Should We Remember 9/11 Persuasive Speech
To be ignorant of the past is to remain a child
Today, it's been more than 13 years ago. It's been more than 13 years since the day that four airplanes were hijacked by the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda. The day on which two of these four planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, instantly killing hundreds of people and leaving hundreds more trapped in higher floors. The day that killed over 3000 innocent people. The day of September 11, 2001. This day has probably been one of the blackest days of American history. A day we'd want to forget as soon as possible, a day to bury far beneath the ground, a day to never speak of again. At least that's what sensible people would do, right? But is it really? Because we didn't forget 9/11 and we didn't forget the death of thousands of innocent people. In fact, every September 11th “'Never forget, 9/11” is tweeted at least a thousand times. Clearly, we want to remember this day, and the people it took. And we most definitely should! …show more content…
A famous philosopher called George Santayana, once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
This quote knows a lot of variations, for example: “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it” or “Learn from history or you're doomed to repeat it”. Another famous quote with a similar message is the quote of Marcus Tullius Cicerio which is: “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” or, in short,: “To be ignorant of the past is to remain a child”. The meaning of these quotes is that if you don't know the past, you won't be able to learn from it, which will make you repeat your old mistakes over and
over.
After 9/11, America made drastic changes to assure an attack like this would never happen again. A lot of security measures were taken, especially at the airport. From now on, travelers had to be fully screened and all luggage had to be checked. Security didn't only change at the airport, also at businesses and sporting events, and a lot of company started giving their employees more fire drills. Imagine everyone had forgotten 9/11 two weeks after it happened; it would not only be dishonorable to the victims, it would also cause everything to remain the same, and leave America, and the rest of the world, just as vulnerable for other terroristic attacks. Because we remembered 9/11, we learned from it and because we learned from it, we can prevent it from ever happening again. The same occurs to other events in history, today we do a lot of things different than we did them 500 years ago. A reason for this is that we've learned that many of the things done in the past were not worth repeating.
Memorizing the attack of 9/11 does not only make us learn from us, it also gives us a way of dealing with it. If we don't allow our past to be part of us, we will never be able to process it, accept it, or grow from it. Although it's so important to accept your past in order to move on and learn from it. The past forms us to who we are today, not knowing about it and not being able to deal with it, will make it impossible for us to deal with things in the present and future. Our personality is formed by our past and being ignorant of it will cause us not to become a fully grown human being and staying a child for the rest of our lives.
The past does not only form our personality and allows us to learn from our past mistakes, it also provides a manner of understanding for others. Knowing someone's past can change your vision of them, often making you understand their actions better. Since the past forms our personality, we should be able to understand someone's identity better by understanding their past. However, if we don't know someone's past, how can we know their identity? How would we ever be able to understand someone's way of behaving? We wouldn't, and that's why it's so important to know from the past of others. Because isn't that what being mature really is; being able to understand someone with a different opinion than ours?
To conclude, it's of great importance to have knowledge of the past. Not only the past in a whole, also your personal past and the past of others. Knowing about the past will make us able to learn from it, understand the way of behaving from others and becoming mature. Being ignorant of the past will cause us to never be able to improve our situation, becoming a fully grown human being or understanding someone's way of behaving. History is something we must all learn, adults already have, children haven't.
Today, it's been more than 13 years ago. It's been more than 13 years since the day that four airplanes were hijacked by the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda. The day on which two of these four planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, instantly killing hundreds of people and leaving hundreds more trapped in higher floors. The day that killed over 3000 innocent people. The day of September 11, 2001. This day has probably been one of the blackest days of American history. A day we'd want to forget as soon as possible, a day to bury far beneath the ground, a day to never speak of again. At least that's what sensible people would do, right? But is it really? Because we didn't forget 9/11 and we didn't forget the death of thousands of innocent people. In fact, every September 11th “'Never forget, 9/11” is tweeted at least a thousand times. Clearly, we want to remember this day, and the people it took. And we most definitely should! …show more content…
A famous philosopher called George Santayana, once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
This quote knows a lot of variations, for example: “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it” or “Learn from history or you're doomed to repeat it”. Another famous quote with a similar message is the quote of Marcus Tullius Cicerio which is: “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” or, in short,: “To be ignorant of the past is to remain a child”. The meaning of these quotes is that if you don't know the past, you won't be able to learn from it, which will make you repeat your old mistakes over and
over.
After 9/11, America made drastic changes to assure an attack like this would never happen again. A lot of security measures were taken, especially at the airport. From now on, travelers had to be fully screened and all luggage had to be checked. Security didn't only change at the airport, also at businesses and sporting events, and a lot of company started giving their employees more fire drills. Imagine everyone had forgotten 9/11 two weeks after it happened; it would not only be dishonorable to the victims, it would also cause everything to remain the same, and leave America, and the rest of the world, just as vulnerable for other terroristic attacks. Because we remembered 9/11, we learned from it and because we learned from it, we can prevent it from ever happening again. The same occurs to other events in history, today we do a lot of things different than we did them 500 years ago. A reason for this is that we've learned that many of the things done in the past were not worth repeating.
Memorizing the attack of 9/11 does not only make us learn from us, it also gives us a way of dealing with it. If we don't allow our past to be part of us, we will never be able to process it, accept it, or grow from it. Although it's so important to accept your past in order to move on and learn from it. The past forms us to who we are today, not knowing about it and not being able to deal with it, will make it impossible for us to deal with things in the present and future. Our personality is formed by our past and being ignorant of it will cause us not to become a fully grown human being and staying a child for the rest of our lives.
The past does not only form our personality and allows us to learn from our past mistakes, it also provides a manner of understanding for others. Knowing someone's past can change your vision of them, often making you understand their actions better. Since the past forms our personality, we should be able to understand someone's identity better by understanding their past. However, if we don't know someone's past, how can we know their identity? How would we ever be able to understand someone's way of behaving? We wouldn't, and that's why it's so important to know from the past of others. Because isn't that what being mature really is; being able to understand someone with a different opinion than ours?
To conclude, it's of great importance to have knowledge of the past. Not only the past in a whole, also your personal past and the past of others. Knowing about the past will make us able to learn from it, understand the way of behaving from others and becoming mature. Being ignorant of the past will cause us to never be able to improve our situation, becoming a fully grown human being or understanding someone's way of behaving. History is something we must all learn, adults already have, children haven't.