On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, Romanian Member of the European Parliament Rareș Bogdan has issued a message of remembrance and solidarity with the United States. He locates the resilience of the American nation not in its military or economic power but in what he regards as its most durable foundation: collective memory.
The message is solemn and, at times, profoundly spiritual. It opens with a firm declaration of confidence in America’s capacity to endure:
„America will never collapse under the onslaught of hatred, because there is something that can never be demolished, no matter how many towers may fall, struck by intolerance: collective memory.”
The opening sets the tone for the reflection that follows. Twenty-five years after the collapse of the Twin Towers, the MEP presents the tragedy as a moment that revealed the strength of a nation rather than its vulnerability.
Collective Memory as the Foundation of a Nation
Rareș Bogdan traces the origins of this collective memory to the experience of the millions who crossed oceans in search of a new beginning. In his words, it was born of hope and of the determination to rebuild a life:
„It began with the strength drawn from the hearts of those who left their misfortunes behind for the Promised Land, driven away by poverty and a sense of futility. Inspired by the hope that there, far away, everyone has a chance to stand on their own feet.”
The MEP gives this historical dimension a spiritual reading and interprets the American experience as a space of freedom offered to humanity:
„Perhaps God wished to arrange things in such a way as to offer people, if they had not yet grasped the reason behind free will, some room for manoeuvre. A pillar of freedom.”
In his account, this memory was not handed down unchanged. Each generation enriched it. He describes a cumulative process built on shared effort and common aspiration:
„Generation after generation kept adding to this collective memory, rounding it out, nurturing it, improving it, until they created a kind of universal good. Out of the desire to succeed, out of bringing minds, but above all hearts, onto the same wavelength.”
He then turns to imagination, faith and the moral conviction that he sees at the heart of the American ethos:
„Imagination that creates realities. Faith that turns a handicap into a unicorn. A space where good has it in its job description to always defeat evil.”
„Hatred Clouds the Mind”
The central argument of the message is that collective memory has become a force that neither terrorism nor intolerance can overcome. Rareș Bogdan argues that any attempt to break the American nation through violence is doomed to fail:
„The collective memory of Americans has become a weapon. It cannot be fought against. It is money thrown away. It is souls sacrificed out of foolishness, for hatred clouds the mind.”
The same idea reaches its strongest expression in the passage that answers the physical destruction of 11 September. Buildings can be brought down, he argues, but not the spirit of a nation:
„Not even all the explosives in the world could bring down the American spirit, because it is built with the energy of hundreds of millions of people who love freedom, by their angels, and by hundreds of millions of people yet to come, together with their angels.”
The reference to future generations extends the reflection beyond the moment of commemoration. It presents the American spirit as a continuous endeavour, carried forward by those who are yet to arrive.
A Tribute to the Victims
The message closes with a tribute to those who lost their lives on 11 September 2001 and with a prayer for the eradication of terrorism:
„Rest in peace, fellow human beings who perished on 11 September 2001!”
„May terrorism vanish from the DNA of this planet, tempted to abandon God!”
A quarter of a century after the attacks, Rareș Bogdan’s message treats the remembrance of 11 September as a reflection on freedom, faith and the moral endurance of a nation facing terror. His conclusion is that memory, sustained across generations, outlasts even the most devastating acts of violence.
