I purchased that coat in the Brooks Brothers store located in One Liberty Plaza across the street from the World Trade Center. Following the attacks, the damaged store became a makeshift morgue used by rescue workers and medical volunteers.
Whenever I wear that coat, I never fail to stop and think about that day, the horror we witnessed when those two planes struck the towers and then, something we never thought would happen, they fell. It’s hard to think that 25 years have passed and so many young people have no memory of that day. In fact, more than 100 million people in the U.S. were not yet born. Those who were alive, millions more, were infants and toddlers, too young to have any memory of what happened that day.
The New York Times interviewed nearly 30 young people and heard from perhaps 200 more about what it was like growing up after 9/11. Their responses varied. Some said that the adults around them were affected by 9/11, but since they weren’t alive then and have no recollection of what happened, they feel disconnected. “It’s hard to feel sad about something that you don’t remember.”
These young people have lived through many other tragedies in their short lives. This is a generation that has grown up with live shooter drills in their schools. Two days of tragedy they do remember? December 14, 2012, when 20 first graders and six adults were gunned down by Adam Lanza in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and February 14, 2018, when 17 people were killed and 17 others wounded by Nikolas Jacob Cruz in a Parkland, Florida high school. And while 9/11 did lead to many changes at airports to make flying safer, nothing has been done to stop school shootings.
I wasn’t alive during World War II, but every December 7 I think about Pearl Harbor. When we vacationed in Hawaii we visited the USS Arizona Memorial the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on the USS Arizona. As a young girl, and as an adult, I read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and when we were in Amsterdam, visited the house where she and her family hid in an attic until they were discovered by the Nazis. On a recent trip to Poland, we saw the horrors endured by Jews and others sent to Auschwitz. I’ve read many books about World War II and watched many films and documentaries, including World War II with Tom Hanks on the History Channel. History can be experienced in many different ways and learning more about what happened may help us to avoid repeating those mistakes.
My father was in the army during World War II and was stationed in France. He never talked about his time there and I regret now that I didn’t push him more to share his experience. I wasn’t surprised that one of the young people in the Times article said her father was a NYPD officer on 9/11 and refused to talk about it. Sometimes the memories are too raw, too difficult to put into words. And some parents may want to shield their children from such horrific experiences.
I was fortunate to have knowledgeable and engaged history teachers in high school. At one point I thought about becoming a history teacher. Even though I followed another path, my obsession with history remains strong. I wonder what young people are being taught in history classes today, with so many conservative school districts white washing decades of important trends and events. What happens outside the classroom becomes even more important. And that’s on parents to talk about history and encourage their children to read about history and ask questions.
Comparing 9/11 to World War II, however, is tricky. The threat presented to the world by Hitler was clear. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor we had no choice but to get involved. In the runup to 9/11, there were warning signs that our country was in danger because of our involvement in the Middle East. Osama bin Laden was angry that the U.S. kept troops in Saudi Arabia after the 1991 Gulf War, viewing it as a desecration of holy Islamic sites. As the leader of al-Qaeda, he was behind the plot to train the 19 hijackers who crashed planes into not only the World Trade Center, but the Pentagon. A third target, either Congress or the White House, was saved when those on that plane managed to gain control and crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania.
While 2,977 people died on September 11, deaths connected to that day continue to pile up. Nearly 155,000 people have signed up for the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides care and health monitoring to people who were exposed to toxic air after 9/11. More than 9,000 have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You’ve probably heard those ads on the radio or TV about signing up for the program if you lived or worked below Canal Street in the days, weeks, months, and years after 9/11. Every year, the number of sick people rises. So even though 9/11 is in the history books, we won’t be able to truly forget because people will continue to die from the aftermath.
An intelligence failure was responsible for allowing those attacks to be carried out. But we haven’t learned our lesson. We are now engaged in a hopeless, forever war in the Middle East. Our intelligence agencies have been hollowed out by a Trump Administration wary of anyone not loyal to the president. We are no longer trusted by our NATO allies, not even our closest neighbor, Canada. Is there another plot in the works? If there is, will our intelligence experts uncover it and will anyone in Trump’s circle take such threats seriously?
We visited the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum on Labor Day. Maybe because it was a holiday, days away from observing the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11, the crowds turned out. Many were tourists, others were New Yorkers. I was encouraged by the large number of young people who were there. It gives me hope that what happened on that terrible day will not be forgotten.
Lower Manhattan is enjoying a renaissance. What was once a quiet financial district that cleared out when the markets closed, it’s now a popular residential neighborhood for young people who enjoy the many dining spots and cultural attractions. The Oculus, the transportation hub and shopping mall that mimics a large white bird, is a major attraction.
Last June, Brooks Brothers returned to the area, opening a store on the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street. Walking by on Labor Day, I thought about going inside to shop for a new coat, maybe a red one. But it wouldn’t be the same red coat, the one that still connects me to that fateful day. Besides keeping me warm, it reminds me to never forget.
World Trade Center Memorial and Museum
Photos by Woman Around Town
