The current generation of students in schools was born after the events that changed the world on September 11. 

We do not have first-hand knowledge of what transpired that day and we are not aware of a world without the fear and changes that occurred as a result of the terrorist attacks.

Like many events in history, the further removed from the timeline of an event people are, the less they feel connected to it. 

While many of us have been exposed to the retelling of the stories of the Twin Towers being hit and then falling, the Pentagon being hit, and the passengers on flight 93 who took over and crashed the plane in a field before it could hurt anyone else, we do not have many of the same emotions associated with first-hand experience.

As years continue to pass by, there is a divide between those who experienced 9/11 and those who have merely heard about it. 

Jokes targeting the Twin Towers, terrorists, and other related ideas have become more prevalent, just as jokes centered around Nazis and the Holocaust have. 

Neither event is funny, but inevitably, as time goes on, events become the butt of jokes whether it is because the event makes people uncomfortable and they try to make light of the situation, people truly do no understand the magnitude of what happened, or people lack the emotional maturity to deal with something so weighty. 

Our hope is that our generation works to preserve the memories of that day instead of mocking them. That we look past politics, biases, and propaganda to remember the people impacted by the events of that day and the toll it took on the entire world.

Talk to people older than you and ask them about their experience that day. Listen to them as they retell the emotions that they experienced in the days following 9/11 and how procedures, mindsets, and beliefs changed in the blink of an eye.

We should never dismiss the wealth of experience and knowledge people older than us hold. To understand the present, we must understand the past.