The 9/11 anniversary reminds us of the importance of unity

This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 11 episode of “Morning Joe.”

On Wednesday, the United States marked 23 years since the terror attacks of Sept. 11. It’s so hard to explain what the days, weeks and months following that horrid attack were like but I always go back to one feeling. 

A few weeks after that tragic event, I remember walking through downtown Manhattan. There was silence over the city. No horns honking, no commotion. At the time, I told my children that lower Manhattan felt like a cathedral, a cathedral that housed the souls of the dead of that day. 

People from across America came together, whether it was fire trucks rushing up from Alabama or people from the Midwest rushing in to do whatever they could to help. We all came together as one in the great cathedral that was lower Manhattan. 

Twenty-three years later, it’s alright for us to say we want to come together as a nation again like we did then.

I remember seeing an image, one of the first shocking images from that day, of people coming out from ground zero after the buildings fell. I noticed that they were covered with dust, covered with the remains of those buildings, probably the remains of people. I remember not being able to tell whether those people were white, Black or Asian American.

I remember 23 years ago, looking at that image and saying, that’s how God sees us. He can’t tell the difference. I knew those people in that picture were Americans — Americans we all instinctively wanted to protect from the events of that day ever happening again.