The Gazette-Enterprise

There are kids in elementary school today who weren’t alive when the planes plowed into the World Trade Center in New York City — altering one of the most famous skylines in the world.

They weren’t alive when a third plane hurtled into the symbol of this nation’s military dominance — the Pentagon.

They weren’t around when a fourth plane — destined for a target in Washington, D.C. — was seized back from its hijackers by a group of ordinary people who knew that only death and destruction awaited.

They weren’t born when that plane crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania, not reaching its target because of the actions of those passengers.

For those kids the “War on Terror” — or whatever the present administration chooses to call it as our men and women fight and die in Afghanistan — is just part of life, like the “Cold War” was for generations born before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

There are children in school today who didn’t experience the helplessness and sadness as we watched the towers tumble.

They also didn’t experience the way this nation came together as one. There were no red states or blue states. Lines at blood drives stretched around city blocks.

It is precisely because they weren’t alive that we must continue to remember the events of that day.

It is part of who we are as a nation.

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