My grandparents had Pearl Harbor.
My parents had the Kennedy Assassination.
My generation has 9/11.
Events that shocked our nation and changed it forever both at home and on the world stage.
Despite what the country looks like right now; I will not forget.
I will not forget that we were broken beyond belief and had an opportunity to come back better... stronger... prouder.
Instead, we're devolving into chaos.
A chaos that December 7, 1941, November 22, 1963, and September 11, 2001 didn't produce in the immediate aftermath of their events.
But here we are.
The greedy mindset pervading every last area of our lives and run rampant as if looking out for just ourselves was ever the idea.
Thankfully, the 411 non-civilians listed in the meme above didn't think that way, or we could have subtracted their numbers and added so many more to the civilian numbers.
Twenty-three years later, America acts very much like it's forgotten that so many lost their lives. They died for the simple act of living an American lifestyle.
No one stopped these people and asked them what they believed or who they were related to or what their salaries were. No one was spared because of their ethnicity or gender or their political affiliations.
None of it mattered.
With our words we say we remember.
But, if we really remembered none of it would matter now just like it didn't then.
But we've forgotten.
We went through Covid's quarantine and this time, instead of coming together to mourn our losses, we emerged selfish and hateful and short-sighted as a nation.
Our laws no longer protect the people, but condemn them for being people.
My only consolation is that none of the people we lost know what our nation has become.