(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Never Forget! [1] ['Douglas Schonenberg', 'Greg Dworkin', 'Chloris Creator', 'News Corpse', 'Chauncey Devega', 'Dan K'] Date: 2026-09-11 We say with conviction, we show pictures, we show platitudes on this day to show we won’t forget 9/11. I wonder how long before we do forget? I may be in the minority here, but it seems to me, what Americans do best is forget. We sure seem to forget that the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief warned President George W. Bush that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States. We can argue forever about what could have been done differently, but the warning was there, and we still failed to stop it. We sure seem to forget that day that will live in infamy. Where are the signs and platitudes for those who died on December 7th? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the millions of African Americans that died as slaves, who literally built our capital. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the millions of Native Americans who were killed so our ancestors could steal their land, much of which was built with slave labor. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the thousands of women that died during back alley abortions, a time that many Americans want to bring back. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the millions of veterans that have died in the service of this country. We don’t seem to remember those who died in all the wars, some in needless wars of choice. We sure seem to forget the thousands of homeless vets sleeping in the streets at this very moment. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the thousands of LGBTQ Americans who died afraid of being who they are. Ostracized by people, told it’s a choice and against “God’s will.” Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget how we are attacking Hispanics today in this country, treating them as criminals, pulling them out of their cars, harassing them at their jobs, simply for being Hispanic. We sure seem to forget that we are a country founded by immigrants, built by immigrants and became the country we are because of immigrants. We once welcomed those who came to this country. Today we treat many of them as criminals, put them in cages and deport them to countries they have never known. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the millions of Americans who have died because they don’t have food, shelter or healthcare. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the thousands of children that have been killed in senseless school shootings just so gun manufacturers can continue to profit off fear. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the millions of people around the world that have died that don’t look like us, sound like us or worship a different invisible being than we do. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget all of the children and babies who were separated from their parents under President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. Thousands of children were taken from their parents, and the government initially did not have a consistent system for tracking all of those separations. Some families struggled to find each other, and some children remained in government custody. Their only crime was being born to someone who was brown. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget the millions of people who have died from the coronavirus. We seem to forget the people who died alone, the families who couldn’t say goodbye, the doctors and nurses who spent months fighting to keep people alive, and the teachers and other workers who went to work while a deadly virus spread around them. We sure seem to forget that the president attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election and that his supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6th. We sure seem to forget President Trump’s comments about people at the Charlottesville rally, the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners during the peace process in Afghanistan, and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died from COVID-19 while he was president. We sure seem to forget and elected a president who is doing everything to destroy this country, to turn it into a fascist state, where our congress and court system has allowed the rich and powerful to break the laws, and put the rest of us into virtual slavery. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget that still today women are paid less than men on average and that women are still harassed walking down our streets, in our schools and at work just because a man never learned how to properly treat them. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget about all our citizens in Puerto Rico, and in the states that have died due to hurricanes and other disasters made worse by a changing climate. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget that passing laws to enrich a few does nothing for everyone else, will do nothing but end the American experiment, just as it has throughout history in other failed and long gone empires. We sure seem to forget what happens when racism and authoritarianism takes over a country. That even though people who think they will be safe under authoritarianism really aren’t. We sure seem to forget that Black lives matter. That protest is the foundation of this country. That a free press is essential for a democracy. That allowing foreign governments to interfere in our elections is wrong. Where are the signs and platitudes standing up to racism and authoritarianism that have taken hold of this country? I sure don’t see any. And now, in 2026, we have even more to remember. We sure seem to forget that people have died while being held in immigration detention. Human Rights Watch reports that 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of the Trump administration, and that the mortality rate had more than doubled compared with the previous administration. Behind every one of those numbers was a human being. Someone’s father. Someone’s mother. Someone’s child. Someone’s friend. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget that the girls and women who were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein and the people who helped him were victims too. We seem to forget that these were children and young women whose lives were changed forever. They were exploited by people who had money, power and connections. We sure seem to forget that Epstein died before he could ever face a full trial and that Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping him abuse and traffic underage girls. And we sure seem to forget the victims who are still waiting for answers. The government has released millions of pages of Epstein-related records, but there are still disputes over what remains redacted and what additional records should be made public. Why does it matter? Because these aren’t just documents. Behind every page is a person. A girl who was abused. A woman who was exploited. A victim who deserves to know that the people who hurt her were held accountable. Where are the signs and platitudes for them? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget that women have died because they could not get the medical care they needed after abortion became illegal in their states. Women with ectopic pregnancies. Women suffering miscarriages. Women whose pregnancies became dangerous. We have doctors who have had to worry about whether providing the care their patients need could violate abortion laws. Where are the signs and platitudes for those women? I sure don’t see any. We sure seem to forget that healthcare doesn’t stop being necessary just because you live in a rural community. Hospitals are closing or eliminating services in rural America. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or discontinued inpatient services since 2010, and about one-third of rural hospitals are considered at risk of closing. We sure seem to forget that when a hospital closes, people don’t stop getting sick. They still have heart attacks. They still have strokes. Women still go into labor. People still get into car accidents. Children still get sick. The difference is that now the hospital might be an hour away instead of ten minutes away. And sometimes those extra miles can mean the difference between life and death. Where are the signs and platitudes for those people? I sure don’t see any. It seems to me, what Americans do best is to forget. I am in no way trying to disparage those who died on 9/11. They should be honored and remembered. But not with songs and platitudes alone. Because remembering someone’s death means very little if we refuse to remember why they died, what we learned from it, and what we should do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Maybe instead of “Never Forget,” it should be “Never Again!” Never again will anyone die because of a gun! Never again should anyone die because they don’t have healthcare, food, shelter or access to a medical facility for an abortion! Never again will a woman be denied the medical care she needs because politicians decided they know more about her body than she or her doctor does. Never again will someone die because the hospital they depended on closed and the next one was too far away. Never again will we cover up or ignore the sexual abuse of children because the person doing it is powerful, wealthy or well connected. Never again will anyone be thought of as different or less than anyone because of their religion, color, sex, or sexual orientation. Never again will we put children in cages just because they are brown. Never again will we attack or treat immigrants badly, whether they came to this country legally or not. They are still human beings, worthy of our love and respect. Never again will we accept authoritarianism and the attacks on our free press just because you may not agree with what they are saying. Never again will we allow anyone to attempt to overthrow our democracy. Never again will we be so selfish that we won’t put on a mask or get a vaccine in order to help save our fellow citizens’ lives. Twenty-five years ago, we watched people die. We watched firefighters, police officers and ordinary people run toward danger while everyone else was trying to get away. We watched strangers help strangers. We watched Americans come together because, for a brief moment, we remembered that we were all Americans. Twenty-five years later, we still say: Never Forget. Maybe the problem isn’t that we forgot 9/11. Maybe the problem is that we forgot what it was supposed to teach us. Maybe if we all strived to treat each other as equals, we won’t have to “Never Forget!” Because we will have made sure it “Never Happens Again!” Thank you for sitting under the tree with me and listening to my musings. If you enjoyed this musing, please consider subscribing to my Substack, Musings Under the Tree. I write about empathy, personal growth, Being S.A.F.E., politics from time to time, and whatever else wanders through my mind while sitting under the tree. https://musingsunderthetree.substack.com/p/welcome-to-my-tree?r=1s6ofh [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/11/800096835/community/never-forget-14/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/