As a native Utahn I was fortunate enough to not to lose anyone close in these dastardly attacks. But I still have my own special connection to 9-11.

In 1981, I attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree and was able to go to New York City. One of the things we did was go to the observation deck of the South Tower and get a great look of the city. I also have a photograph of me on Ellis Island when we visited the Statue of Liberty with the two towers in the background. I still have a hard time believing that they could ever collapse and kill so many people. Then in 2023 I was able to tour the 9-11 museum which was truly a powerful, gut-wrenching experience.

On Thursday, political dignitaries gathered in the footprint of the towers reminding us all that have memory of this event to “Never Forget!” But in 2025 nearly a third of our country’s population either has no living memory of the attacks or was born after.

It might be hard to convince them that we were unified after these attacks. That, as a people, we were humbled and in those days, weeks and months after this unspeakable tragedy, we looked out for each other. There was no Blue America or Red America but just America. Maybe not perfectly — as nothing really is — but for the vast majority of us, we took stock of some things and wanted to be better people and a better nation.

When then President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch during the 2001 World Series in Gotham City, it showed that the American spirit was both unified and had the resolve to stand up to our enemies. But it wasn’t just the first pitch of the president that defined what was going on. Rather it was simple acts of kindness of holding a door for a stranger, letting a car get out of the parking lot instead of cutting them off, or buying the meal of the car behind you in the fast-food drive thru or for a table of first responders in a restaurant. For a time, we were charitable and that “kind and gentle” nation that the president’s father, George H.W. Bush wanted us to be.

But now a generation later, not only have we forgotten how 9-11 brought us together, we are metaphorically spitting on the graves and memorials of those that lost their lives that fateful day. And our political leaders are far from any kind of examples of goodness but a continuing source of disgrace.

We are a divided nation with talks of “soft secession” and civil war. The social media platform X has become a total cesspool of vitriol. We have a president regularly calling Democrats “left-wing lunatics” and branding them as “enemies of the people” while the governor of our most populous state trolls him. State of the Union speeches have become clown shows.

All of this permeates to the people where local and state politicians are violently assaulted or even assassinated. We have dozens of school shootings each year and a week will hardly go by without the network news showing a fight on some airline flight or some boorish behavior at a sporting event.

Two days ago was a grim day in both America and especially the Beehive State with the political assassination of conservative podcaster and activist Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University. But sadly from what I’ve seen on my own social media platforms, the event hasn’t galvanized us to come to our senses. It also seemed perversely ironic that during the media coverage of this horrific event, it was interrupted to bring additional “breaking news” of yet another school shooting in Evergreen, Colorado.

It’s not that there aren’t good examples of human decency out there. Sometimes it comes in the shadows of human depravity. Just last year Provo and Timpview canceled their football game as members of the Timpview community made disgusting threats against the Provo head coach and his family. But in the next week Provo participated alongside host Salem Hills High School in a beautiful tribute to honor veterans.

Another example is what happened in the Garland-Tremonton communities where two police officers were ambushed and killed and another injured, along with his K-9 support. But less than two weeks later Box Elder and Bear River staged a football game where students of both schools dressed and even dyed their skin and hair blue to show unity and support.

It’s not that we should forget what happened on 9-11 or educate those with no living memory of the horrors of that tragic day. But to me 9-12 is just as important. The day after and the days that followed where Americans were truly at their best. The action plan or challenge is simple.

Just go out and do a random act of kindness. A deeper challenge might be to do it for someone you are pretty much convinced voted differently than you in the last presidential election. Look for the goodness in others and do some service. If you need a starting place, consider visiting unitedwayuc.org website for a litany of ways to give back. In the end, just go out and leave your tiny piece of Planet Earth a better place. It’s the bare minimum we can do to honor those that died that day.

Brian E. Preece is a retired social studies educator and coach. As a wrestling coach, he was named as the 2006 Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He has also co-authored three books and has been a sports journalist for parts of five decades.