Have you forgotten?

For some of us, the memory of Sept. 11, 2001 is becoming more distant with each passing year, each passing day. Soon, it may well be regarded as little more than a page in history that can be safely turned.
Sadly, fewer people today care to be reminded of the horrors experienced on that pleasant, otherwise ordinary late summer morning. Due to the natural courses of time, generations and mortality, there were more people eight years ago who remembered the terrorist attacks than there were seven years ago, six years ago, and so forth until, decades later, there will be no one left to personally relate what was seen on the televisions and heard over the radio waves that day, because we the living today will eventually die and cease to exist. And unless we pause to remember those who perished on 9/11/01 at least once a year, the memory of what happened and what was at stake will fade much sooner than you or I will.
A cold, indifferent news media doesn’t see fit to show the images of the terrorist attacks, claiming that it doesn’t want to stir up old vices against Muslims, or remind us of the bitter memories of our losses. And yet, it has no problem showing footage of terror attacks in other countries, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, storming the beaches at Normandy, the assault on Iwo Jima, and various engagements in Vietnam, Korea and the current War on Terror. These images are no less disturbing than those from 9/11/01.
But, alas, the images have been put into storage, never to be reopened again for the benefit of current and succeeding generations.
Out of the shadows of this event have come sinister voices trying to persuade us that what actually happened on 9/11/01 wasn’t really true. Some of these voices are propagating bold-faced lies that Israel and the Jews were responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Others claim that the U.S. government—the White House, in particular—was the mastermind behind the carnage. Filmmaker Michael Moore and his controversial film, “Fahrenheit 911” is a perfect example of these sinister voices.
Now, if we eventually forget what we saw, forget what we heard, and forget the experience of Sept. 11, 2001 altogether, imagine what succeeding generations will come to learn about this event if the sinister voices prevail. Do you want your children’s children’s children to believe what you know to be lies?
Don’t think that will ever happen? Think again.
Already, there are sinister voices undermining history by claiming that the Holocaust did not really happen. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already said so. Fortunately, there are still people alive today who lived through that time and can tell us what really happened. But their numbers are shrinking. And once they are gone, who is to stop another Ahmadinejad from making the same claim? Who will be able to refute the lies if we, too, have forgotten the truth?
The surest way to keep the truth alive is to never forget it—and never let it die with us.
Just as the generations before us have done to preserve the truth of the Holocaust, so must we do to keep the truth of Sept. 11, 2001 from passing away into obscurity and leaving it open for interpretation by those who want others to believe a lie.
The memories may be unpleasant, even painful, but we must do this for the sake of future generations who will have no first-hand knowledge of the attacks and what they mean for the survival of the western world.
So, may I please ask, have you forgotten? More to the point, have you chosen to forget? God help us all if you have.