Wayne County honors 9/11: From remembering to teaching

HONESDALE, PA — It’s been 25 years since the tragedies of September 11, 2001. The significance of that anniversary—and its implications for how the attacks are remembered—permeated the discussion at Wayne County’s memorial services, held next to the Wayne County 9/11 memorial in Honesdale. 

“Today, September 11, marks the 25th year of the attacks, which means that a quarter century has passed,” said Frank Araujo, Wayne County Director of Veteran Services, opening the ceremonies. 

“Which means also that about 100 million Americans are too young to have any personal memory of the events. So we are now moving from a remembering event, as we experienced [it], to teaching a generation that did not,” he said. 

Wayne County Commissioner Brian Smith emphasized that the American flag—of which there were many: on the lawn of the Dimick Building, held in onlookers’ hands, dangling overhead, suspended from a fire truck’s ladder—was “the biggest, greatest sign of freedom in the world today.”

America is the greatest country in the world, and it’s one whose founders believed strongly in God, he said. “Everybody still needs to pray about our country. And everybody still needs to pray that the children that we raise today are taught the valuable lessons that we have all learned, and that we have children far into the future who are willing to fight for our freedom, who are willing to fight for this soil, and who will hold God at the highest level for respect.”