Remembering the Day

Today we remember the day that changed us forever. A day when a city famous for toughness became legendary for kindness.

Twelve years later, our hearts are still heavy with the loss of nearly 3,000 innocent men, women, and children killed in the terrorist attacks on that September morning. But our spirits are sustained by what the terrorists could never destroy: our shared humanity. On this day, we remember how a nation became a family and how the world came together with limitless compassion.

This morning, we once again gather at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City with families of those killed to remember their loved ones and read their names aloud. We will stand together in silence at six moments, marking when each of the Twin Towers were struck, when they fell, when the Pentagon was attacked, and when Flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

When the National September 11 Memorial Museum opens next spring, it will ensure that the history of 9/11 is preserved for generations to come. The stories, artifacts, images, and recordings included in the Museum will reflect the dignity and value of human life and the deepening of the bonds we share with one another. I look forward to sharing more information on the Museum opening in the months to come.

Whether you share a reflection through social media, perform an act of service, or remember through prayer, please join us in thinking of those taken from us too soon. As each name is read aloud and reverberates across the sacred ground of the 9/11 Memorial, you will, in an important sense, be standing side by side with the loved ones of the fallen, upholding our collective promise to never forget.

Warm regards and God bless America.

By Joe Daniels, 9/11 Memorial President