Yesterday morning, the Missus and I were leaving Costco when the woman who reviewed our receipt took note of the t-shirt I had on and began speaking to us about September 11. She voiced concern that "young people" are losing interest in remembering the events of September 11 because they happened before they were born.
If she is correct, then shame on "us". By us, I mean people older than twenty-one. If people who were not alive as of that date have a fundamental lack of understanding of its significance, then those of us who were are obliged to help them acquire it and to make sure they appreciate its significance. At last glance, no one presently alive in these United States was present at the time of this nation's founding, yet most of us celebrate Independence Day and understand its origin.
Of the slightly less than 3,000 innocents murdered on September 11, 2001, 750 of them were New Jersey residents. Slightly more than one-quarter of all the people killed that day were New Jerseyans. Yet, New Jersey school districts are not - and have never been - required to include lessons about the events of September 11, 2001 to elementary, middle, and high school students.
The New Jersey State Senate unanimously passed a bill, S-713, in March 2022, requiring such education be part of every district's curriculum. To date, the State Assembly's own bill, A-3877, has gone nowhere.
Perhaps, sooner rather than later, New Jersey will join the other fourteen states that presently require lessons about September 11, 2001 to be included in the curriculum of our schools.
The twenty-fifth anniversary is only four years away. It should not take that long but then again it should not have taken this long.
-AK
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