I had never liked the idea of referencing an attack or series of attacks only some numbers and a slash or the idea of doing so only by a calendar date (without the year).
I don't know what possessed me to reply to this, but anyhow...
Since 9/11, people old enough to remember will always associate with the horrible events that day. For millions of people that day is seared in their mind. You don't have to elaborate "The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11,2001 were terrible".
9/11 tells the story. Simple honest direct language.
Just like my grandparents remembering Pearl Harbor. Two words tell the tale.
Fred's role in all this? He recognized the evil in the world that made the attacks possible, but we can still overcome evil with love.
9/11 was one of those days you remember forever- what you were doing, the color of the sky, it was a moment frozen in time. And showing us how to cope with it was one of the last lessons Fred taught before his death.