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I am right at the age where I could have signed up to join the armed services right after 9/11. A bunch of young men just like me fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq. I grew up in a very small town and only knew a handful who went on to defend freedom. I was raised to believe that college was the only option for me after graduation and though I thought many times about whether I should fight in the war, I never did.

I don't cry very often. I've lived a very good life, in part because of the men and women who fought terrorism all over the globe to prevent any other 9/11 style attacks on the USA. I'd say that most years since 2001 I maybe haven't cried more than one time in the year, but I think that every year I've at least shed a tear on 9/11. Now we have a full generation of kids and young adults who weren't even born yet. Our colleges are full of students who don't have a clue what 9/11 felt like. They teach kids that America is evil.

My kids will know that college isn't their only option after they graduate. And if my son wants to join the fight one day and go into the military I will be proud of him and I won't try to talk him out of it. He turns 9 this year and he's a very intelligent kid. Smart enough to know right from wrong when he sees it, but the institutions of indoctrination are strong in our country. Teaching the next generation the lessons from 9/11 and to never forget is a very important mission now that we have so many who didn't experience it like the rest of us.

Those terrorists didn't attack us because of George Bush, or the election results in Florida. They didn't attack because of abortion or LGBT issues. They didn't attack because of islamophobia or because "America is racist". They attacked because we have freedom and liberty that they hate. They attacked because our money (and we have lots of it) says "In God we Trust" and it was put there by Christian men and women. The attacked us because we aren't like them and they hate us for it.

Our country has sunk so deep into self-hatred and division in the years since everybody came together as one after 9/11. Our institutions are set up to divide us and tear us apart. After 9/11 we viewed cops and firefighters as heroes. Now cops and firefighters are portrayed as racists and skinheads. We sent our kids to fight against evil men who want to destroy the American way of life. Now it seems like the majority party in power in America wants to destroy our way of life.

Our institutions won't teach the kids the lessons we learned after 9/11. We can't be silent now. We have to show them the images and the sounds of that day. They need to hear the words of George Bush from ground zero. They need to see the planes strike the WTC and see the people lining up in the windows and jumping to their death because they'd rather fall to death than burn alive in the fires. They need to know the names of Osama Bin Laden and Khalid Sheik Muhammad and Mohammed Atta and the others who planned and organized these attacks for al Qaeda. They need to know about the celebrations from terrorist sympathizers all over the world after the events of 9/11, and they need to know that the main reason that their hasn't been another 9/11 scale terrorist attack since is because the US Armed Forces pummeled and decimated those people. We killed them violently not because we're evil, it was justice for the people who died senselessly on 9/11 while at work or traveling to and from. People just like you and me. They had kids at school, babies at home, parents and grandparents who needed their care, friends and family who loved them. They brushed their teeth, put on the pants and went to work and didn't come home. And the first responders didn't plan to die that day. They ran into the fire and the rubble. They ran into a building that was practically cut in half by a jetliner. Many of them knew in their hearts that they most likely weren't going to come out of that building but they had a job to do. They had to try to save as many lives as possible as quickly as possible.

Kids don't learn these things in school, but they should.