WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt today released the following statement regarding the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.

Five years ago today, we all watched as buildings crumbled and smoke rose over the Potomac River and a serene field in Pennsylvania.  When the sun set, the enormity of what we witnessed settled into our hearts.  We hugged our children a little closer.  We comforted our neighbors.  We sought reassurance against uncertainty.  We had lost much; but, we had also found the resolve to face the future, united, as a nation.

A lot has changed since then.  But regardless of political ideology or our feelings about the successes or failures of  government, one thing is clear – today is a day to remember all those who died and those who survived; those who ran into the danger and those who are prepared to defend us against it; and, those who still bear the emotional and physical scars.

While we can rebuild physical structures, we may never be able to repair the emotional destruction.  Distance and time will no doubt give us the opportunity to heal. However, to those of us who witnessed the history of that morning, and helped to shape it in the days and weeks that followed, we carry with us the unique burden to ensure that each succeeding generation never forgets what happened.

So let us dedicate ourselves to make real the charge of Tennyson –“… I dipt into the future far as human eye can see; Saw the Vision of the world; and all the wonder that can be.”

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