Tag: 2001

As you walk through the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, it does not take long for the gravity of what took place on that hallowed ground to overwhelm you.

From rusty, twisted steel tridents to a half-destroyed fire engine, there are symbols of the destruction that took place on what had otherwise been a beautiful Tuesday morning in New York City in 2001.

Of course, the horror of 9/11 extended to the walls of a military fortress in Washington and a grassy field in Pennsylvania, a fact also represented in various places in the memorial and museum.

For many years while I worked at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, I had the distinct privilege of taking groups of cadets through the memorial and museum. Those trips hold many special memories. Once, I watched a cadet find a picture of his relative among the nearly 3,000 people who had died that day.

Another time, I listened as cadets shared their reactions to experiencing an event that had occurred before they were born. Every time my colleagues and I went on this trip, we felt reaffirmed that this was a critical experience for both us and the cadets — but not only because it helped us remember the past. The experience was also important because it allowed us to learn from the past. The building itself was, after all, a memorial and a museum.

As we observe another anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, I still believe that 9/11 has much to teach us. Here are three lessons that seem particularly relevant to the challenges we face in America today.

Trusting we can still learn from mistakes

On 9/11, we learned that government was far from perfect, but that with effort, cooperation and compromise, it could be improved. I’ll never forget the words of Richard Clarke, who was the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-Terrorism on 9/11, when he testified before the 9/11 Commission in the aftermath of the attacks.

“Your government failed you,” he said. “Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn’t matter because we failed.”

There is not enough space here for a full accounting of reasons and ways that the government failed, but Clarke was right. Yet, in the shadow of such a tremendous security failure, we decided as a country to alter the status quo and implement changes that made our country safer.

We face daunting challenges today, ranging from health care to immigration to economic uncertainty, and it might feel like our government is failing or is in danger of failure. It is true that many of our institutions are under stress in ways that we might never have anticipated. The specific solutions, in many cases, have yet to be determined.

That is exactly how we felt as a people on Sept. 12, 2001. But, we got to work and made government better. That is what is needed now, a desire to move forward with faith that improvements can be made and that we can emerge better on the other side.

Willingness to stand up and lead

On 9/11, we learned that leadership is not just for those in leadership positions. Even in the midst of unimaginable terror, we saw everyday people — our neighbors and fellow citizens — demonstrate tremendous courage. Consider the crew and passengers of Flight 93. Among them were pilots, flight attendants, a salesman, a COO, a student, an ironworker and so many others.

These were not special ops forces. Yet, in what became a tremendous act of personal sacrifice, they attempted to regain control of their hijacked aircraft, saving the lives of many who would have been killed had the aircraft struck its intended target. Nobody ordered them to do what they did, nor had any of them trained for the moment in which they found themselves. They proactively figured out what was going on, made a plan to address the situation, and gave their all for each other and for people who would never know them.

Today, we live in a time when leadership models in the public or political sphere seem to be few and far between. Often, we might feel that the best thing to do is to hunker down, protect our own, and avoid sticking our heads up.

The tendency to withdraw in difficult times is natural, but it ultimately will lead to worse collective outcomes. We need to be willing to stand up and lead with purpose for the greater good. We need to engage with others, build relationships and do what is right, even if it is difficult.

Recommitting ourselves to national unity

On 9/11, we learned that unity could come even in the midst of division. Sept. 11, in many ways, interrupted time, making it hard to remember what came before. A mere nine months prior to the attacks, the country had just seen the hotly contested 2000 presidential election, which ended a few months later by the split decision of the Supreme Court. The decision resulted in George W. Bush becoming the 43rd President of the United States over former Vice President Al Gore.

If that result, or anything similar, had happened today, it’s easy to imagine that the bitterness and resentment would have carried over into the public discourse surrounding 9/11. Yet, just one month after 9/11, Al Gore had the following to say with respect to those who lost their lives on 9/11, “We should honor their memories by fighting for the values that bind us together as a country. … I hope … even if we disagree about other things in America, that we find a way to remain as unified as we possibly can.”

That hope is desperately needed in America today, where strong feelings of disagreement are high and our problems in many ways appear greater than they ever have been. When the issues of our time threaten to divide us, we need to remember the many flags that appeared on American streets and the people who willingly set aside party to do what was needed to respond and recover.

As President Bush said on the evening of 9/11, “terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”

Not letting 9/11 shake the foundation of America was a choice. And it’s a choice we need to make (or remake) in our day.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks should be remembered on what has been designated Patriot Day. But, just like my cadets walking that hallowed ground in New York City, we cannot stop at just remembering what happened.

We need to take the lessons of the many heroes of that day, ordinary men and women just like you and I, and apply them to our current challenges to show that we indeed will “never forget” what that day taught us.