Jonathan Greenblatt

@jgreenblattadl · Twitter · 2026-09-11 15:15 UTC

25 years later, we still hold the 2,977 lives taken on September 11 in our minds, and the families who have carried that loss every day since in our hearts. Their grief deserves more than a moment of silence once a year. Every September 11, we say "we remember." But let’s not only remember the horror, but also what came after: people carrying strangers down smoke-filled stairwells, firefighters running toward danger, a city and a country standing united as one in the aftermath. Sadly, and undeniably, across the U.S., we've lost that sense of unity since then. Even the rhetoric we use about this day, which should be reflective and somber, has become divisive. The real tribute to that unity, and all the lives lost on that day, isn't a hashtag. It's choosing, again, to see each other as neighbors first. That's the America worth remembering.