[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 124 (Thursday, September 26, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  COMMEMORATION OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. NICK J. RAHALL, II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 25, 2002

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, “We must consider that we shall be as 
a city upon a hill,” the Puritan preacher John Winthrop 
proclaimed, as he and his followers sailed for America and freedom. 
“The eyes of all people are upon us.” And so they have 
remained for nearly four centuries. Many have looked to us in awe, 
inspired by a nation rooted in liberty. Others have hated the ideal we 
embody, and wished us ill. But none can remove us from their gaze.
  Today, America's economic prosperity, military power, and 
technological advancement are without peer. Our daily comforts and 
conveniences exceed those available to most of the six billion people 
who inhabit the earth. But the ease of our lives does not render us 
soft, or reluctant to retaliate when attacked. A year ago, all the 
world watched in horror as a small gang of wicked men took three 
thousand innocent lives in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
  Since the moment the first airplane struck the first tower, Americans 
have shown, both on the battlefield and at home, the strength of our 
spirit, the mettle of our souls, and the force of our arms. From the 
firefighters climbing to their deaths, to the airline passengers who 
battled back, to the precious West Virginia sons and daughters who gave 
their lives in Afghanistan, the world has witnessed acts of American 
selflessness and bravery that rival the most revered in the annals of 
human history.
  Just as Winthrop defined America's place in the world, he described 
how we must live to maintain it. “We must delight in each 
other,” he instructed. “Make others' conditions our own; 
rejoice together; mourn together; labor and suffer together.” Our 
whole nation suffered the same grievous wound on September 11. Those 
who delivered the blow hoped it would inaugurate our destruction. 
Instead, they inspired America's return to the community values and 
mutual commitment upon which our country was built.
  The attacks, the ongoing war, and the continuing threats spur us to 
embrace again our founding ideas: that all men and women are created 
equal; that America's destiny is the world's destiny—to secure 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that we cannot allow the 
centuries-old, world-wide fight for freedom to falter. This 
recollection of our original rights and responsibilities is a fitting 
tribute, is an apt memorial, to the lives that were lost and devastated 
on that sad September day.

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