On the morning of the attacks, Beverly was on the phone with Sean, who worked on an upper floor of the south tower. As she urged him to escape, she saw the skyscraper come down on television.
Beverly became an energetic, articulate activist for the 9/11 families, pushing successfully for an investigative commission and for fair compensation. I so admired her quiet, persistent drive to find some resolution to that awful event.
Now, 10 years later, I hope that we’ll remember how we came together as a nation. We mourned as a family and found common ground on which to move forward. We saw political adversaries stand side by side on the Capitol steps as they sang “God Bless America.” We watched proudly as young men and women enlisted in the military, knowing they’d soon be in harm’s way.
When war came and there were differences about why we were fighting, we had spirited but appropriate debates. When protesters took to the streets, there were no scenes of car burnings, tear gas, and billy clubs but of civil demonstration. We waited patiently in airport security lines as new federal agencies tried to sort out what was effective and what was merely symbolic.
Today, so much of that common fabric of united response has frayed. In the years since 9/11, we’ve been beset on another front by our economic excesses and our failure to honor the fundamental laws of financial risk.
We’ve gone about our lives with too little connection to the sacrifices of those fighting for us far away and the sacrifices of their families living just down the street or seated in the next row at our houses of worship.
Here are some things worth contemplating as we recall that surreal day in 2001 when innocent passengers on civilian planes became the first victims of the terrorists whose abhorrent actions changed all of our lives forever.
We’re still armed and on the ground in two Muslim nations where we’ve fought for much of the past 10 years, but we still have not extinguished the rage of extremists. We need to be more effective in promoting the American ideal without using guns or drones.
We need to be citizens again, offering our assistance to others. By doing so, we’ll show we can be more than the sum of our parts. Throughout our communities, states, and nation, on rural Main Streets and in countries around the globe, Uncle Sam needs us.
We need to listen to each other more and shout less. The 9/11 attacks were the beginning of an unexpected passage in American life in a new century, and no one group has all the answers.
Because of technology, our planet, even with its growing number of inhabitants, is more connected than ever before. By the same token, it is more competitive. We cannot keep our place as the greatest nation on Earth if we are a self-absorbed, deeply divided people, too quick to forget the unity that prevailed immediately after 9/11.
We owe those who lost their lives that day and in the resulting wars a common commitment to the values they personified, the values that have made this an exceptional country.
Whenever I fly over the southern tip of Manhattan where the twin towers no longer stand, that’s what I will try to remember.
http://www.parade.com/news/ground-zero/featured/tom-brokaw-lessons-we-must-never-forget.html