Other things we should ‘never forget’

While no one needs a reminder about the Sept. 11 attacks, we could all use a refresher on what happened after

A drawing by Brittany Woodward, a student of Sequoyah Elementary School in Knoxville, Tennessee (Library of Congress)

“Never forget” is a peculiar slogan. Americans don’t need to be reminded of the most epochal event of our era, but that’s not really the point. The phrase is an invocation—a call to engage in the ritual of remembrance.

Every year, when the country marks this anniversary, we’re called upon to remember in a very specific way. We’re asked to personalize it: Where were you when it happened? How did it make you feel?

This is all designed to conjure up the powerful—not to mention politically useful—emotions everyone felt that day, namely fear and anger. I’ll personally never forget sitting on my couch watching the towers burn and listening to Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall:”

I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping / I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’

I cried at these words, thinking to myself that the violence had only just begun.

The strong sentiment that the Sept. 11 attacks unleashed was cynically harnessed to launch a war we’re still fighting. America’s collective desire for vengeance was transmuted into public support for the Bush…