Each year on the anniversary of 9/11, Teller County comes together in Lions Park in the City of Woodland Park to remember and gather for a solemn ceremony.

We remember the men, women and children killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that included the towers of the World Trade Center, the attack at the Pentagon, and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. We also remember our service members who fought to bring the attackers to justice and to preserve our freedom in what would become America’s longest war.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, it occurs to me that it has now been a generation since those terrible events happened. Our children and our grandchildren did not witness the events firsthand and look to us to tell the story and for leadership.

William Shakespeare wrote, “The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.” Our generation now fully carries the burden of recounting the events of that day and our subsequent actions to our children and later generations. The lessons learned, the sacrifices of our first responders, the resulting 20-year war and the costs paid by our brave servicemen and serviceswomen all need a sharper focus now. Our failure to remember will result in our children becoming victims of similar events or uninformed decision-making in their lives.

For me, this anniversary is especially hard and filled with previously long-forgotten emotions. The ending of America’s longest war in Afghanistan just days ago, a war begun because of the events on 9/11, ended in a very unceremonious and dishonorable way, impacting this year’s remembrance for many of us. Although the war’s conclusion was inevitable, for many the manner in which it ended has brought into question the sacrifice and pain endured by so many of us for two decades. In a sense, the end of the war has somehow complicated the remembrance of the events of 9/11 because we now know how it all ends.

But the sacrifices of our first responders 20 years ago and the subsequent sacrifices of our military in the 20 years since did matter, were honorable and resulted in our nation being free from foreign terrorist attacks for two decades.

As we look back 20 years, we should remember how close we became as a nation, even if only for a moment. The attacks suffered by our country on 9/11 brought us together in our shared grief and pain and our shared human condition. We openly wept for Americans we never had the privilege to know and we resolved as a nation to bring justice to the attackers. The unity resulting from 9/11 defined who we were as a nation. Sadly, 20 years later we seem to have forgotten those feelings and have become a polarized and divided nation. That unity must somehow be restored and passed to our children, rebuilding a sense of who we are as Americans.

So, this year as we remember the events of that terrible day 20 years ago, standing next to each other in ceremonies all across this nation, my hope and prayer would be that we somehow rekindle that sense of nation we seem to have lost. Our compassion for strangers, the ability to show empathy, to reach out to those suffering loss, and a shared resolve to rise again are all lessons from 9/11 that we ought to remember and teach our children.

This year, we need to add empathy and deep appreciation for the 775,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who fought in Afghanistan, letting them know that their service and sacrifice mattered. In tge past two decades in that country, 2,442 servicemen and 3,846 U.S. civilian contractors died to preserve our freedom. In the final days of the war, we lost an additional 13 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen, some of them barely 20 years old, in a war our generation started and a war they finished for us and paid for with their lives.

This year, remember — for the living owe it to those who can no longer speak to tell their stories.

Note: There will be a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at 9 a.m. in Lions Park, Woodland Park, on Saturday, Sept. 11. The public is warmly invited.

Dan Williams is the District 1 Teller County Commissioner, a retired U.S. Army colonel and combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He is Post 1980 American Legion Commander and a Post 6051 VFW life member. He resides with his wife Suzan, a retired U.S. Army colonel and nurse, on their ranch near Cripple Creek.

There will be a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at 9 a.m. in Lions Park, Woodland Park, on Saturday, Sept. 11. The public is invited.

Courtesy photo

Dan Williams