New Yorkers must never forget 9/11 and turn sorrow into service

Twenty-five years ago, we made a sacred promise.With thick black smoke still billowing across a bright blue September sky, with mangled steel and debris still burning where the Twin Towers had just stood, we vowed to “never forget.”To never forget the lives lost, the families shattered, the heroes who ran into the fire and never came back.A quarter-century later, those two words, “never forget,” still mean something to us.They still demand something of us.Not just today; not just at the memorial services, vigils and name readings.But every day.“Never forget” means fighting for the brave first responders who dug through the rubble at Ground Zero and who continue to suffer and die from 9/11-related illnesses.“Never forget” means standing up for the police officers who protect our city when their resources are threatened.And “never forget” means refusing to let this solemn anniversary become a source of division among us.Because some of the most powerful lessons of 9/11 can be found in the people who endured unimaginable loss — and chose not to answer it with anger or despair.They turned pain into purpose, and turned sorrow into service.On Friday, I’m thinking about Jillian Suarez, who celebrated her ninth birthday on Sept.9, 2001.Two days later her father, Officer Ramon Suarez, lost his life saving others, including a pregnant mother, from the World Trade Center.Jillian now serves in the NYPD, just like her dad.I’m thinking about Monica Rogan, who was 10 when her father Matthew was killed while evacuating people from a hotel at the World Trade Center site.Matthew was a firefighter who dreamed of one day becoming a nurse.Today, Monica is living out that dream as an RN.I’m thinking about Josephine Smith, who grew up playing with toy fire trucks and planning to one day work alongside her father, Kevin.She never got the chance.But in 2014, Josephine became the first daughter of a firefighter killed on 9/11 to join the FDNY.And I’m thinking a...