We must not forget

Eight years after the horror of seeing thousands of people die, towering buildings crash to the ground and a war declared on terrorism, we must not let our proclivity to move on eclipse our need to remember the victims, the heroes and the enemies of our way of life.

Hundreds of lives were lost just from our own South Shore communities. Fanatical murderers killed office workers, firefighters and chiefs, police officers, airline passengers and crews, and others on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center. More innocents were killed in and by the planes that smashed into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Unlike the united resolve we had in the months following that day of cataclysm, the nation now seems more divided on the issue of terrorism and how to fight it. While the Bush administration proclaimed that other countries were either for us or against us, the Obama administration places a higher priority on how we’re perceived in the world and on changing our posture from unilaterally aggressive to being more sensitive to other nations’ perspectives.

There’s little talk of security. We still take our shoes off at airport checkpoints, there’s a ban on liquids in carry-ons, cockpit doors are fortified and there are dozens of police officers at bridges and tunnels. Behind the scenes, we’re sure there are Homeland Security and FBI agents, special police units and military personnel worldwide who fight terrorists of all kinds on a minute-to-minute basis. Our courageous soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors defend us abroad with honor and dedication. More than 4,000 of them have sacrificed their lives in service to America. Journalists have been killed and injured telling us the stories of war.

But the angst, the trauma and the alertness at home seem to have faded, like the stripes on a sun-blanched flag.

On Friday we must pause to remember the terror, the sudden loss of all those lives and the intentionally heinous acts of our enemies. To forget their malice is to succumb. To forget is to disrespect all those brave souls who went unwillingly to their deaths. To forget is to treat the terrorists’ cruelty with an undeserved mercy. We must not forget.

May those who we lost rest in peace, and may their families and loved ones find consolation in a nation that continues to mourn

Sunrise service

The Town of Hempstead will hold a commemorative sunrise service on Friday at 7:30 a.m. at Town Park Point Lookout, on Lido Boulevard in Point Lookout.