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The National September 11 Memorial & Museum estimates that 100 million Americans—nearly one-third of our country—are now too young to remember September 11, 2001.
For those of us who do remember, the distance of 25 years has not erased that morning: the clear blue sky, the horrific images, the uncertainty and confusion, and the silence that fell as the enormity of what had occurred became clear. Nearly 3,000 lives were taken in New York City, at the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93.
Behind those numbers were individual lives: parents who would not return home, children who would grow up without them, spouses suddenly left alone, and families whose worlds were forever divided into what came before that morning and what came after.
At the World Trade Center, firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and other first responders answered calls for help and rushed toward the danger. They climbed smoke-filled stairwells carrying heavy equipment as thousands of people descended past them toward safety.
Before the morning was over, 441 first responders across FDNY, NYPD, and Port Authority Police fell in the line of duty. 343 were firefighters and paramedics.
Among them was Captain Patrick J. “Paddy” Brown of Ladder Company 3. Paddy was an Oak Park native who moved to New York at a young age, was a veteran of the Vietnam War, and was one of the FDNY’s most decorated firefighters. From inside the North Tower, Captain Brown reported that badly burned civilians were coming down the stairwells and that his company was continuing upward. He and the members of Ladder 3 never returned.
Their sacrifice summoned others to serve. In the days following the attacks, members of our very own Fire and Police Departments as well as volunteers of all walks of life traveled to New York to help. They joined the exhausting search through the debris for their fellow Americans who perished—a search and cleanup effort that ultimately lasted 10 months. Chicago Fire Companies that arrived in New York in the immediate aftermath worked 18-hour shifts to put out fires and search for survivors. They would sleep on the sidewalks of Lower Manhattan before waking up and starting the next day again. Never has the Chicago Fire Department’s motto, ‘We’re There When You Need Us,’ carried such poignant meaning.
Those same rescue and recovery workers spent months breathing toxic air as they searched for the missing. To this day, thousands of first responders, survivors, and others exposed at Ground Zero have suffered—and died—from cancers and respiratory diseases.
That continuing toll is felt right here in our community. Chicago police officers, including officers serving in our own 18th District today, still undergo medical testing for cancers and other illnesses because they volunteered at Ground Zero. Members of the Chicago Fire Department who answered that same call continue to be monitored as well. Twenty-five years later, their health still bears the consequences of the service they freely gave in New York. Their sacrifice and the uncertainty they and their families continue to carry are also part of the history we are duty-bound to remember.
Inscribed at the 9/11 Memorial are words from the Roman poet Virgil: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
On this 25th anniversary, those words carry a special obligation. “Never forget” cannot simply be a phrase repeated once each year. It requires us to remember the lives behind the names, to tell their stories to generations with no memory of that day, and to remain worthy of the courage and selflessness shown in our nation’s darkest hours.
Today, we remember every innocent life taken, every first responder who gave everything, and every family that has carried an absence for 25 years.
May their memories remain a blessing, their courage remain an example to us, and may no day erase them from our memory.
We Will Never Forget,
Brian Hopkins
2nd Ward, Alderman
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Hear from Chicago firefighters as they reflect on 9/11 25 years later here
Learn more about the efforts that the National 9/11 Memorial is making to mark the 25th Anniversary here. Their official website can be found here.
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