By Madeline Mazur, Hartford Union High School student
On Sunday, Sept. 8, high schoolers at Hartford Union High School spent several hours planting 2,977 flags on the lawn in front of their high school, an event organized by Young America’s Foundation.
It was a tedious task that blistered their hands and may have seemed overwhelming and unimportant to bystanders. Yet, this event connected students with history in a way no history class can. Each flag was planted to honor a life lost on 9/11 and is a part of the 9/11 Never Forget Project, the largest campus activism project of its kind which Young America’s Foundation has organized for the past 21 years.
The youngest people who were alive on September 11, 2001, are now 23 years old, which means no current high school student lived through perhaps the most significant moment in recent American history. Thankfully, America has not experienced an attack of the same magnitude since 9/11. However, this lack of experience prevents young people from understanding the enormous impact 9/11 had on our country, both socially and politically.
Essentially, 9/11 has become another event in the history books for today’s generation of students. The 9/11 Never Forget project seeks to serve as a tangible reminder of what happened that day.
Students who planted flags were not all involved in Young America’s Foundation. Most participants consider themselves uninvolved in politics and indifferent about political parties and issues in general. So why were students there who were not a part of the organization behind the event? They showed up because they cared. After seeing this project take place over the past three years, the students understood the significance of the event and wanted to help. They understand how 9/11 affected our country and what the 2,977 flags represent.
The cultural significance of the 9/11 Never Forget Project can not be overstated. The event receives countless compliments from members of the community. People who come in and out of Hartford Union High School have an opportunity to appreciate the work students put into the project and the difference they are making in keeping 9/11 at the forefront of our memories.
Young people can visually comprehend and understand how and why 9/11 shocked the nation. Though political and generational divides may grow, the 9/11 Never Forget Project is one way our local community and Americans as a whole can still unite to honor those who were murdered by enemies of our nation.
This is an opinion piece.
