There are only a few iconic historical events that an individual witnesses in a lifetime.  There were those who remember what they were doing and where they were on the Sunday of December 7, 1941. Many of these people have passed away.

For boomers like myself, the date that defined our generation was November 22, 1963. I was in my eighth-grade classroom taking part in a group discussion when Sister Irene Mary, the Principal of Blessed Sacrament School in the Bronx announced on the PA system that President Kennedy had been shot and that he died.

You don’t want to have too many of these memorable events take place in your life as they are usually of the catastrophic type.

Today, we remember one such event that all of us know exactly where we were and whom we were with when we heard that terrorists flew jetliner into the World Trade Center.

It’s hard to fathom that it has been eighteen years since we all witnessed the collapse of the towers. Even in today’s America where history, even our own history is rarely appreciated, we will take time to remember the past. It might be nice to forget our partisan disdain for each other on a day when hatred failed to conquer us.

Fanaticism of any variety is never a good thing. Whether the fanatic is an ISIS supporter or a neo-nazi, an intolerant religious zealot or an intolerant atheist for that matter.

Fanatics deny the value of anyone or any group that does not share their beliefs.

That is how men could learn how to fly a plane for the sole purpose of crashing into a skyscraper killing everyone on the plane, including themselves as well as the thousands working in the skyscraper.

Maybe we should keep that in mind when we talk about those on the other side of our political persuasion? Maybe Fox News and MSNBC should keep that in mind, too?

Just today. Let’s just try to remember that today.