Speaker Hastert Prepared Remarks for 2006 Congressional Remembrance of September 11, 2001

September 11, 2006

(Washington, D.C.) Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) today released the following remarks to be delivered at the United States Capitol during the 2006 Congressional Remembrance of September 11, 2001:

“Remembering September 11th, 2001, a day of inhuman malice and superhuman courage, stirs in our hearts emotions more numerous and more intense than we could ever hope to name — emotions that are as hard to express as they were to experience five years ago today.

“On that day, words like ‘horror’ and ‘anger’ and ‘fear’ and especially ‘hero’ acquired new and more personal meaning.

“Most of us still find it hard to express our thoughts and feelings about 9/11, which is natural, I think. But while we may not be able to define our 9/11 experiences, nevertheless our 9/11 experiences define us. The memories of the attacks are like old, jagged wounds, so deep and so long-in-healing that over time they have become permanent scars - a part of who we are.

“When we see pictures or talk to the brave widows and widowers and to the children of those who died, we relive our memories - the planes, the towers, the fires, the crying, terrified faces — we are transported there again. Our old emotions overwhelm us, and our un-forgotten friends and the heroes who tried to save them perish anew.

“My office is on the other side of this building. It overlooks the mall and on across the Potomac River to the Pentagon. Even now, when I sit at my desk in the early morning and look out, my mind wanders back, and I can still see the smoke rising – so black - blue and ugly - against that beautiful morning sky.

“Those of us who work in and visit this beautiful building, this symbol of freedom, were targeted for murder that day. We are alive today because the brave men and women of United Flight 93 – ordinary people - stood up and fought back. We who work here - and all Americans - could not forget 9/11 even if we wished to.

“Despite the pain of those old wounds, and the new ones we sustain as our brave men and women fight back and sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places on the front line of the Global War on Terrorism, we do not wish to forget. 9/11 happened. Our country was attacked, and our countrymen were murdered.

“We stood on these steps – in the twilight of a terrible day - to reclaim this sacred ground - and to swear before God that we would be faithful to our task as a beacon of hope to freedom loving men and women everywhere. I will never forget hearing from behind me one small voice, then two, and finally the whole assembly singing God Bless America. And indeed God has blessed America because we have tried to be faithful to our task.

“Five years later, we are still a nation in mourning, and we are also a nation at war. It is important, especially today, and especially here in this place, that we remember the difference.

“We do not fight to heal our wounds or to avenge our dead. War, however just and necessary, can neither take away our painful memories nor bring back our friends. We do not fight only for those who died but for those who lived and especially for those yet to live. We do not seek retribution but rather freedom and justice and peace.

“Five years ago today, America was called upon once again by history and Providence to stand up in defiance of evil, in defense of the innocent and the endangered, and for no other end but the advancement of human freedom. That is why we remember and why we fight. Time and the grace of God will heal our wounds, but only our perseverance and sacrifice and victory will answer the call of freedom.”

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