Email from Team Monica

Community,

Twenty-five years ago today, our nation watched in horror as the Twin Towers fell, the Pentagon burned, and a plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

We all remember the fear and uncertainty of that day. We remember the lives suddenly taken, the families who never got to say goodbye, and the first responders who ran toward danger while everyone else was trying to escape it.

In the middle of unimaginable chaos, ordinary people chose courage. They cared for strangers. They searched through rubble. They opened their homes, donated blood, and helped grieving communities begin the long work of healing.

September 11 showed us how deeply we need one another.

But it also showed us what can happen when fear is allowed to decide who belongs.

In the years that followed, Muslim, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities were treated with suspicion and subjected to hate, profiling and violence. Civil liberties were sacrificed in the name of security. Our nation entered wars that would claim more lives, displace families around the world, and leave generations of veterans carrying wounds both visible and unseen.

The attacks created a real national security crisis. They also created an opportunity for some to exploit our fear, shrink our compassion and convince us that we could only protect ourselves by treating other People as threats.

Twenty-five years later, we still live with the consequences of those choices.

Today, I am remembering everyone whose life was taken or forever changed by September 11 and its aftermath: the victims and their families, the first responders still living with serious illness, the servicemembers and veterans who carried the weight of our wars, and the communities targeted because of their race, religion or perceived otherness.

We honor them by refusing to repeat the worst decisions made in our grief.

Public safety cannot come at the expense of our humanity. Security cannot require us to abandon our civil rights. And fear cannot be allowed to determine who is worthy of dignity, protection or a place in our community.

In moments of chaos, we are always presented with a choice: turn against one another or turn toward one another.

Twenty-five years ago, we saw the consequences of both.

Now, we work toward a world where we choose community, courage, and compassion so that we may heal together.

In reflection,

Monica Montgomery Steppe
San Diego Board of Supervisors, District 4

Born and raised in San Diego, Monica Montgomery Steppe is an HBCU graduate and an attorney by trade. Monica believes in her heart that the neighborhoods and community members are vibrant and worthy of care and investment. She is running for re-election to the Board of Supervisors, District Four.

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Paid for by: Montgomery Steppe for Supervisor 2026 FPPC ID # 1470155 3295 Meade Ave, #212, San Diego, CA 92116