09/10/2026
I saw this photo on Fire Island The Kismet Inn this summer and it has stuck with me since. 9/11/2001
That smoke in the distance is from the Twin Towers.
It is difficult to put into words what it means to look at this photograph 25 years later. A peaceful September evening on Long Island, a man standing silently by the water, and on the horizon, the smoke from a day that changed our country and all of us, forever.
Nearly 3,000 people left home that morning and never came back.
Behind every number was a person.
A husband. A wife. A mother. A father. A son. A daughter. A friend.
And here on Long Island, September 11th was never something that happened somewhere else. Our communities lost neighbors, friends, firefighters, police officers, first responders, and loved ones. Families were changed forever.
For those of us old enough to remember that day, there are moments we will never forget—the confusion, the fear, the silence, the flags hanging from seemingly every home, and the way Americans came together afterward.
Tomorrow marks 25 years. A quarter of a century.
Children who were not yet born on September 11, 2001 are adults today. But the passage of time does not diminish what happened, and it must never diminish our responsibility to remember.
Remember the innocent lives taken. Remember the firefighters, police officers and first responders who ran toward danger while everyone else was trying to escape.
Remember those who survived but carried September 11th with them for the rest of their lives.
Remember those who became sick and died in the years that followed.
And remember what this country looked like when, in one of its darkest hours, Americans stood together.
25 years later, we still remember.
25 years later, we still honor them.
25 years later, we will NEVER forget. 🇺🇸
