A generation that wasn't yet born on 9/11 is keeping the promise to "Never Forget" — while the government that failed to stop the attacks has spent 25 years making sure Americans never get accountability.
The intelligence agencies that missed the plot didn't get reformed or dismantled after the worst failure in their history. They got a blank check. The PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretaps, NSA mass surveillance — every liberty-crushing program built in 9/11's aftermath was constructed by the same officials who couldn't stop 19 hijackers with box cutters. And that machine isn't targeting foreign threats. It's targeting Americans.
At Ground Zero, the next generation did their part. Young speakers, born after the attacks, read the names of nearly 3,000 fallen loved ones. "Grandma, I never got to meet you, but you've been with me my entire life," said the granddaughter of Barbara Walsh, who died in the North Tower. Manuel Damota, who was a four-month-old embryo when his father perished, described 25 years of "empty chair, empty plate" at the family dinner table. "I spent my whole life knowing my father in the memories of others," he said. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum estimates a third of Americans alive today were not yet born when the attacks happened.
In Alaska, educators like Stephanie Campbell taught fifth graders about the attacks — and about the "shifts in privacy, security, politics and culture" that still impact Americans today. That's one way of putting it. Another way: the surveillance state.
And 9/11 didn't end on 9/11. According to the WTC Health Program, more than 9,400 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses — three times the number killed that day. About 50,000 cancer diagnoses have been certified. "The truth is, 9/11 didn't end on 9/11," said Michael Barasch, a lawyer who represents responders and survivors. The triplet sons of FDNY firefighter William Gormley grew up with their father, only to lose him later to the toll Ground Zero took on his health.
Those are the Americans Washington forgot — first responders and civilians the government told the air was safe to breathe, then fought for years on compensation and medical care. The same pattern: failure, then cover-up, then grudging half-measures when the political cost gets too high.
We went to war over this. Trillions spent. Thousands more American lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the people who failed to connect the dots? Promoted. The agencies that missed the warnings? Expanded. The constitutional rights that were supposed to be temporary sacrifices? permanent fixtures.
The kids reading names at Ground Zero understand their duty. When will Washington understand theirs?
