by Daniel T. Rodrick
Mayor, Toms River Township
TOMS RIVER, NJ — Today marks twenty-five years since September 11, 2001. A quarter of a century has passed, yet for those of us who lived through that day, the memories remain vivid.
I grew up in Jersey City, literally in the shadow of the Twin Towers. As kids, my friends and I would hop on the PATH train at Journal Square and head into New York and the World Trade Center. From there, we could jump on the subway, and the entire city was open to us.
Those Towers were part of the skyline and part of growing up. Years later, after culinary school, I went to work as a cook at Windows on the World, at the very top of the North Tower. Standing more than a hundred stories above New York, those Towers felt permanent.
September 11th taught us that buildings are not permanent. Steel can bend. Concrete can crumble and buildings can fall.
The terrorists never understood – America isn’t a building or a skyline. America is an idea. And you cannot fly a plane into an idea. You cannot burn an idea. You cannot knock an idea to the ground.
The American idea is freedom and democracy. It is free enterprise and capitalism. It is freedom of speech and religion, the pursuit of truth and the rule of law. It is the belief that ordinary people can determine their own future and build a better life for their children.
That idea has drawn generations of people from every corner of the world to America. They came speaking different languages, practicing different religions and carrying different traditions, but they all came believing in that same idea.
On September 11th, terrorists could destroy our buildings, but they could not take away our freedoms. They could bring down the Twin Towers, but they could not bring down America!
Americans came together. Firefighters and police officers ran toward danger. Strangers helped strangers. Americans donated blood, supported first responders and hung flags from homes, businesses and bridges.
For a time, Republican or Democrat, Black, White, and Hispanic, Christian and Jewish, Hindu and Muslim, rich or poor—we all saw each other as Americans.
Twenty-five years later, we could use some of that spirit again. We can disagree without becoming enemies. We can remember that what unites us is greater than what divides us.
Today, as we remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost, let us remember not only the day the Towers fell, but the America that stood back up.
The Towers fell, but America is still standing!
May God bless those we lost, their families and our first responders. May God bless Toms River, and may God always bless the United States of America.