Educating future generations on 9/11 is important in an increasingly dangerous world
For people old enough to remember, 9/11 will forever be etched in their conscience. It wasn’t just America that was stunned by the terrible events of that fateful day 25 years ago. People remember exactly where they were when they saw the planes hit the World Trade Centre in New York.
The 25th anniversary was a sombre reminder of the horrors that were inflicted by terrorists on the democratic world.
Across the US it was a day for laying wreaths, flying the America flag proudly and for moments of silence that spoke loudly, those who lost their lives will never be forgotten.
The 9/11 atrocity would send shockwaves across the globe.
Former Home Secretary Lord David Blunkett describes how Tony Blair’s Government calmly set about supporting America in its time of need in today’s newspaper.
Those that were there on that day vividly remember the death and destruction that surrounded them, people like filmmaker Paul Berriff, who retraced the steps he’d taken 25 years earlier.
He recalls seeing little black dots surrounding the towers as he approached the site of the attacks, only for the realisation to set it that those dots were indeed desperate people jumping from the windows of the burning buildings.
A whole generation has now grown up for whom 9/11 is a lesson from history. Yet it has consequently shaped the world that they now live in.
That is why it is just as important that future anniversaries become about education as well as private reflection.
As Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell writes in today’s newspaper urges, we cannot allow fear and hate to divide us.
But equally Sir Ken McCallum’s warning is a reminder of the need to remain vigilant. The head of MI5 says the threats we face now are more dangerous and complex than ever before.