Though the sense of urgency associated with observing the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S. has faded a bit in recent years, we have still observed Patriot Day every September 11 as a national day of prayer and remembrance for the victims.

For some, it has become a day of service to their communities to honor the lives of the 2,977 who were lost.

For most, the day still stirs up memories of streets lined with U.S. flags and a country united as patriots — determined to stand strong in the face of those who loathed what we said we stood for nearly a quarter-century ago.

Al-Qaeda was an extreme and militant Islamist organization whose aim was to unite the Muslim world into an enormous and aggressive theocracy — forced upon everyone that lived under its umbrella. Shariah law (and all of what we understood back then to be the dangerous and backward dogma that went along with al-Qaeda’s extreme interpretation of it) would supersede man-made law. And political leaders such as Osama bin Laden encouraged attacks against those who lived and believed differently.

They hated the United States, as they saw it at the turn of this century — because we supported “un-Islamic” regimes; because the very foundation of this country is that ALL men are created equal, and that OUR government WILL MAKE NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Use of the word “patriot” to label this day must remind us of the determinations we made in the wake of the September 11 attacks: that we were proud of our melting pot origins and that our shores welcomed the world’s tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free; and that we would never become that which we swore to destroy.

Twenty-four years ago, nearly 3,000 people died because al-Qaeda believed they represented what the United States of America held most dear. On this Patriot Day when we are supposed to honor their memory, let us do so by strengthening our resolve to avoid the slippery slope that carries us away from everything the original patriots dreamed we would become.