Twenty-Five Years After September 11

Twenty-five years ago, 2,977 people lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The attacks and the wars that followed dramatically changed the course of history.

Thousands of American service members were killed and tens of thousands wounded in the War on Terror. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the conflicts that followed, millions were displaced, and the financial cost reached into the trillions of dollars. The consequences of that period are still with us today.

Like so many who lived through 9/11, I vividly remember where I was that day. I remember being glued to the television, trying to process something that seemed almost impossible to comprehend.

Our students don’t have that memory. To them, September 11 is history.

I began teaching a course on the War on Terror in 2002, and I still teach it today. Much of the course focuses on understanding what led to 9/11 and examining how the United States responded. Twenty-five years later, we are still learning and still debating many of the decisions that followed.

But I also want my students to understand what it was like to be there. And, perhaps more importantly, I want them to know something about the people who were there.

One resource I use is an extraordinary New York Times archival piece that combines audio recordings from September 11 with maps tracking the four hijacked airplanes. You hear air traffic controllers and military personnel trying to understand what is happening. You hear Betty Ong, the American Airlines flight attendant who calmly called to report that her plane had been hijacked.

There was no playbook. People were frightened and confused and were forced to make enormously consequential decisions with incomplete information.

Another resource I share is the remarkable documentary made by French filmmakers Jules and Gédéon Naudet. In the summer of 2001, they were making a film about a rookie New York City firefighter. On the morning of September 11, Jules was with Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer and other firefighters investigating a gas leak when they heard an airplane overhead. His camera captured Flight 11 striking the North Tower.

He then followed the firefighters into the World Trade Center.

The footage is extraordinary. You see Chief Pfeifer calmly trying to lead in the midst of chaos. You see firefighters continuing up the stairs even after the second plane strikes the South Tower. You see Father Mychal Judge, the Fire Department chaplain, praying in the lobby. And you see the faces of people who understand the danger and continue doing their jobs anyway.

There are so many stories like these.

One that has always stayed with me is Rick Rescorla. Rescorla was a decorated Army veteran who fought in the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam and later became director of security for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower. He had long worried that the World Trade Center remained a target and regularly drilled employees on how to evacuate.

On September 11, after the North Tower was struck, building announcements urged people in the South Tower to remain where they were. Rescorla ignored those instructions and began evacuating Morgan Stanley employees. Using a bullhorn, he helped lead thousands of people out, reportedly singing songs from his native Cornwall in the stairwell to keep people calm.

Then he went back into the building to help others.

He never came out; neither did Father Judge.

There were countless other acts of courage that morning: the passengers of United Flight 93 who fought back against the hijackers, people at the Pentagon who rushed to help their colleagues, and firefighters, police officers, flight attendants, office workers, and ordinary citizens who put themselves at risk to help others.

I think it is important that we humanize this history. September 11 can become almost unimaginable when described with statistics. It becomes real when we know the names and stories of people like Betty Ong, Joseph Pfeifer, Mychal Judge, and Rick Rescorla.

Their stories also raise an important question: What enables a person to respond well when the world around them suddenly changes?

That question is very relevant to some of the conversations we are having at Colorado Academy today.

We constantly ask ourselves what an education should develop in a young person. Academic knowledge and intellectual rigor are essential. But the world our students are entering is changing so quickly. Technology and AI are reshaping how we live and work, and many of the challenges our students will face don’t yet have clear answers. That makes the human side of education more important, not less.

Our students will face moments when there isn’t a clear answer. They will have to make decisions without having all the information. They will encounter people who see the world very differently than they do. In those moments, what will they draw upon?

Their ability to think critically. Their capacity to adapt. Their willingness to listen. Their empathy for others. Their judgment. Their courage. Their ability to remain curious rather than retreat into certainty. Their willingness to participate in a community even when that community disagrees about what should happen next.

These are deeply human qualities. And history shows us just how much they matter.

The years following September 11 are complicated. History usually is. We can honor the courage and sacrifice of those who served while asking difficult questions about decisions that were made. We can love our country while studying its mistakes. In fact, I believe good citizenship requires us to do both.

Twenty-five years later, there is still much to learn from September 11 and its aftermath. But on this anniversary, I find myself thinking most about the individuals, the victims, the families they left behind, and the ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances.

We cannot know exactly what challenges our young people will face. We can help prepare them to meet those challenges with joy, curiosity, empathy, judgment, and courage.

And history gives us plenty of examples of why that matters.