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On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we reflected on the pain and sacrifice of the occasion -- and on the resilience of America and the American people. We contemplated that resilience in its place in our 250 years of history, which we celebrate in 2026.
We must also note that the pain was not the pain communities feel in the wake of flooding, or a hurricane or earthquake.
This pain was intentionally inflicted upon America, in the name of a hostile ideology.
Our nation has made difficult decisions in confronting Jihadism or Islamic extremism in the 25 years since that day.
We have had to make these decisions being clear-eyed that Islamic extremism is an enemy ideology -- a rejection of the values that respects the free will of every man and every woman.
But then, in our 250 years of history, America has made many difficult decisions in either resisting or challenging extremism.
The shading or perimeters of that extremism have changed over time. From the brutality of Marxism and the Cold War to the horrors of Nazism, Fascism and imperialism Americans fought in Europe and the Pacific during the second world war, from the degradation of slavery and discrimination on our own shores to the evils of feudalism to which England attempted to continue to subject Americans 250 years ago -- many of the specific details have changed.
What has not changed has been the ways in which extremist ideologies reject our nation's 250-year-old principles, the ways in which extremism rejects the worth and liberty of each man and each woman, dehumanizing them as pawns in pursuit of religious tyranny or economic tyranny or the tyranny of preserving inequality.
We believe a society in which the underlying premise is the equality and liberty of individuals will triumph over ideologies that instead believe the liberty and worth of men and women are apostasies or obstacles to overcome.
But as we reflect on the passage of 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, we must prepare future generations to make the necessary decisions to best afford these principles their greatest chance of triumph.