I doubt that any American who lived through that poignant moment in time will ever forget where they were, what they were doing or the thoughts that they had when the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC were struck by hijacked airplanes.

Nearly 3,000 people died in those attacks, with countless more dying due to health complications or the global conflicts that followed.

As a college student here in Utah at that time, the realities of that events of that date were distant, but still impactful. I didn’t personally know anyone involved, although I did find out later that someone I knew was a soldier at the Pentagon who was involved in the search and rescue efforts.

But as I look back now 25 years later, I certainly see that that day set off a chain reaction that has had far reaching impacts politically, economically, culturally and philosophically.

Take, for example, air travel.

Remember the days of strolling through the airport and waiting for friends and family right at the gate, when security lines were just simple metal detectors?

I’m pretty sure those days are gone for good and never coming back.

But I’m also certain that when you see the words “Never Forget” like are on the front page of the paper today, that’s not what they are referring to.

So what are they referring to?

What does it mean to you to “never forget”?

I’ve been thinking about what that means to me and I see it on a few different levels.

On one level, I think we will never forget that this world is a dangerous place. People who believe strongly enough in certain ideals or causes have shown themselves willing to do horrific things.

While I have not personally been to Ground Zero yet, I have been to the Empty Sky memorial at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. There steel walls point towards Ground Zero and are inscribed with the names of New Jersey’s 9/11 victims.

I remember thinking about how each name represented an individual with hopes, dreams, relationships, and challenges. They were people, just like me, who died because others felt such strong hate and fear.

On another level, I’m certain that many of us think it is important that we don’t forget those who sacrificed themselves in the attempt to help others, particularly the first responders, good Samaritans and military personnel.

I’ve always thought there was tremendous wisdom shared by the famous children’s television personality Fred Rogers, known to so many of us as Mr. Rogers, when he shared advice he had received as a child. He said: “When I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'”

I don’t know if there has ever been a moment in my lifetime where that was on display like it was that day in New York and Washington, D.C. So many rushed into danger as the Twin Towers burned and eventually collapses. Many also died that day.

But I imagine that if I could talk to them, they would unequivocally say they would do the same thing again, despite the cost.

And that should certainly never be forgotten.

To me, however, there is an even more important lesson from 9/11 that we seem to be forgetting:

Our similarities are more important than our differences.

In those moments after the attacks and even more dramatically onboard United Airlines Flight 93 where passengers fought back against hijackers and ended up crashing, things like heritage, gender, age, cultural background and political views all become completely irrelevant.

All that mattered was that they were people.

We get so caught up in the petty differences, exacerbated by the same anxiety and fear that spawned such attacks in the first place, that far too often we lose sight of that.

It’s OK to disagree or have different priorities or visions, as long as we never forget that at our most fundamental level we are much more similar than we are different.

So I challenge all of us to honor the legacy of Sept. 11, 2001 by being kinder, more compassionate, more forgiving and less judgmental.

Focus on what really matters.

Never forget.

Jared Lloyd is the managing editor of the Standard-Examiner and can be reached at jlloyd@standard.net.