[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 7, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2028-E2029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   A TRIBUTE TO ELIE WIESEL ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RECENT ARTICLE IN 
           ``PARADE'' WITH REGARD TO TERRORISM AND RESISTANCE

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                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 7, 2001

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, the evil, despicable, barbaric terrorist 
acts that are still producing fear among the people of our country--and 
the tragic scale of which we still have not fully realized--were not 
motivated by the zeal we usually associate with individual acts of 
crime. These acts were not committed with the purpose of enrichment. 
They are not logical responses to America's actions, real or imagined, 
abroad. Rather, they were the result of a kind of deep hatred towards 
our freedom loving life style and our proud democratic traditions.
  This hatred is almost incomprehensible to the modern mind. As my good 
friend author Elie Wiesel has recently eloquently pointed out, the 
terrorism we have until now experienced is only the tip of the iceberg. 
If the terrorists could, they would take us all out. Their hatred is an 
all-encompassing drive to deprive mankind of freedom and safety. The 
terrorists do not intend to stop halfway.
  Elie Wiesel, the holder of numerous academic titles, recipient of 
many distinguished honors and awards--among them the Nobel Prize for 
Peace in 1986--and author of several world renowned books, was only 
fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to 
the Aushwitz concentration camp. His mother and younger sister perished 
while only his two older sisters survived. He wrote about his 
experiences in the death camps in his internationally acclaimed memoir, 
``Night,'' and in 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed him as 
Chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust.
  A dedicated supporter of Israel, Elie Wiesel has also seen it as his 
duty to defend the causes of various persecuted minority groups. For 
this reason, in 1986 along with his wife, Marion Wiesel, he established 
the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Through his indefatigable 
efforts Mr. Wiesel has continuously reminded us of our duty to hold 
life sacred, to honor liberty, fairness and peace and to resist 
fanaticism in whatever shape we might encounter it. In submitting to 
the Congressional

[[Page E2029]]

Record Mr. Wiesel's contemplative reflections on the nature of 
resistance that he recently contributed to ``Parade'' I desire not only 
to inform my colleagues of his views, but also to pay tribute to his 
remarkable service to mankind.
  In the spirit of Elie Wiesel, the resolve that America, since 
September 11, has implemented in its struggle to free the world of this 
terrible hatred has been a source of bipartisanship and unity. We must 
continue to work towards this end, in this same spirit.

                 [From Parade Magazine, Oct. 26, 2001]

                            We Choose Honor

                            (By Elie Wiesel)

