[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 144 (Thursday, September 11, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8331-S8333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
                        9/11 ATTACKS ON AMERICA

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, 7 years ago today 19 people conspired to 
kill nearly 3,000 people in our country. It was by far, as we know, the 
most deadly civilian attack ever carried out on American soil. The 
images and sounds from that fateful morning continue to haunt us. As we 
continue to mourn those lost that day, today flags fly at half-staff in 
their honor. They were men, they were women, they were children, they 
were people of various nationalities and faiths. They were firefighters 
and police officers and emergency medical services personnel. They were 
investment bankers and convenience store clerks. They were attendants 
and pilots.
  Four of the victims were Ohioans: Wendy Faulkner from Mason; William 
David Moskal from Brecksville; Christina Ryook from Cleveland; LTC 
David Scales from Cleveland.
  We should remember these names represent lives cut needlessly short. 
We should remember the families who will forever miss them. We should 
remember the EMS personnel, the police officers and firefighters who 
responded to the attack when these names represented perfect 
strangers--perfect strangers whose circumstances met the simple 
criteria first responders use to determine when to take action: Someone 
needs help.
  Hundreds of first responders risked and, in many cases, sacrificed 
their own lives to save others. So many of them died, so many of them 
were injured, so many of them have suffered illnesses as a result of 
their actions.
  First responders in Ohio and all across this country continue to 
stand at the ready every day, ready to protect our families, ready to 
protect our communities at a moment's notice, and every day in this 
country they are there when buildings burn, when accident victims need 
treatment, when expectant mothers go into labor unexpectedly, when 
citizens need rescue. When other civilians are running away, they are 
running in.
  It is nearly impossible to see today's date and not think back on the 
attacks of 7 years ago. But let's be sure to do more than to recount 
the images, the sounds, and the conversations that define our own 
personal experience of September 11.
  Let's also remember and honor the heroic first responders, the 
innocent victims, and the victims' families left behind. Let's never, 
Mr. President, forget.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The assistant majority leader.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this morning 7 years to the minute since 
the terrorist attacks on the Nation, I attended the inauguration and 
dedication of the Pentagon Memorial. There have been countless personal 
memorials over the years. The Pentagon Memorial is America's first 
national memorial to those who died on that heartbreaking day. It is a 
beautiful, peaceful patch of land on the very spot where American 
Airlines flight 77 smashed into the west wall of the Pentagon. In that 
quiet place, there are 184 stainless steel benches, one bench for each 
of the 184 innocent victims who died at the Pentagon and on that plane 
that struck it 7 years ago today.
  Thousands of people were at that ceremony this morning marking the 
dedication and opening of the Pentagon Memorial. They, of course, 
included the President and Vice President, the Cabinet, leaders in 
Congress, top military leaders, scores of Members of Congress, along 
with the survivors of the Pentagon attack and rescue workers who were 
the true heroes of the day. Most poignantly, we were joined by hundreds 
of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends of the 
loved ones who perished at the Pentagon.
  While 9/11 comes once a year, for 9/11 families, every day brings 
painful reminders of what and whom they have lost. Their pain is still 
heartbreaking.
  It was the families of the Pentagon victims who spearheaded the 
effort to create the Pentagon Memorial. We all hope they can find some 
measure of peace and comfort in their fine work in the creation of this 
memorial.
  Yesterday afternoon I had a chance to visit in my office with a man 
with a small company near Chicago, IL, who worked for over a year to 
finish and polish the 184 stainless steel benches that make up the 
Pentagon Memorial. He lives and works in Elk Grove Village in Arlington 
Heights, and his name is Abe Yousif.
  Abe came to America 29 years ago from Iraq. Abe's beautiful wife 
Angela moved to America 27 years ago, also

