In eighth grade, I decided that my school didn’t honor 9/11 enough, so I organized a memorial event for its 20th anniversary. A teacher talked about his experience that day. I am not one for giving speeches, but I got up there in front of 180 people and narrated the events as they happened that day because 9/11 is important to me. I organized for students to miss half of the school day to remember because 9/11 is important to America.

In the United States, violence is the norm. In fact, it hardly ever makes the news anymore except for when celebrities or many people are killed. The Columbine shooting was national news, along with the Sandy Hook shooting, the Parkland shooting, the Uvalde shooting, and the Las Vegas shooting. And yet we do not take a day to remember those innocent people who were slaughtered in cold blood in all of these massacres without any warning. All of those people had their tomorrows stolen out from under their feet. Those people deserve to be remembered, if only as a reminder that terrorism is ubiquitous in our country. We must not let their lives be taken in vain. We must never forget, lest we repeat. All of those impacted by senseless violence sacrifice a part of themselves, and some sacrifice everything, especially when it is such a cataclysmic event as 9/11.

9/11 did not just take hundreds of civilian lives. We also lost hundreds of first responders that day, and hundreds more since, including from 9/11-related diseases. Our fallen first responders don’t get recognition except by their siblings in arms. Our first responders protect us from all manner of threats on a daily basis. Our firefighters rush into buildings, unsure of their structural integrity, in the hope of rescuing those trapped inside. Our police officers voluntarily enter tense situations where they can’t be sure they won’t be shot. Our emergency medical workers deal with people who are witnessing the pain or death of a loved one, and can’t be sure they won’t be attacked. Those are the people who keep our society from collapsing, even as it nears the abyss of anarchy. Those are the people who keep us safe daily, who ensure that we can come home and tell our families what a crazy day it was. Those heroes do not have the same certainty we enjoy.

Now, as we did in the immediate aftermath, we must unite as a nation to remember the fallen, the darkness of the past, and the sacrifice of all those impacted then and since. We must recall that our heroes are those who laid their lives on the line, doing something most of us mentally can’t, who see more destruction in a day than most of us do in a lifetime—all in the name of keeping us safe. We as a society do not value our first responders as much as we should because we take them for granted. But what if they weren’t there? What would we do then?

403 of them were no longer alive following the events of September 11, 2001. And the tribute they got from us in 2025 was a careless ten seconds of silence that was clearly done only because it was required. What would you do if you lost a family member unexpectedly? You would grieve and honor their memory for decades to come. 2,977 families had their loved ones ripped away from them that morning, out of the blue. Families bade each other goodbye that morning, fully expecting to commiserate about their days over dinner that night—an opportunity they lost forever.

The event I organized in eighth grade was three hours long and was done with great care and intention. It took days to plan it out fully. Flags across the nation are lowered to half-staff every year to remember the fallen souls. Nationwide, first responders attend somber, heartfelt memorials for their fallen brothers and sisters. Hundreds of people attend the four-hour Reading of the Names at the 9/11 Memorial each year to remember all 2,977 fallen brethren and sistren. Hundreds more cry at home watching it on TV. Each year until 2025, students at HSMSE have taken 60 silent seconds out of the day to remember 9/11. This year, however, we only paused for ten. Many may not have noticed the change, but I thought it was insufficient. Being explicitly told an amount of time we had to count off until we could return to class beforehand made many people anxious to continue their day and not really stop and think. HSMSE stops and thinks a lot, which made the lack of reflection on 9/11 all the more poignant.

Are 2,977 lives really worth only ten seconds out of our day? Is math really more important than honoring those who perished in such ignominious circumstances, who had their tomorrows ripped away from them, who ran into Hell itself in an effort to save innocent lives and never came back? Is engineering really so vital that it is worth reducing a cataclysmic tragedy to a perfunctory ten seconds? Is it really more important to learn chemistry than it is to honor the memory of over 1,100 fallen heroes, both those who died on 9/11 and due to 9/11-related illness since? Is it really more important to get into a “good” college than it is to reflect on our very recent tortured past? What of those who lost family members, who lost friends? What of those who were lost? What of those who have been lost since? We must give proper recognition to not only the terror of 9/11, but also the terror of our daily life. Terrorism is the norm in the United States, and we neglect it. Most terrorism doesn’t even make the news anymore. We cannot allow the same to happen with 9/11. Terrorism might shake the foundations of our buildings, but we must never let it touch the foundations of our communities. We must honor and remember so that we never repeat. We must honor with attention and intention. A halfhearted ten-second hiccup is not enough. Then, as now, we must heed the call to never forget the sacrifices made on that day: All gave some, and some gave all.

Never forget.