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Parents have chance to educate people on 9/11

For all the fun to be had at the North Dakota State Fair this year, parents should also take the opportunity to visit the 9/11 NEVER FORGET mobile memorial.

The memorial was moved into position across town yesterday en route to the fair. It will be on display at the State Fair July 20-28 at the north end of the fairgrounds near the State Fair Center next to the Ryan Nissan vehicle display.

This is the mobile memorial’s North Dakota debut.

For some, it’s probably hard to imagine that it is coming up on 20 years since the largest attack on U.S. soil, since virtually the entire world changed.

Imagine young people’s attempts to understand, even with what they might have learned in school. Given their access to the internet and the internet’s notable quantity of fake news and conspiracy theory, isn’t it slightly disturbing that some millennials might not have a clue about the actual events?

Yet, so much changed in the aftermath. The West had won the Cold War, not ending dangerous nuclear rivalries, but melting the ice between world powers. There were powder keg places in the world, including the Middle East, but many were places which the world’s superpowers could agree to help instead of compete to exploit. We’d survived the tech bubble and tech bust. The planet was getting wired, connected, more in tune with our commonality than just our differences. Or so it seemed to us. Around the world, pockets of zealots found all these things deplorable and sought to assail the concept of pluralism and freedom.

Whatever future we had on Sept. 10, 2001 is lost. The future we gained prompts many to wonder if the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists didn’t win that day.

Youngsters can only incorporate so much nuanced data and theory. But whatever level that is, parents should take advantage of this exhibit to reach them. The lessons to be learned are too important to miss.

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