[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 136 (Friday, September 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING SEPTEMBER 11 AS A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

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                               speech of

                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 10, 2007

  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I would like to voice my full support for H. 
Res. 643, recognizing September 11 as a day of remembrance, extending 
sympathies to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and 
their families, honoring the heroic actions of our Nation's first 
responders and Armed Forces, and reaffirming the commitment to 
defending the people of the United States against any and all future 
challenges.
  Six years after that infamous day, the emotional scars are still laid 
bare for millions of Americans. While many of our citizens lost 
families members, friends, and loved ones in the attacks of that day, 
we all lost the sense of safety and security that we had enjoyed before 
the greatest terrorist attack ever on American soil.
  I am proud of how we came together as a Nation and stood united 
against those who would do us harm after the reality of what had 
happened sank in. Indeed, I cannot remember another singular event that 
caused that type of wholehearted solidarity, not only between all 
Americans, but between all citizens from around the world who stood 
with the United States against evil and tyranny after that fateful day.
  Mr. Speaker, this is what makes it even that much more heartbreaking 
today, that we have squandered much of the compassion and goodwill 
towards our great country with the actions that the Administration 
instigated following September 11th. Instead of finding Osama Bin Laden 
and finishing the job against the Taliban in Afghanistan, we foolishly 
invaded another sovereign nation that had nothing to do with the 
terrorist attacks, and one that had never threatened our country.
  Instead of capitalizing on the goodwill that was genuinely felt by 
citizens around the globe to help us fight terrorism and mark a new 
beginning in global cooperation and friendship, the President instead 
turned compassion and empathy into resentment and antipathy towards the 
United States by attacking another country without provocation or 
cause.
  Mr. Speaker, it is our job as Representatives of this great country 
to repeal this failed policy of preemptive war. We must begin the 
business of uniting this country and winning the hearts and minds of 
the citizens of the world. America must regain its place as the leader 
of the free world, not through brute force and military might, but with 
the characteristics that put us there in the first place: compassion, 
generosity, empathy, and humility. In doing this we can ensure that 
those who died on 9/11 did not do so in vain, and we can ensure that 
those who sought to topple our great democracy and shake the American 
spirit have only succeeded in doing the very opposite.

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