I first want to apologize to those expecting my follow-up articles on the history and significance of the national political conventions. I am now teaching a class at Rutgers University, as well as in charge of the Rutgers-New Brunswick for Obama-Biden effort; as such, I've frankly been swamped. I hope to finish and post the rest of the series in the next few weeks.
Today, I want to take an altogether different tack, as we mark the 11th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. As an 8th grader in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City, the images I saw - the Towers, the faces, the tears - are seared into my memory. For 13-year old students like me, it was the first time we would hear about Al-Qaeda, or look for Afghanistan on a classroom globe.
Today, powerful and ordinary Americans across our country - and many more across the world - are vowing to "never forget" that day. It is, I fervently pray, a vow we will keep as long as we live. What is it, however, that we seek to never forget? In my mind, it is not just who, but what must be remembered if 9/11/2001 is to be more than a date in a history textbook 100 years from now.