Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans are reflecting on how a tragedy that shaped a generation is remembered by those who witnessed it and those who learned about it in classrooms.
President Donald Trump marked the anniversary Friday at the Pentagon, where he delivered remarks honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks. Trump had initially planned to attend the New York ceremony, but reports said he chose the Pentagon after learning that speeches are not permitted at the annual Ground Zero observance in New York. Instead, victims’ relatives read the names of those killed, with moments of silence marking key moments of the attacks.
Vice President JD Vance joined former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at the annual commemoration at Ground Zero.
For people who lived through the attacks, the memories remain vivid.
Tee Williams, a New York resident who witnessed the attacks and now serves as an eighth-grade adviser at Zeta Charter Schools, recalled initially thinking the first plane crash was an accident.
“I thought it was an accident, and then the second plane hit,” Williams said.
As smoke filled the city and emergency responders rushed to the scene, Williams said New Yorkers began helping one another.
“It was a city that had to band together in that moment, and that’s what we did,” he said.
Williams said he believes it is important for younger Americans to understand not only the devastation of Sept. 11 but also the sense of unity that followed.
For younger Americans, however, the attacks are increasingly a historical event rather than a firsthand memory.
Viviana Cruz, an intern at the Quixote Center in Washington, D.C., said she learned about 9/11 primarily in school before visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York.
Cruz said the experience taught her how communities responded to tragedy, but she worries the attacks are becoming more distant for her generation.
“It looks more like the past,” Cruz said, “and something that’s kind of just becoming a textbook.”
