This Sunday marks the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the fall of the World Trade Center, the crash of Flight 93, and the attack on the Pentagon.Much has changed in the decades since that terrible day, but in Livingston, each and every year, we still take the time to honor the seven township residents we lost.Luke A. Dudek. Jeffrey Brian Gardner. Donald Thomas Jones II. Ming-Hao Liu. Joseph P. McDonald. John M. Pocher. Kenneth Albert Zelman.These seven Livingstonites became part of a nationwide tragedy that forever altered the face of America. Our country’s confidence in the security of its citizens and its institutions was shaken to its core, and nothing has been the same since. In the years that followed, towns across the nation held ceremonies to honor the more than 3,000 people who lost their lives in the attacks, including our own service in Livingston.In the 20-plus years that have passed since the attacks, the pain has dulled, especially for those who suffered no personal losses that day. There are now full-fledged adults who were born after the attacks. Terrorism is, sadly, much more commonplace these days, with information of the latest mass shooting so frequent that it is no longer even guaranteed to lead the evening news. The “new normal” is no longer new.But, like the attack on Pearl Harbor that launched our country into World War II, September 11 has become “a date that lives in infamy.” The very date, in and of itself, has become synonymous with the tragic events of that day. Those who were alive in 1963 always recall where they were and what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. Likewise, for those of a certain age, September 11, 2001, serves as a line of demarcation, defining the date that this “new normal” was established. The way we travel, the way we perceive our place as Americans on the world stage, even the way we live our everyday lives, was irrevocably changed.In the tri-state area, where we live in a closer proximity to the site of the attack on the World Trade Center than the rest of the country, many of the 9/11 memorial ceremonies continued to be held as the years passed. But as time has moved on and we begin the third decade following the terrorist attacks, even here there are ...