[[Page S8332]]

from Iraq. The 23 employees of their little company, many of them are 
immigrants, too, from Mexico, Bosnia, and many other countries.
  For more than a year, they have worked for this day when there would 
be an official opening of this Pentagon Memorial. Their job was to take 
these raw metal benches, 184 of these benches, and polish them as 
smooth as glass. Abe calculated for me the amount of time he and his 
employees put into this work. They worked nearly 17,000 hours grinding 
and polishing these stainless steel benches, transforming them into 
perfectly uniform, flawlessly smooth memorials.
  Abe and his workers hoped that by making each bench perfect, they 
might be able to give something back to a country that has given them 
so much. They hope that the calm, clear lines of their work might bring 
a sense of healing to a wounded nation and bring some beauty to a place 
scarred by tragedy.
  Many people will look across this memorial. They will see these 
finely polished stainless steel benches and assume somewhere there was 
a machine that just churned them out. No, it was the hard work and 
sweat of Abe Yousif and his employees who took this on not just as 
another project but as a project of love.
  When I think of 9/11, I recall, as every American does, what I was 
doing. I was just a few steps away from here in the Capitol Building in 
a meeting of the Democratic leadership with Senator Tom Daschle. The 
meeting had just started when we heard about the planes crashing into 
the World Trade Center in New York.
  As the meeting continued, Tom was handed a note that we were going to 
have to evacuate the Capitol. We looked down The Mall toward the 
Washington Monument and saw black, billowing smoke coming from across 
the river. We didn't know what happened. We thought perhaps a bomb had 
been detonated. In fact, it was American Airlines flight 77 that 
crashed into the Pentagon causing so many deaths of so many innocent 
people.
  We evacuated and raced to the yard outside the Capitol, people 
milling around not knowing where to turn. We heard the sonic booms from 
jets that were being scrambled and wondered if there were detonation of 
bombs or something worse. We just didn't know.
  One of the staffers I had at that time was Pat Sargent. Pat is an 
officer in the U.S. Army. Occasionally, the Army will detail some of 
its professionals to work on Capitol Hill for a short time. Pat was 
terrific, one of our best employees. But he had a special interest in 
the Pentagon that day because his wife Sherry, also in the U.S. Army, 
was working there.
  When Pat heard about the smoke and damage at the Pentagon, he raced 
out to catch the last commuter bus that runs between Capitol Hill and 
the Pentagon, the last one to make it across the bridge. He was 
desperate to find his wife.
  He went there, and there was a sea of humanity, of people who 
evacuated the Pentagon lined up on the hills around it. He searched and 
searched until he finally found her, and she was safe. That was the 
good news of the day, along with the tragedy that so many of her fellow 
workers had died.
  Sherry had been in the room near the spot where that plane crashed. 
She lingered for a moment to watch the scenes of New York on television 
while some of her fellow workers went back to their desks. Those 
workers perished when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. She was 
spared.
  Of course, they appreciate the heroism of those who responded, and 
all the memorials that were given to this country, but I want to give a 
special tribute to Pat and Sherry and their daughter Samantha for their 
dedication to this country. You see, when Pat left my office, he 
continued to serve in the U.S. Army. He is in Iraq today in a command 
position with major responsibilities for the medical care of our troops 
and the people of Iraq. He is a true American hero, as is his wife. 
They have given so much to this country.
  I thank the Lord that they were spared that day; that they were able 
to continue in their service to the country, along with so many others, 
but I do remember those who worked right alongside her who were not so 
fortunate. That is what our gathering was about today. Every year on 
September 11 we remember the horror and shock of that day and the grief 
that followed. But we remember something else. We remember the 
tremendous sense of unity that enveloped our Nation.
  Buck O'Neill was a man who was legendary in the Negro League as a 
baseball player. Of course, in those days, a Black man couldn't make it 
to the majors. He became a scout for the Chicago Cubs and signed, among 
other people, Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Lou Brock. In 1962, he 
became the first African-American coach in Major League Baseball 
history. He wrote a newspaper column. He has passed away now, but he 
wrote a newspaper column about a year after the 9/11 attacks, and he 
said:

       One thing about it is, the attacks brought us together. For 
     a little while there after September 11, it didn't matter if 
     you were Democrat or a Republican. It didn't matter if you 
     were white or black. Yeah. We were Americans. We gave blood. 
     We gave money. We cried. We all cried. That's the America we 
     can be. This is a wonderful country.

  He remembered from his youth some hateful things that were done to 
him because of his race. He said:

       When I was a young man, I used to see the way hate ripped 
     this country apart. A man would hate me just for the color of 
     my skin. I didn't feel angry. I felt sorry for that man. I 
     wanted to say to him ``Don't you know how great America would 
     be if we could all just get along?'' That's what I saw after 
     September 11. We all got along. I wish we could hold on to 
     that feeling.

