Making History Project – Veteran Oral History Preserving Veterans’ Stories
On this day, take a moment to reflect upon 9/11. Fifteen years have already passed since that fateful morning. As time passes it is often easy to forget our original call to action. Why We Fight, either as a question or as a rallying call, is repeated throughout history. When conflicts drag on and the loss of life seemingly has no end, it is natural to question everything and everyone. Is this necessary? What is the point? Should we have done something else? Was this real? Are we to blame?
Without making those inquiries or answers political, the fact is that a tragedy took place. Acceptance of that fact is a good place to start and end. With that tragedy, incomprehensible loss and unparalleled change took place. Buildings literally melted. Landscapes were changed. Families were ended. Future children to be born were never conceived. Our naïve and unscathed existence was forever altered. As a consequence, all of us are under scrutiny and surveillance in one way or another. Patriots became soldiers and some of them never came home. And to this day our military is stretched on endless missions to protect us at an enormous expense of family, life, limb, mind, and our country’s fiscal future.
On this day, above all else, let us not forget who and what we have lost. Be vigilant and fearless and with stoic and relentless energy, bring justice to those responsible. Never forget the price that has been and will continue to be paid. This is why we fight, and this is why we remember.
