Remembering the Past, Looking to the Future: 9/11, a 15 Year Retrospective

Today marks the 15 year anniversary of 9/11. No doubt many will reminisce about where they were when the towers fell, what they were doing and the horrible spectacle that glued us to the TV's as it unfolded before our eyes. My military service ended 4 years prior, and I was working as a computer technician at the college here in town. I remember thinking "this is a Muslim terror attack", we'll be back there soon. 2,996 people died because of those attacks. Another 6,831 troops and soldiers have died fighting the war on terror since then. Nearly 10,000 Americans in the last 15 years. An astonishing number that doesn't even include the number of people from other countries that sacrificed their sons, daughters, wives and husbands along with us.

Since then our country has seen a lot of changes. We live in a society where memories fade quickly and we are off to the next sensational news piece. It's a sad state, because as someone once said, those who are ignorant of the past are doomed to repeat its failures. We seem caught in a cycle of selfishness and self service that sees new lows each time we enter it. We cry for safe spaces where we cannot have divergent opinions and beliefs, we cry for justice for criminals who are lifted up as heroes instead of prosecuted, we believe we deserve everything for free instead of working hard to make our dreams come true, and I wonder... Have we lost sight of what the American dream really is? Life, liberty, pursuing happiness through our own hard work and initiative seems to be a bygone idea of a past era for many (if not most),

I think about those who died in the towers and those who died rescuing them. I think about those who died in the flight over PA on flight 93, and the few who fought to overtake the terrorists on that plane. Heroes, tried and true. I think of all the men and women in our military who have sacrificed their lives over the last 15 years, and their families. Nobody survives war. The person that comes back is never the same. The old person is gone. Forever. I wonder how many people understand that. I remember watching somberly as people leaped from the buildings in desperation before they fell to the ground in ash and rubble, and the tears afterwards. I remember the faces of loved ones searching frantically for their friends and family members, praying they were alive. I remember the caskets coming home from the Gulf and Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember them young men and women as they returned home, many intact physically, yet changed forever.

I think about the Islamification of our country and the danger it has placed us in for the sake of political correctness, How the epidemic of radicalization is now sweeping the west because we are afraid as a nation, as a global community, to simply say no. No to terror, no to the ideology that breeds murder and mayhem, and wants us to simply live in an age of terror where attacks are "the new norm".

I for one, do not want to forget. I don't want to forget the loss of life, the pain, the sorrow. I do not want to forget the sacrifice of those on 9/11 and those who fought terror for a decade and a half afterwards, nor do I want to forget their families who have often times suffered in silence, forgotten and dismissed by a selfish society. I would even plead with my friends and family to not forget. By remembering the past, we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future. We can leave a better world for our kids and their kids. We can ensure that those who died did not die unavenged, in vain and forgotten.