when "never forget" becomes history

Moments that seem to define an entire generation:

My grandparents remembered the day the stock market crashed, which came to mark the beginning of the Great Depression.  News was slower for that generation and this was more of a gradual onslaught of consequences for everyone.  

My parents could tell me where they were when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor that precipitated the US joining in WWII against fascism - and introduce the world to the horror of atom bombs

My generation can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when the news that JFK had been assassinated was spread.  On that day we lost the idea of Camelot and the days that followed laid the foundation of a deep distrust of what the government was telling us.

My kids know where they were and what they were doing 25 years ago today.  This was the start of the Patriot Act, TSA, Islamophobia, and wars in the Middle East "to combat terrorism" that only seems to have made matters so much worse.

All of these moments are receding from us as time moves on, and I worry myself sick about what my grandkids will one day have to look back upon ....