September 11 Has Become History: Have We Kept the Memory Alive?

Where did 25 years go? If, like me, you lived through the September 11 attacks on the ground in New York (or Washington), the memory remains fresh and vivid. But time never stops marching on.

An entire generation has come of age with no living memory of September 11. There are college graduates in the workforce, and even on the National Review staff, who were born after that day. That feels surreal to me, much as it must have felt surreal for people who remembered Pearl Harbor to encounter the Baby Boom generation. But it is the way of the world. Eventually, everything stops being news and becomes history. History means words and pictures, not the smell of the air or the mood of the week. Things that changed everything only feel that way if you remember what it was like before those things changed.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

Manage following

American History

9/11

Where did 25 years go? If, like me, you lived through the September 11 attacks on the ground in New York (or Washington), the memory remains fresh and vivid. But time never stops marching on.

An entire generation has come of age with no living memory of September 11. There are college graduates in the workforce, and even on the National Review staff, who were born after that day. That feels surreal to me, much as it must have felt surreal for people who remembered Pearl Harbor to encounter the Baby Boom generation. But it is the way of the world. Eventually, everything stops being news and becomes history. History means words and pictures, not the smell of the air or the mood of the week. Things that changed everything only feel that way if you remember what it was like before those things changed.