Love Letter to America

On this September 11, 2026 we remember.

We remember a day that revealed the terrible capacity human beings have for destruction. We remember lives lost, families forever changed, and a wound that became part of our collective memory.

But that day—and the days that followed—revealed something else about us.

Our capacity to love.

In the midst of destruction, people ran toward one another.

Strangers helped strangers.
People carried one another.
Communities gathered.
Hands reached through smoke, fear, grief, and uncertainty.

Human beings demonstrated that while we possess the capacity to destroy, we also possess an extraordinary capacity to heal, rebuild, protect, serve, and love.

Perhaps that is one of the teachings September 11 continues to offer us.

How each of us chooses to show up determines everything.

Every day, we make choices about what we will bring into this world.

Fear or compassion.
Division or connection.
Hatred or understanding.
Indifference or care.

We cannot always control what happens around us, but we can practice becoming the kind of people who refuse to add more suffering to an already suffering world.

America is not simply a place on a map. It is millions of people, living alongside one another, trying—sometimes imperfectly—to create a shared life.

And perhaps loving America means loving its people enough to keep working toward what we might yet become.

Not through slogans.

Through practice.

Through kindness.
Through justice.
Through compassion.
Through community.
Through remembering our shared humanity.

Today, may we honor those who were lost not only with our memories, but with how we live.

May we choose to become builders rather than destroyers.

May we reach toward one another rather than retreat from one another.

And may our remembrance deepen our commitment to creating a world in which every human life is recognized as sacred.

May all beings be loved.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be at peace.
May all beings be free from suffering.

On this day of remembrance, may love have the final word.

— Fusatsu
Apriel Jessup-Searcy