Daily Record, September 10,2002.

Some thoughts about this September, Septembers past and Septembers yet to come: Next spring I will be 65 years old. Those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, the vast majority of them, were younger. Most came from the generation of my children, and some were among my children’s friends and acquaintances. When they died, we all lost a piece of our future.

Historically and ideologically, America has been a land of futures, the land of opportunities and dreams. “Give me your tired, your poor,” wrote Emma Lazarus in 1883. The exhausted, huddled masses were inspired by their dreams and worked hard. Whatever vitality they had they put to good use, and they built what we now have and what we are.

Among those nation builders were Lazarus’ own Sephardic ancestors, who reached New Amsterdam in 1654, just five years after two of my own Dutch forebears established a new family there. Her ancestors did well, but by her own time Jews were becoming more and more the objects of virulent anti-Semitism, especially in Europe. Speaking not for herself, but for those European Jews, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free,” Lazarus wrote. “Wherever there is humanity, there is the theme for a great poem.” By choosing to focus on freedom as an essential element in the achievement of human equality, on tolerance, and on all humanity, she gave voice to American values.

When I talked with my classes at Montclair State University on Sept. 12, the day after the attacks, the voices of the students, some of whom are still very new to this country, echoed the words of Lazarus: They wanted to live in a society that was tolerant and free, and feared that reactions to the attacks would prevent this. Clear in their minds were the lessons of history, including the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.

These show how intolerance and fear can destroy all liberty and engender evil by obliterating the humanity of victims and their oppressors.

I, their professor, also learned early in life that freedom must be defended. One of my earliest memories is of my father pushing back his chair at breakfast with a sudden motion. “I’ve decided to enlist in the Army,” he said as he stood up. He went to war, and I saw very little of him for the next four years.

Victory arrived, however: V-E Day and V-J Day. When I hear memorial bells today, I will remember joy as well as sorrow because on those days victory bells were ringing.

But freedom allows the growth of insecurity, fear and loss of confidence in others, Schoolchildren of the 1950s remember crouching under their desks in air raid drills while adults worried about protecting fallout shelters from the neighbors. Now we worry about anthrax, al-Qaida — and the people down the street who look different from us. And many among us worry about secret trials, secret detentions, and loss of civil rights.

Oppression and denial of human rights for any person diminish all of us. As Lazarus would no doubt agree, until all are free, and free from fear, none of us is free.

I asked my husband’s brother in Nablus on the West Bank if he had a message for the American people on Sept. 11. He and his family live with tremendous uncertainty and fear, but manage to bear everything with remarkable forbearance and grace. They were starting on their third endless month of round-the-clock curfews. I expected him to be a little defensive, to wonder why I was asking him such a question, but he replied right away: “Tell the American people,” he said, “We are sorry this happened. We have no grudge against the American people. We feel for them and admire them. It is only the policies of their government we do not like.”

There will never be a time when every human being is entirely free from fear because liberty is never a sure thing. It must be renewed every day, even on days when we are frightened, or just tired. We must be tolerant of individuality, but intolerant of evil. We must work to ensure for others the liberty, autonomy, and respect we desire for ourselves.

A world freer from war and hatred and racism and oppression than it was on Sept. 10, 2001 will be the most fitting tribute to the victims of Sept. 11. Ensuring the safety of our own families is important, but hardly sufficient in their names. We may not all have their talents and vitality — those are gone — but we can all cooperate, in their memory, to promote the values that make up the American dream.

Susan Hussein, of Mountain Lakes, is a professor in the department of classics and general humanities at Montclair State University.