He quoted motivational writer William Arthur Ward (1921-1994) as saying, “Nothing limits achievement like small thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed imagination.”

Just as it can be true that “seeing is believing,” we can sometimes say that “believing is seeing.” We find what we’re looking for, Wilson pointed out. We see only what is familiar.

We need open minds and keen imaginations—not to invent fanciful distractions, but to see a wider range of important possibilities more clearly. That’s the purpose of a liberal arts education, ideally one blending faith and reason.

In The Cross at Ground Zero, Franciscan author Father Benedict Groeschel (1933-2014) discussed how post-9/11 rescue workers preserved a cruciform remnant of World Trade Center girders because it spoke of their belief in Christ’s redemptive presence at that scene of devastation.

Groeschel said in an archived video that the cross was a reminder of mysteries which, when acknowledged, can be liberating. “Evil is a mystery,” he commented, adding that it does little good to keep asking “why did this happen?” Instead, the useful questions are: “Where do we go from here? What do I do now?” For those rescue workers, the answer was, “Keep digging.”

When Pope Francis visited New York City in 2015, he spoke to representatives of various religions at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. He called it a “place of sorrow and remembrance,” but he added that “our presence together will be a powerful sign of our shared desire to be a force for reconciliation, peace, and justice in this community and throughout the world.”

Many additional faith-filled insights emerged from the terror attacks, including the view—now echoed even by some secular commentators in connection with today’s turmoil—that society is in a spiritual battle. In other words, we need strong alliances with our guardian angels.

The angels are a good reminder as we strive to follow the lesson plan presented above. We’re not alone, either on this mortal plane or higher. Learning from 9/11 is a group exercise, an open-book test, with plenty of resources available, and we get credit for showing our work.

When the twenty-fourth anniversary of that day arrives, perhaps we’ll be better prepared to connect the historical and creative thinking which can guide our minds, hearts, and homeland. All generations should want to improve at reacting to, and shaping, the opportunities for transformation ahead.

Our simple message can be: Try to remember the kind of September we should never forget.

Image from ClipSafari.com, a collection of Creative Commons designs.

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