[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 111 (Monday, September 11, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9318-S9319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, about an hour ago a number of Members of 
the House and the Senate, principally leadership, participated in a 
wreath-laying ceremony by the President at the Pentagon. The President 
has participated over the last 48 hours in similar events in New York, 
earlier today in Pennsylvania, and later at the Pentagon today.
  A number of colleagues have come to the Senate to offer statements in 
remembrance of that day 5 years ago and that question of: What were you 
doing? Whom did you talk to? What were your memories? Whom were you 
with? This is a familiar question and one we have all gone back over 
the course of the last several days and thought about.
  I remember where I was. I remember exactly what I was doing. I 
remember whom I was with. I was across the street in the Russell 
Building with my chief of staff, Emily Reynolds, at the time, who is 
now Secretary of the Senate. We were in a meeting with a colleague of 
mine, Senator Hutchison, talking over issues, when a member of her 
staff came in and told us that a plane had struck the Twin Towers.
  At that time, it was thought initially to be a corporate plane, but 
as a pilot it was very clear to me that would not have happened by 
accident. While our discussion continued for a few moments, someone 
wheeled in a television, and then, dumbstruck, we watched that second 
plane strike the tower. Shortly thereafter, of course, we heard there 
was smoke coming from the Pentagon, where we were a few moments ago. 
Clearly, we were under attack.
  I remember my first phone call home. We all remember our phone calls, 
reaching out to touch others whom we loved. I called my wife Karyn. 
Immediately, we talked about what should be done with our three boys 
who were at school in Washington, DC.
  Of course, later that afternoon, we were standing on the steps of the 
Capitol with so many of our colleagues, spontaneously, together, 
breaking out in ``God Bless America,'' to let the world know that 
America will not cower to such terrorism. Indeed, in about 30 minutes, 
a number of our colleagues from both the House and the Senate will, 
once again, go to those Senate steps.
  Those are the moments that are indelibly etched into my mind in terms 
of where I was and whom I was with. But it really goes out to the 
people we were just with over at the Pentagon, as I talked to one man I 
never met before whom, as we were waiting just prior to the ceremony, I 
turned to and introduced myself. He told me his story, his story of 
Amelia, who, on her second day of work, indeed, her birthday, September 
11, 5 years ago, at the Pentagon was struck and died. And then there 
are the images of all the first responders--the law enforcement, the 
firefighters, the police, and the volunteers--and the family responses. 
All of those feelings come tumbling in.
  Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives to those vicious acts of 
terror that day. The attacks shattered the longstanding illusions I had 
through my entire life of safety and security, at least in this great 
country of ours. Indeed, we found ourselves hard pressed on every side 
but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not 
abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.

[[Page S9319]]

  Instead, we pressed on, pushing every hindrance aside with resolve, 
calling upon our most fundamental beliefs about America, many going 
back over the ensuing days addressing what makes us uniquely American.
  We pressed on, coming together and sending forth thousands of those 
first responders, thousands of those policemen, paramedics, 
construction workers, and other rescue workers to Ground Zero and the 
Pentagon.
  I remember a few days after the Pentagon was struck going out and 
welcoming an entire delegation of first responders from Tennessee, with 
that American flag displayed so proudly and that Tennessee flag right 
next to it.
  We pressed on, facing down that economic shock and developing new 
respect for our economy's natural resilience and a new respect for the 
economy's ability and resiliency to bounce back.
  We pressed on, immediately in this body, addressing issues of 
intelligence, of making sure we not only mobilized our troops but we 
supported them with the very best equipment that we could.
  We pressed on by taking the fight to the enemy because we knew that 
if we did not, that fight would come to us.
  With the passage of 5 years' time, some things begin, inevitably, to 
blur. That is why in some ways it is so useful to have remembrances 
like what we have had over the course of today.
  We forget a time when we had a great fear of even boarding airplanes. 
We forget a time when we held our children--and those days, weeks, and 
months afterwards; it was so, so, so close--but we forget that time of 
holding our kids just a little bit longer with that hug before they 
went off to school. And we forget a time when we felt that hatred in 
the heart of our enemy. The feelings that were once so vivid, so 
sharp--that shock, that anger, that fury--the fear began to lose the 
jagged edge with time. In part, that is part of this Nation's healing--
coming together, responding in a healing way to a catastrophe--because 
we should not live in fear. We cannot be a nation that lives in fear. 
Salesmen go out traveling on business, families who are out traveling 
on vacations should not fear boarding that plane to fly. Parents 
loading their children on a bus, they should not fear sending them off 
to school.
  But there is also a danger in forgetting. There is a danger in having 
time pass and letting those memories fade because as time fades we also 
start to forget the enemy who took those 3,000 lives so prematurely. We 
forget the intentions they harbor and the agenda they champion.
  There was a stark reminder for me yesterday, as I joined Senator 
McConnell and Senator Specter, as we went to Guantanamo Bay, to the 
detention facility there. And when you walk those grounds--a remarkable 
place in and of itself and the entity itself in terms of treating those 
detainees in a safe and humane way, which is very possible--in walking 
those grounds, it causes you to think back to 5 years ago, to what 
precipitated that event which caused the loss of 3,000 and destroyed 
the lives of so many thousands of others.
  We cannot become complacent because if we do, we will be struck 
again. Our enemy remembers. Our enemy plans. And I was reminded again 
and again yesterday, as I toured those grounds, our enemy continues to 
plan, continues to plot, continues to conspire--conspires to see us 
lose in Iraq, plots to drive us out of Afghanistan, plans to attack us 
here, right here, again in the United States. We know that because over 
these last 5 years, at least 11 times such plots have been promoted. 
That is why we cannot afford to grow complacent. We cannot afford to 
let our resolve waiver. We have to continue to press on. We have to 
continue to strengthen our security.
  That is why on this floor, in the bill that has been talked about 
this afternoon and the bills we will address over the coming days, we 
are focusing on a security agenda. It is an agenda that includes 
replenishing our critical supplies for troops on the ground--we just 
finished the Department of Defense appropriations bill on the Senate 
floor last week--eliminating vulnerabilities and closing the gaps in 
port security, the bill on the floor today; and, indeed, in the near 
future, creating military commissions to try the enemy combatants, the 
terrorists who are captured on the field of battle, and bolstering the 
terrorist surveillance program to make sure our law enforcement and our 
Government are appropriately equipped to be able to detect terrorism 
before an event happens.
  Here in the Senate we have worked tirelessly to ease the burden on 
our memories. That is why we are safer now than we were 5 years ago. 
Consider there has not been a successful terrorist attack against the 
homeland.
  But safety and security are not static points in time. They are not 
static statistics. They are dynamic, in constant flux. So as we take 
time today to remember the horror as well as the courageous actions of 
5 years ago, let us also remember there is much more we can and we must 
do to bring the terrorists to justice and to ensure the events of 9/11 
are never repeated.

                          ____________________