[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 124 (Friday, September 21, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ``THE TRUE AMERICA''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. STEVE ISRAEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 21, 2001

  Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, last week, our country, this community, was 
struck by tragedy. We lost family and friends, firefighters and police, 
loved ones and heroes. For our families, we offer our prayers. For 
President Bush, Major Giuliani, and Governor Pataki, we offer our 
thanks. For the cowards who committed these atrocities, we submit our 
resolve.
  On Friday, the President asked me to join with him at ground zero. In 
the wreckage of the World Trade Center, we saw a place of war . . . but 
also a place of great hope.
  We saw, we smelled, we heard the signs of war: twisted metal . . . 
shattered windows . . . acrid, smoking ruins. As our Air Force jet 
passed, the clouds were low, and smoke billowed from the wreckage 
below, casting a gray shroud over lower Manhattan.
  But amidst the devastation, we also saw the signs of the true 
America.
  As our motorcade drove slowly down the west side highway, the clouds 
broke, and the sun shined brightly on the Statue of Liberty, reflecting 
the very best of our country.
  Amidst the devastation, rescue workers planted small American flags, 
in their battered helmets.
  They were weary from digging to save lives for three days, yet still 
able to raise their arms high and shout, ``USA, USA, USA'' when our 
President arrived.
  I met our neighbors--one from East Islip, the other from Huntington 
Station--who had been working in that rubble since the calamity struck, 
defiantly insisting on hope with every brick they moved. I salute them 
and all of our unsung heroes who continue to provide comfort in a time 
of tragedy and save lives in a time of war.
  Ladies and gentlemen, that is the America that was in my mind later 
that night, after I returned to Washington, and voted to give our 
President the authority he needs to protect the freedoms we hold so 
dear, the freedoms our Constitution offers us in its very first words, 
the Preamble:
  ``To establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.''
  We didn't choose this fight. It chose us. And now we have no choice 
but to respond for the lives lost . . . and to preserve a uniquely 
American way of life:
  Americans saw blood . . . and then lined up for hours to give it.
  We saw disaster . . . but not defeat.
  We felt fear . . . but now we join together in faith.
  Our American democracy built by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and 
Lincoln will not be weakened by cowardly terrorists.
  As Alexis de Touquville said over a century ago: ``Americans are 
great--because they are good.'' And we know well that good always 
triumphs over evil.
  Ladies and gentlemen, that night, when I cast my vote on the Floor of 
the House to authorize the use of force, I was conscious of all these 
things.
  And I was aware of the fact that sixty years before, from that very 
same place, President Roosevelt summoned America into a monumental 
crusade against evil. We remember his speech, calling that day one of 
``infamy.'' But I want to leave you with other words he proclaimed in 
the very same speech:
  ``With confidence in our armed forces--with unbounding determination 
of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.''
  We triumphed then. We will triumph now. So help us God.

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