09/11/2026
25 years ago tonight, we went to bed not knowing that 9/11 would ever mean anything more than a date on the calendar.
We didn't know that by the next morning, we would remember exactly where we were when we heard.
We didn't know we would watch airplanes fly into buildings, towers fall, and ordinary people become heroes.
We didn't know that thousands of families were spending their last ordinary evening together.
We didn't know how much our country, and our lives, would change in a matter of hours.
Tonight, 25 years later, we find ourselves thinking about that last ordinary night.
Before the images we would never forget.
Before the fear.
Before the grief.
Before September 11 became simply... 9/11.
There was something else we didn't know that night.
We didn't know how Americans would respond.
How strangers would help strangers. How first responders would run toward what everyone else was running from. How flags would appear on porches and overpasses. How, for a little while, we would remember that whatever our differences were, we were Americans first.
Twenty-five years is a long time.
Long enough for an entire generation to have grown up knowing 9/11 only as history.
But for those of us who lived through that morning, it will never feel like just history.
So tonight, on the eve of September 11, we remember the world before we knew.
And tomorrow, we will remember those we lost, those who ran toward danger, those who answered the call in the years that followed, and a country that came together when it mattered most.
May we never forget them.
And maybe, after 25 years, may we also remember a little more of who we were to one another on September 12.
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Flags at Half-Staff Statewide in Honor of Patriot Day
PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Larry Rhoden ordered that flags be flown at half-staff statewide from sunrise until sunset on Friday, September 11, 2026, as a mark of respect for Patriot Day, which recognizes the 2,977 innocent souls who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
“The horrific 9/11 attack shook our nation to the core. And in that moment of darkness, Americans came together and stood with one another,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “As we honor the 2,997 innocent souls who lost their lives, it is my hope that we once again come together as a nation, united by the things that matter most. Please join me in praying for all the families who still carry loss today.”
