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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Before we get to your calls on what Never Forget means to you, I just want to give you a program note for Saturday morning, the actual 20th anniversary of 9/11. We will have special coverage starting at 8:35 Saturday morning to mark the 20th anniversary in real-time. I'll be hosting from 8:35 till about eleven o'clock. We will listen to some portions of the ceremony that will be taking place. We'll also talk with guests and take your calls. Then the station will continue with September 11th anniversary programming, beginning with the investigative documentary Blindspot: The Road to 9/11. It all starts Saturday morning at 8:35 here on WNYC and wnyc.org. What does Never Forget mean to you? Jim in Teaneck, you are on WNYC. Hi, Jim. Thank you for calling in.

Jim: Hello. Never Forget means a lot to me. I was with the [unintelligible 00:01:16] team from New Jersey and we responded to 9/11. My son was in the Marine Reserve and he went to Iraq in 2003, but what it really means to me is that it's an opportunity to memorialize the loss and more than just the mourning or retribution or whatever you think in those regards. We have established a safe citizens day in Patterson, New Jersey. On that day, we are teaching people how to use fire extinguishers, how to put together [unintelligible 00:01:50] what to do with your pets in the time of evacuation.

Beyond memorializing the loss, we have an opportunity to make everybody safer and make the memories something more than just something [unintelligible 00:02:05]

Brian Lehrer: Jim, thank you so much. Thank you for putting that kind of a frame on it too about making people safer in the future. Ross in Brooklyn, your own WNYC. Hi, Ross. What does Never Forget symbolize for you?

Ross: My uncle died in 9/11 and at the time, I was only 13 or 14 years old, but when I think about it, I look at my parents and the adults in the situation of what happened and I see outsides conservatism, since then it's grown. I think how they've misinterpreted the phrase and not really approach the analysis of what led to that moment. Really, they never forget this moment in time, but they forget the circumstances that led to that. Honestly, it's embarrassing ignorance that I see in that.

Brian Lehrer: Ross, thank you very much. I'm sorry about your uncle. Jim in Cold Spring, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jim.

Jim: Hi, Brian. First of all, thanks for the show all these years and decades. Just invaluable.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Jim: You're welcome. When I hear that phrase or think of it, this just occurred to me last night because there's so much stuff on television right now, but I remember telling my mom back when it happened, the only people that can destroy this country are US citizens themselves. Last night I was watching something and it was referring to the people on Flight 93. When those people charged down the plane's aisle to the cockpit, when I think-- because they had been told by friends and family on cell phones what had happened, that other planes had attacked the Trade Center, that they may be going towards the Capitol building.

When they were going down that aisle, when I think of the seditionists on January 6th who actually attacked the Capitol, from my money, when those heroes went through that cockpit door, they might as well have met those people who attacked our Capitol on January 6th.

Brian Lehrer: Jim, thank you very much. Linda in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Linda.

Linda: Hi. How are you? I'm calling in about the Never Forget. Actually, I agreed with the prior caller who was saying that she feels like it's a bit much, and some people are wearing the t-shirts just to wear the t-shirts. I was actually down there. I had to run. I was at work. I was working on church and chambers and when the first plane hit, we weren't sure exactly what it was and all of a sudden, our building just started shaking. We looked out the window, we see all this debris in the air. We looked on the other side, we actually saw the people jumping out of the window at the World Trade Center. We had to get out of our building. We're running down church towards Canal Street and the building collapsed.

Now we have to try to get over the bridge. It's like over time, for every year and the more that they put it on the news and on TV, I find myself becoming more anxious. I have suffered with anxiety the whole night. No. People that were there, they will never, ever forget.

Brian Lehrer: Linda, thank you very much. David on Staten Island, you're on WNYC. Hi, David.

David: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. One of the things that I just wanted to comment on was that I remember a couple of days after 9/11 and just how Manhattan felt and it was that burnt smell in the air, if everybody remembers, and just missing posters on a basketball court wire dividers. I just remember, but the one thing that really stands out was how united the country felt at the time. It's such a contrast from how things are today with partisan politics. I never remember a time in the last 20 years where the country felt more connected and the sense of solidarity and a common sadness we were feeling and Bush announcing, "I can hear you and the people who did this, they're going to hear from us soon."

There's just such a difference when you think about how things feel today with partisan politics.

Brian Lehrer: What do you think destroyed that unity?

David: It's a great question. I think that one of the things that comes to mind is that if you think about wars overseas and how we had almost a clearly defined enemy at the time, it was Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. I think humans by nature like to have things very cut and dry and black and white, and we pointed this to one person and we knew who that person was, but part of the problem today is that with the era of Trump politics and everything that's going on in this country, is we don't really know who our enemy is anymore. I feel like that is confusing people and it's making people turn on each other in this country.

I think it was just that sense of who we needed to go get and what our mission was and this was one person and we saw his face and he was on the cover of Time Magazine. Now, it's like we don't really know who our enemy is anymore. Because we don't have Osama bin Laden to go get, people like Trump came in and started turning each other-- We're turning on ourselves right now, which is sad.

Brian Lehrer: David, thank you very much. Ingrid in Ewing, New Jersey, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ingrid.

Ingrid: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. That label Never Forget, I feel like we're using it a little bit recklessly because we say it but there's no guidance on how not to forget, how to remember. What is going to be there for our kids in the history books? Everybody is feeling differently about it. Contrary to the gentleman who just was on the call, I felt like that was the first time I felt the real schism between political beliefs. I lived in Staten Island at the time and I remember that every day I had to pass by a dummy that was dressed up like somebody of Muslim faith who was hanging from somebody's porch by the neck. That was not something that made me feel safe. I did not feel like we all had the same ideals about how to approach the issue that brought us such a horrible attack.

I was working in Midtown Manhattan at the time and my landlord, who was my sister's father-in-law, was lost in the Twin Towers and I didn't feel unity. I felt very scared. Listening to how people were talking, it felt a lot like apes in a cage expressing their aggression in order to-- but it didn't feel like there was a lot backing-- there wasn't a lot of substance behind it, I guess, is what I would say.

Brian Lehrer: Ingrid, that's going to have to be the last word. I'm so sorry, but we're out of time for the show, but I think it's important that you got the last word. The emotion and the substance behind what you just said is among the things we should never forget. Listeners, thanks for all your calls on the phrase, Never Forget.

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