(Editor's Notes by Christina Myer - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Sometime around Sept. 12, 2001, we as a nation vowed we would “Never Forget.”

Those in school now, ranging right up to college seniors and graduate students, have very little idea what they’re supposed to be remembering (and they have a good excuse).

I don’t. But I freely admit that until about noon on Sept. 11, 2024, I had forgotten entirely.

It wasn’t until a reporter came in showing the copy desk his photos from earlier in the morning that I realized what day it was. It wasn’t until I saw those photos that I realized for the first time in 22 years I hadn’t been thinking about the horrific events of that day as we approached its anniversary.

Is this how it goes? Will it be harder with each passing year to explain to younger generations what happened to us as a country?

Maybe. And I believe one of the reasons for that is because it didn’t take us long at all after the attacks to abandon our initial genuine patriotism, unity and good will toward one another in favor of devolving into a warped sense of patriotism that encourages vicious division — and in some cases is acted out in a way that proves to our enemies we are capable of being exactly who they said we were.

We said we weren’t going to let fear define us. We forgot. Anger and fear seem to be driving forces these days.

We said we would honor the memory of those who died by being better versions of ourselves. We forgot. Too many have given in to the goading to be the worst version of themselves.

On Sept. 20, 2001, President George W. Bush spoke to the nation and to Congress and said “My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of union, and it is strong.”

We forgot.

And what does the rest of the world see when they look at us now?

We’re better than this. We owe it to everyone we said we would never forget to be the BEST version of ourselves; to take care of one another; to understand the things that make us different from one another are to be celebrated, not used as excuses for hate and violence.

Surely, I’ve got to work harder toward those things.

I was one of those who nodded solemnly in September 2001 and said I’d never forget. It was easy in the midst of all that shared sentiment and united focus.

When I try to explain it to those who have spent their formative years watching that unity disintegrate a little more with each sound bite and social media post, they look at me as though I’m talking about an imaginary time and place. And who can blame them?

It’s not a matter of them forgetting. They’ve never known it to begin with. They’ve never known anything but what we’ve shown them over the past several years.

Let that sink in.

We were supposed to be living in a way that would be worthy of the memory of the 2,977 people we lost that day. We were supposed to be better. That we must truly never forget.