Do more than remember

By Christopher Bond

WASHINGTON -- Two years later, it still seems impossible to imagine the 9-11 attacks that changed this nation, the world and all of us in it.

As if the kind of attack was not shocking enough -- airliners used as missiles -- it was more powerful and painful because the attacks seemed to come out of nowhere. We went from domestic peace to war at home in a few gut-wrenching minutes of live television.

I will never forget stepping out of the U.S. Capitol and seeing the Pentagon on fire. A thick column of black smoke hung over Washington as an aerial bridge of helicopters ferried the wounded over the Potomac River to local hospitals.

In the two years since that painful day, I have come to realize that it is not enough only to remember the 9-11 attacks. And it is not enough only to prevent additional terrorist strikes. History and the dead and wounded deserve more from us.

We owe them the piece in all of us that changed that day. And we owe them a commitment to use that piece to create in ways large and small the best possible version of the continuing dream that is the United States of America.

It seems difficult to remember, just two short years ago, how clear we all felt about that day -- as clear as the sky over Manhattan that morning before the attacks. There was simply no question about the unity and resolve and horror we all felt. It takes a little bit of effort for some to return to that moment and remember how it felt -- what we all felt.

Much history has unfolded since then. Luckily it has included no additional attacks so far.

We stopped treating terrorism as a law-enforcement issue. And we started to treat it as war, probably too long after our enemies did the same.

Our troops are under fire abroad, having pushed the front-line of this new war from our shores to far-off lands. Our fight and the campaigns have not been clean, neat or predictable or without doubt and second-guesses -- just like every other war in history.

The important thing to remember is that we did not choose this fight. Our enemy did. Our enemies attacked us not because of what we did -- or may do. They attack us because of who we are and the freedoms we cherish. They attack us precisely because our freedoms are a threat to themselves.

Not long after the attacks, I heard about an 8-year-old boy who asked his mother a disturbing questions about the 19 hijackers: "Did they think they were the good guys?"

The mother thought for a moment, trying to judge how much truth her son could withstand, after having just seen it all on television.

"Yes, they do think they are the good guys," she said, adding, "but they are wrong."

It is important on this anniversary to remember that not all things are as complex as we can sometimes make them. There is a right and wrong. There is good and evil.

This nation and all the freedoms that fuel it are worth defending.

And while our troops do that abroad, our job at home is to make sure our nation is always worthy of our troops' sacrifice.

Remember the 9-11 anniversary, but don't stop there.

Christopher Bond is a U.S. senator from Missouri.