For many of us, the details remain ingrained in our memories. We watched the tragedy unfold in real time, struggling to understand the magnitude of what we were witnessing. Others know September 11 only through photographs, recordings, history lessons, and the stories of those who lived through it. But whether the day is a personal memory or inherited history, its meaning belongs to every American.

Firefighters charged into smoke-filled buildings engulfed in flames. Police officers guided civilians to safety. Emergency medical personnel treated the injured beneath skies darkened by smoke and debris. Alongside those heroic first responders, ordinary Americans showed one another, and the world, how extraordinary our people can be. From the streets of Lower Manhattan and the lawn of the Pentagon to the skies above Pennsylvania aboard Flight 93, civilians risked their lives for their fellow countrymen. Many did so at great personal risk for people whose names they did not know and whom they had never met.

The service, sacrifice, and selflessness displayed that day would be matched only by the patriots who subsequently donned the uniform of the United States, left their families behind, and went to war to defend their fellow citizens and confront abroad the terrorists who had attacked us at home. At Heritage, we have the distinct privilege of calling several of those titans our colleagues. We remember their courage and honor the families who shared their sacrifice.

But remembrance requires more than recalling where we were or mourning those we lost. Whether you remember September 11 or know it only through the testimony of others, we must never forget why America was attacked. We must understand the ideology of Islamism that inspired the murder of innocent people, recognize the conditions in which such extremism flourishes, and have the courage to confront it before similar tragedies take place.

The terrorists did not attack America merely as a geographic place. They attacked what America represents: a Western nation, a free people governing themselves, raising families, building communities, and pursuing lives ordered toward human flourishing. Our way of life is exceptional among nations, but it is neither automatic nor self-sustaining.

The inheritance of Western civilization, shaped across generations from Jerusalem to Athens, from Rome to London, and ultimately to Philadelphia, must be cultivated and defended. Its preservation requires strong families, virtuous citizens, healthy civic institutions, the rule of law, and a common culture grounded in shared values capable of transmitting our principles from one generation to the next. Liberty survives only when a people understand it, cherish it, and accept responsibility for its defense.

In the decades since September 11, hubris has too often tempted us to believe that our freedoms can endure without vigilance or that every ideology is compatible with the American constitutional order. That is not so. A nation that seeks to remain great must possess the prudence to distinguish between those who seek to share in its civic life and those who reject its principles, excuse political violence, or cultivate contempt for the country that has received them.

We dishonor the memory of those who gave their lives when we dismiss the ideology that inspired their murder or allow hatred of America and its founding principles to take root here at home. We honor them when we defend the nation they loved, preserve the freedoms its enemies sought to destroy, and teach the next generation that citizenship carries duties as well as rights.

As we look to the years ahead, let us resolve to build a country worthy of the Americans we witnessed on September 11, 2001: courageous in danger, generous toward neighbors, united in purpose, and proud of the nation they inherited.

The terrorists sought to fill America with fear and division. They failed. Twenty-five years later, the responsibility is ours to ensure that they continue to fail. We do so by remembering the fallen, honoring those who served, defending our inheritance, and renewing the bonds of citizenship that make us one people.

If we summon again the courage, confidence, and love of country that Americans displayed on that terrible day, we can pass to our children not a nation diminished by destructive ideologies, but one strengthened by remembrance of our heritage and prepared to meet the future with resolve. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Kevin Roberts, Ph.D., is president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America and the author of Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America.

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