Friday, September 11, 2015,  we remembered the horrific day of September 11, 2001. We claim we won’t forget and those of us like me who will always remember where we were and who can’t forget, haven’t forgotten, but it seems many have, especially your government.
Not forgetting doesn’t mean we don’t move on, or that we live in fear. It does mean we appreciate each day and we honor those who keep us safe and we take precautions to make sure such an event doesn’t happen again.
Fourteen years later and the five held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for allegedly being behind the attacks, have not come to trial. They sit, being fed and clothed, while those who lost loved ones that day, still have holes in their hearts from their loss. Justice seems to move slowly but 14 years is more like a turtle with a broken leg trying to drag itself forward.
While lots of money was spent for a couple of years after, in the last few years, it seems as if our government barely acknowledges the existence of terrorists. They have forgotten what is was like and what happened. Next time, as I heard former Vice President Dick Cheney say, the next attack will not just be with airline tickets and box cutters. It will be far more dangers and far more devastating.
Some conservative politicians say we are even more ill-prepared for such a tragedy today than we were then. That’s a somber thought.
It’s been 14 years and there is a whole generation of teenagers who don’t remember and won’t know anything else they are told.
We play on our smart phones or computers, sip our coffee and yell at our neighbors. We get upset when a Christian takes a stand for their religious beliefs and we cry that one color or another’s life matters. All lives matter and we are all the same on the inside.
We let our country get deeper in deeper in debt and become a topic of disgust.
If we truly remembered we would be unified still and standing in prayer together, helping each other up instead of stomping each other down. We have gone from living in a state of fear from that attack, to living in a state of denial that it could happen again. We never thought it would happen in 2001 but it did. Soldiers and Christians are beheaded in another country and because we are so far removed from it, it doesn’t even effect our hearts or minds.
How could we forget the sight of those two aircraft crashing in to the twin towers. The almost 3000 who lost their lives; the courage and sacrifice of the emergency responders and of those unknown people who became heroes as they helped search for the lost.
No, we shouldn’t live in fear but we must not ever completely forget that fear either. Those who wish us harm, have not gone. They still exist and they still want us dead. In reality, there are probably more of them today than there were in 2001. They plot against us every day. They have a patience and determination that we can’t even fathom because of their hate. They will not stop until they have destroyed our nation. These days it seems they are even doing from the inside with a little help from the government.
We should take our blinders off. Keeping them on does not keep us safe, it only makes you oblivious to the foreboding danger until it is too late.
Forgetting 9/11 dishonors the 2,977 people who lost their lives that day. It dishonors their survivors. We might not understand the hatred those across the ocean have for us, but that doesn’t mean it is not real. It is very real. Forgetting dishonors those men and women who are in the service of their country to preserve our freedoms.
It may be painful to remember, but we become stronger as we fight through the pain.
Fourteen years ago, as a nation, we cried together — tears of disbelief and horror. When the dust had settled, we gathered ourselves together, with our righteous anger as an American, and we fought back together and united. “Not in our country, on our United States of America,” we said.
Time and time again, we have proven we are a nation of strength, capable of coming back from terror and destruction of all kinds. We should never forget. In fact, we should downright refuse to forget. Remember that day, September 11, 2001. And remember that we as Americans should always come back swinging, standing together in unity and love as one, whenever and from wherever a threat comes from these days.
And the several incidents we have witnessed around the country are not just accidents. They are connected to each other, and I believe are trial runs of what is to come.
Those who fail to remember history, are doomed to repeat it. And though our President may say the attacks were the result of American arrogance, we know better. Protecting our country from radical Muslims and terrorists is not proclaiming hate as some would like for you to believe. It is doing what should be done and having enough pride in a country to protect and fight for it. Many have forgotten but I cannot. Have you forgotten?

VICTORIA SIMMONS is an author, columnist, motivational speaker, minister and publisher of The Georgia Post/Byron Buzz. Contact her at: vsimmons54@gmail.com