"Never Forget": When powerful words become little more than a slogan

In the one week that has passed since the world marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 murders, and that world turned into something none of us could imagine, I have spent the time pondering one simple question.

What does “Never Forget” actually mean?

A quarter century has passed since nearly 3,000 people were sacrificed in the September 11 attacks. For those who still feel the immense pain, still hear the rumble of concrete floors pancaking their way to street level, still can not conjure what it was like for those inside those tombs, the memories remain fresh and raw.

We remember them, and we must. But as the years march forward, what's to happen when those who were there can no longer recount the tales?

What does “Never Forget” actually mean?

Remembering an event and understanding an event are not the same thing.

The 9/11 Commission spent years examining what happened before and during the attacks. Its findings included failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management. The Commission's chapter titled “The System Was Blinking Red” examined how warnings and fragments of information existed but failed to become the kind of coherent understanding that could produce effective action.

Stop there and muse for a few moments. That's an extraordinary lesson.

The problem wasn't simply a lack of information. It was what people did with the information they had. It remains what we do with the lessons taught by tragedy, and whether we are brave enough to face them and actually learn something about ourselves. It would seem only logical that an event such as 9/11 would have forced us to alter our thinking and how we take in all the information we've been handed.

Twenty-five years later, unfortunately, we've gone to the opposite extreme.We have too much information, much of it meant to distract us and muddle our minds with misinformation, disinformation and just plain nonsense. Now we even have artificial intelligence, thinking machines, capable of generating convincing information that may not be true.

And we forget what we have learned.

A USC study this year demonstrated in simulation that AI agents can coordinate propaganda, reinforce one another and manufacture the appearance of consensus without a human directing every individual action. The researchers were careful to say this was a simulation, not proof that such a campaign had already happened in the real world. But the capability is real enough to deserve attention.

So, here we are. More information at greater speed. More voices being pushed to the fore with more cameras. More ways to manufacture a story.

All of this is more reason than ever to slow down and ask: Where did this come from What's the evidence? What's missing, and who benefits if I believe it?

That isn't cynicism. That's judgment, honed by never forgetting the lessons of the past.

There's another reason why this matters today, and it speaks to those we may never meet.

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum estimates that 100 million Americans are now too young to remember September 11, 2001. For them, the day exists almost entirely through the stories the rest of us leave behind.

Muse on that for a few moments. What is so vivid in so many minds is nothing more than pictures, videos, interviews and stories about one of the worst days in so many lives.

To insure those people truly understand the impact, we have to assume our responsibility. To not only never forget, but to pass the torch for future generations.

Inevitably, stories with impact get simplified. The images become symbols, politics gets mixed into history, and eventually, if we're careless, memory becomes whatever somebody with a microphone, a camera or an algorithm says it was.

The people who died on 9/11 deserve better than that. The responders, the survivors, the generations that weren't there all deserve better.

So today, and every day, remember more than just the overall arch of that day and what transpired after.

Remember the people.

Remember the courage.

Remember the failures.

Remember the consequences.

And remember that the truth doesn't become less important simply because 25 years have passed.

Never forget isn't just a memorial phrase.

It's a responsibility.

Be dangerously intelligent. Control the Narrative™.