A generation is living in a world where they don’t know anything but life after Sept. 11, 2001.

I don’t know if the world was really better then or if it’s through rose-colored glasses that I see my younger self in a world that didn’t seem so rife with division. I feel like we have been at war with ourselves and some other country ever since then. Or maybe it has always been like this and I wasn’t paying attention.

It’s hard to believe this week marks the 25th anniversary of terrorists taking down the Twin Towers in New York City and ploughing a plane into the Pentagon, as well as another plane being thwarted by Flight 93 passengers who were able to steer it into a Pennsylvania field, thus saving who knows how many lives.

While the immediate aftermath of that horrific day brought people together, I feel like the divide between us today is almost unbridgeable.

I know the events of 9-11 helped lead to the state of politics today. But at the same time, we have choices. We can learn from the past, make different choices in our own lives, in how we treat others, and definitely in who we elect to office—be at the local or national level.

Five years ago, I wrote: “On this Sept. 11, let’s reflect on what we have lost. Because personally, I’m at loss as to what we gained from Sept. 11. I’d like to think we could gain perspective, compassion and understanding about why people could hate us so much to do what they did. If we don’t understand the ‘whys’ of any action, then we will forever be ignorant and on the defensive, and thus susceptible to future turmoil.”

For the 10th anniversary I was in Lake Tahoe, owner of Lake Tahoe News. We published a multi-day package of stories that still has relevance.

I wonder if people younger than me even think about Sept. 11. Maybe it’s like me with Vietnam; I was alive through most of it, but it had zero impact on me in any way that I’m conscious of today. Maybe it’s like me with World War II; something that has always seemed like ancient history even though it ended just 20 years before I was born.

It would be interesting to sit in a high school history class to hear how Sept. 11 is taught in the U.S. and abroad. What are they learning?

Maybe more important is what have we who lived through Sept. 11 learned?