Twenty years ago the LMC held its regular Construction Industry Committee, this time at the Builders’ Association Training Center. About the time the meeting was to start, Leo Zahner entered the room and announced that “a plane or something hit the World Trade Center in New York.” After a bit of discussion, we went to our regular meeting business of helping construction labor and management work together to mutual advantage. But as we left and turned on our car radios (yes that’s what people did then) the news was even more shocking and scary. Even so we had no idea how that day would change our lives.

Since that tragic day we have experienced brief unprecedented unity and hardening divisions. We experienced a relatively quick, if incomplete, military victory followed by prolonged military disasters. We’ve appreciated heroics and self-sacrifice and seen unashamed selfishness celebrated. We’ve had great technological advances and rising economic inequality. And the virus.

What has remained constant is that when mutual respect and a commitment to solving problems is present, addressing conflict brings positive results. When conflict and putting down others is the desired result, eventually no one wins. This weekend we remember those who sacrificed so much on that day and after, and can recommit to making a brighter future through a persistent focus on mutual respect and helping each other through our challenges.