  There were strong emotions today at the Pentagon, I am sure in New 
York, in Pennsylvania, and across the Nation as we remembered the 
seventh anniversary of 9/11. But let us remember 9/12. Let's remember 
this Nation when it did come together with its allies around the world, 
the strength that we felt here at home, and the projected strength we 
felt around the world. Those days can return, and they should return. 
It is up to each and every one of us, whether we are elected officials 
or people going to work every day to raise a family, to do our best to 
make that spirit of coming together after 9/11 return.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). The Senator from New Jersey is 
recognized.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise today to commemorate those whom 
we lost on September 11 of 2001, to remember how our Nation responded 
to the pain we felt that day with a towering display of heroism, and to 
urge us to rededicate ourselves to making sure we never have to 
experience terror on our soil again.
  That day, the families and friends of nearly 3,000 Americans got the 
worst news imaginable, and almost 700 of them were from my home State 
of New Jersey. They were from all walks of life. We lost mothers, 
fathers, and children. Brothers lost their sisters, neighbors lost 
their friends. Today in New Jersey, you can go from town to town--from 
Englewood to West Windsor, Toms River, Mantua, and Hoboken--and you can 
see a ceremony in each one. Families in those towns are laying flowers 
on the gravestones and monuments and holding tightly one more time onto 
the pictures of the ones they lost.
  So many communities were affected in so many ways, not the least of 
which was the American community. It felt as if it was a day when there 
were no borders between us. Terrorists tried to engulf us in the smoke 
of fear and hatred. For a moment, we felt like the whole world went 
dark. But the light of heroism burst through. Individuals rushed into 
burning buildings risking their lives to save others, strangers opened 
their homes to help people they didn't even know, and men and women all 
over the country rushed to give whatever they could to help those in 
need.
  It was a day when we learned the meaning of Oscar Wilde's words when 
he said: ``Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.'' It was a day 
when it didn't matter what part of the country you came from, what your 
family background was, or anything else. It was a day when we all stood 
together as Americans. People from all over the world said: We are 
Americans today.
  There was a time when the events of September 11, 2001, gripped us so 
strongly that our minds couldn't focus on anything else. Yet 7 years 
later, we

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have to talk about the dangers of forgetting. We have to talk about the 
dangers of forgetting, because 7 years later our obligations have not 
gone away.
  Our obligations have not gone away to those whom we lost, and to 
their families and those who survived the attacks but came away 
injured. For them, it has been a long and heroic struggle to get by and 
find some sense of normalcy. People who ran out of burning buildings, 
the firefighters, EMTs, and other rescue workers who ran in, all 
breathed thick air as they were saving lives. Today, they are reminded 
of what they have to face with literally every breath they take. We 
think about them very deeply today, but those heroes triumph every day. 
Their supply of courage has never run out, and we can never walk out on 
them.
  So not forgetting means caring for those whom we lost, and their 
families, and remembering them. But it also means caring for those who 
were made ill because of the attacks. Not forgetting means supporting 
all the heroes, paid and volunteer, who risked their lives to save 
others. Not forgetting means securing our ports, chemical and nuclear 
plants, so we don't have to experience another horrendous tragedy in 
the future, getting Federal grant money to our communities based on the 
risks they face, getting firefighters the funding they need for new 
equipment and increased personnel, and making sure our first responders 
can talk to each other during an emergency. And let's be very clear: 
Not forgetting means destroying the terrorist network that planned the 
attacks and bringing those responsible to justice.
  Today, September 11 of 2008, we remember what has been lost, and we 
find strength in what we still have. No amount of time can ultimately 
heal what has been seared into our hearts and minds since September 11, 
2001. But those wounds continue to drive us to make sure that no New 
Jersyan, no American ever has to experience them again. If we come 
together now, as we did on one of the darkest days of our history, then 
I believe our future can be filled with security, prosperity, and hope. 
On this day in which we remember that darkest day, we can see the light 
and our brightest days are yet to come.
  Once again, my thoughts and prayers go out to the 700 New Jersyans 
who were lost on that fateful day, for their families who live with 
this for the rest of their lives and for which this day has an 
incredible resonance in their lives far beyond what anyone can imagine. 
But for votes here in the Senate, I would be in New Jersey today, and I 
wanted to take to the floor to let them know that we are one with them 
on this most sacred day.

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