September 11, 2001.

Chances are, that date will forever be as well-remembered as December 7, 1941. You will never forget Tuesday’s attack. It is one each and every American will remember long after yesterday’s tragedy is cleaned up and the final death tolls are in.

Much as older generations can now tell you what they were doing when the news flash telling of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination came on the air, or where they were when they first heard FDR’s voice on the radio describing the attack at Pearl Harbor, we will all be able to do the same.

It’s hard to believe that one tragic sequence of events in one morning can so drastically affect an entire nation.

For the first time in U.S. history, all commercial airplanes were grounded.

The stock market came to an abrupt halt.

A nation huddled around their televisions as cameras captured images of unbelievable emotion.

The Pentagon, thought to be the epitome of safety and American might, was penetrated by a commercial airplane.

As Americans, we have always taken for granted that acts of mass destruction and terror occur in places far from here. “It just couldn’t happen here” is something we’ve all said or thought in the past.

After yesterday’s tragedy in Washington D.C., New York City and western Pennsylvania, we now know it can happen here. America was attacked on our own soil. We all witnessed first-hand just how dangerous a world we all live in.

The sentiment in America, the world’s most powerful and prosperous nation, has always been that we were immune from such terrorism.

We’ve seen other parts of the world go through such terror, but that was always across the sea in some far away land we’ll never visit.

We were really never immune, but unfortunately it took a devastation of enormous proportions to have that realization hit home.

An act of terrorism is among the most cowardly crimes a person can commit. To massacre hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent lives for the sake of a political or social statement is a crime against humanity.

A crime like this will never be rectified. We truly hope that the persons responsible for these acts are caught and brought to justice.

We also hope that the American public can try to fight their emotions and avoid pointing fingers at fellow civilians based solely on suspicion. We do not yet know who is responsible, and until we do, it is best that we all do our best to avoid perpetuating such stereotypes.

This is a time to unite as a nation, not to divide among ethnicities. Everyone grieves.

Even if the perpetrators are captured and brought to justice, the country will always remember those innocent Americans who died in the tragedy; those courageous emergency workers who lost their lives trying to save others.

We grieve for everyone involved with the tragedy. Hopefully, an event of such magnitude will not happen again in any of our lifetimes.

Do not let this tragedy slide into the back of your memory. It is far too important. We need to realize the enormous impact of Tuesday’s events.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Zach Calef, Omar Tesdell