OPINION: Remembering the day after the towers fell and who w...

It was a regular morning. Don Hewes and I had met about 4:45 a.m. to go to the gym. We completed our workout, showered and were getting dressed to go home and get the rest of our day going. That's when someone walked into the locker room and said, 'A plane just flew into the World Trade Center!' We couldn't quite believe what he said, thinking that some little single-engine plane must have flown off of course, and pilot error had caused a terrible tragedy. After hearing his report of what had happened, we walked into the main room and stood there watching as the second plane slammed into the second tower. It was almost as though the world stopped. People gathered around, strangers looking to one another for answers — comfort — or something that none of us were exactly sure of. I taught an early morning class to high school students later that morning. The lesson plan was quickly discarded and discussions of life and the future filled the hour. I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing 25 years ago. Many Americans can tell you the exact same thing. But this article is not about 9/11. While it is something we remember, something we need to remember, something that we need to examine, there is a generation of our rising leaders who have no memory of those events. Many Americans don't remember the strangely empty skies — an emptiness that echoed what we felt but couldn't put words to, being glued to TVs and watching in collective horror as buildings fell. Those are important images and memories; but it's 9/12 that I'm interested in.