       None of us will ever forget that sunny day in September 
     when the United States was subjected to a manmade nightmare: 
     a heinous terror attack unprecedented in contemporary 
     history. It will remain shrouded in mourning in the violated 
     memory of our country.
       Would this terrible act drive us apart, I asked myself, or 
     draw us together as a nation?
       My wife and I were in a taxi in midtown Manhattan. We 
     looked with disbelief at the gigantic clouds of smoke and 
     ashes hanging over the lower part of the city. We listened to 
     the radio and couldn't understand what we heard. Suddenly our 
     hearts sank: Someone we love worked on Wall Street. Cell 
     phones remained mute. At home, we found a message: He was all 
     right.
       Glued to television like so many others, we watched the 
     first pictures. They were both surreal and biblical: the 
     flames, the vertical collapse and disappearance of the 
     world's two proudest towers. Many of us were stunned into 
     silence. Rarely have I felt such failure of language.
       I remember what I was thinking: ``That's madness, 
     madness.'' Two banal words, like an accursed mantra. Sheer 
     madness. Terrorists wanted to die in order to spread death 
     around them. They demanded neither ransom nor concessions. 
     They proclaimed no belief and left no testament. But then 
     what did they wish to affirm, negate or prove? Simply that 
     life is not worth living? Some observers insisted that they 
     were ``courageous,'' since they wanted to die. I disagree: 
     They wanted to kill and to do so anonymously. It would have 
     taken more courage to live and explain why they had chosen 
     murder.
       More questions, many of them, came later: Faced with such 
     immense suffering, how can one go on working, studying and 
     simply living without sinking into despair? How is one to 
     vanquish the fear that infiltrated our very existence? And 
     how are we to console the families and friends of the more 
     than 5000 victims?
       The pictures of missing victims, the sobbing of relatives, 
     the farewell words on cell phones, the sight of hardened 
     journalists weeping . . . Days and days elapsed, and the 
     devastated site was still reminiscent of war-torn Europe in 
     1945.
       I checked history books for a semblance of precedent for 
     this terror. There may be one. In the 11th century, a certain 
     Hasan-e Sabbah founded a secret small sect of assassins in 
     Persia. Known as the Messengers of Death, they roamed around 
     Islam clandestinely for years before fulfilling their 
     mission. They killed people they did not know, for motives 
     they themselves did not comprehend. Is Osama bin Laden a 
     reincarnation of Husan-e Sabbah? No. Those times and those 
     violent ``dreamers'' are gone. The 21st century will not be 
     theirs.
       Why, then, the mass murder now? A human earthquake, it was 
     caused by people whose faith had been perverted. There can be 
     no justification for it. Can it be explained? Yes, by hatred. 
     Hatred is at the root of evil everywhere. Racial hatred, 
     ethnic hatred, political hatred, religious hatred. In its 
     name, all seems permitted. For those who glorify hatred, as 
     terrorists do, the end justifies all means, including the 
     most despicable ones. If they could, fanatics of violence 
     would slaughter all those who do not adhere to their 
     ideological or religious principles. But this they cannot 
     achieve and so they resort to simply arousing fear, the goal 
     of terrorists since they emerged in history.
       Only this time, they failed. The American people reacted 
     not with fear and resignation but with anger and resolve. 
     Here and there it was misguided and misdirected: Individual 
     Muslims were assaulted and humiliated. That was and is wrong. 
     Collective blame is unwarranted and unjust. Islam is one of 
     the world's great religions and most of its believers in our 
     country are good and decent citizens. That had to be said and 
     our leaders said it.
       On the highest level of government, President Bush 
     immediately charted the right path to follow by declaring war 
     against terrorist leaders and all those who harbor and aid 
     them. His address before the joint session of Congress made 
     the American people experience a moment of greatness. The 
     Senate and the House made us proud. Democrats and Republicans 
     spoke with one voice. The White House, the State Department, 
     the Pentagon lost no time in preparing for the battle to 
     come. In a very short while, our entire nation and its allies 
     were mobilized to wage a new world war whose aims are to 
     identify, uproot, disarm and apprehend all those who were and 
     are directly, or indirectly, linked to terrorist 
     practitioners of mass murder.
       One thing is clear: By their magnitude as well as by their 
     senselessness, the terrorist atrocities constitute a 
     watershed. Yes, life will go back to normal; it always does. 
     But now there is a before and an after. Nothing will be the 
     same. The political philosophy of governments, the national 
     economy, the concern over security, the psychology of 
     citizens, the weight of comradeship and hope: Everything has 
     changed. One will not, as before, take a plane without 
     considering the possibility of sabotage. Nor will one look at 
     his or her neighbors without suspicion. We may never visit 
     Lower Manhattan without pangs of sadness; we all know of 
     someone who perished simply because he or she was there.
       But the American people did not bend. Never have they been 
     more motivated, more generous. Their behavior was praised the 
     world over. Instead of trying to save themselves, men and 
     women, young and old, ran to Ground Zero to offer assistance. 
     Some stood in line for hours to donate blood. Hundreds of 
     thousands of sandwiches, sodas and mineral waters were 
     distributed. Those who were evacuated from their buildings 
     were offered food and shelter by neighbors and strangers 
     alike. Rudy Giuliani, the most admired New Yorker of the day, 
     appealed in vain over radio and television for volunteers to 
     stay away; they kept coming. And then, one had to see the 
     outpouring of affection and gratitude toward policemen and 
     firefighters to believe it.
       And so, the terrorists achieved the opposite of what they 
     wanted. They moved people to transcend themselves and choose 
     that which is noble in man.
       For in the end, it is always a matter of choice. Even when 
     faced with the murderous madness of criminals, and in the 
     presence of the silent agony of their victims, it is 
     incumbent upon us to choose between escape and solidarity, 
     shame and honor. The terrorists have chosen shame. We choose 
     honor.
       I belong to a generation that thinks it knows all that is 
     possible to know about the thousand manners of dying but not 
     about the best way of fighting death. And I know that every 
     death is unjust, that the death of every innocent person 
     turns me into a question mark. Human beings are defined by 
     their solidarity with others, especially when the others are 
     threatened and wounded. Alone, I am on the edge of despair. 
     But God alone is alone. Man is not and must not be alone.
       If the terrorists believe they can isolate their living 
     targets by condemning them to fear and sadness, they are 
     mistaken. Americans have never been as united.
       Nor has our hope been as profound and as irresistibly 
     contagious.

     

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