25 Years Later, What I Remember Most About September 11

Twenty-five years ago this morning, I woke up just like I did on any other Tuesday.

It was a year before I moved to Boise. I was the operations manager for six radio stations, but I wasn’t doing a morning show at the time. I got up early, poured some coffee and turned on the Today Show while I started getting ready for work and something was happening in New York.

The first tower of the World Trade Center had been hit. At that point, nobody seemed to understand exactly what had happened. How could an airplane possibly get that far off course?

I called out to my wife and told her something was going on and then, while we were talking, the second plane hit the second tower. In that instant, the confusion was gone and we knew this was not a terrible accident.

I got dressed as quickly as I could and headed for the radio stations, where we tried to figure out how to handle a day none of us had ever prepared for.

There are things about September 11, 2001, that I will never forget. But 25 years later, I also remember what happened afterward. Out of something unimaginably horrible, I watched people come together. For a little while, the labels didn’t seem quite as important.

People were simply Americans. We were kinder to strangers, we hugged our families a little tighter, we told our friends we loved them, we checked on our neighbors and we seemed to understand, maybe more than we had the day before, just how much we needed one another.

Eventually, that faded. Today, we disagree about plenty. Sometimes it feels like we’re better at seeing what separates us than remembering everything we share.

September 11 is an anniversary none of us ever wanted, but on this 25th anniversary, I have one wish. I wish we could somehow find our way back to that little piece of America we discovered in the days afterward, without ever needing another tragedy to remind us it’s there.

To be a little kinder.

To hug a little tighter.

To love each other a little deeper, and to remember that even when we disagree, we’re still neighbors... we’re still friends... we’re still family.

We’re still Americans.

Twenty-five years later, I hope we never forget that either.