Carolyn Maloney: 25 years ago, our country was attacked. Sept. 11 changed New York City, and it changed the nation, forever.
This week was an important one for the 9/11 community. Mayor Mamdani did what no mayor before him had done: he released the files and acknowledged the pain and tenacity of those we lost, and of the survivors and families left behind.
I was there that first night, as the U.S. representative for New York’s 14th Congressional District. Barricades lined the streets that read, “New York in crisis. You cannot pass.” It was the darkest day in American history, and it is still seared into my soul.
We lost almost 3,000 Americans that morning, and 10,000 more in the years since, to the toxins left behind.
In the days and weeks after Sept. 11, thousands of New Yorkers breathed air filled with the remains of buildings that had been pulverized before the eyes of the world. They were told the air was safe. Years later, people began to get sick, and what had first been understood as an attack on one September morning revealed itself as a public-health crisis whose full scope would not be known for decades.
Virginia Maloney: I remember looking down the street as a young girl, the day after my birthday, and seeing a wall of smoke where the blue sky used to be. I remember spotting the parent of a classmate on TV, fleeing the crumbling building. I remember understanding, in that instant, that something had happened that would divide the world into a before and an after.
Those memories stay with me, as they do for so many New Yorkers. So do the stories of resilience that followed: the courage of those who ran toward danger, the families who endured unimaginable loss, and the first responders and survivors who have spent decades living with the consequences.
For our family, Sept. 11 has always existed in two forms: as the memory of one terrible morning, and as a responsibility that has unfolded over the quarter-century since. I watched my mother fight for those men and women, and from her I learned that remembrance carries an obligation. “Never forget” asks something of us: to honor the nearly 3,000 lives taken, to care for those who still carry the wounds of that day, and to pass down the story of how New Yorkers met profound darkness with extraordinary courage and grace.
Carolyn Maloney: Fourteen years after Sept. 11, I said that our commitment to “never forget” knew no bounds or party lines. It was a commitment we had made together, and one we had to keep together. It had to mean action. It had to mean remembering, honoring, and caring for those who were sickened by their exposure to the toxins at Ground Zero.
I introduced the first legislation for that healthcare in 2005. Five years later, we passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. In 2015, we made the health program permanent. In 2019, we permanently authorized the Victim Compensation Fund. Every one of those fights took longer than it should have, and the people who had already sacrificed everything kept having to come back to Washington and ask us again for care they’d already earned.
I wonder how many of those fights we could have shortened, or avoided, if the environmental record had been public from the start, if the people making the case for that funding hadn’t had to fight the government’s own denials at the same time.
Virginia Maloney: The sorrow of that day is fixed in our collective memory. But nearly 3,000 people were taken from us that morning, and thousands more have carried the wounds of Sept. 11 in the years since. 25 years later, New Yorkers are still dying from its consequences.
I applaud Mayor Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin for creating an accessible public portal for World Trade Center records and committing $34.2 million to fund the staff and research needed to preserve the full history of the recovery and rebuilding effort.
The families, survivors, first responders, and all those who carry the wounds of 9/11 deserve access to the truth and confidence that their city will continue to stand with them. Our obligation did not end when the smoke cleared, and it does not end with the release of these records.
We must remember those we lost, care for those who survived, honor the heroes who ran toward danger, and preserve their stories for generations still to come. 25 years later, “never forget” remains a promise we must keep.
Carolyn Maloney represented New York in Congress for 30 years. Her daughter Virginia Maloney represents the East Side in the City Council.