[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering September 11th

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as we all know, today we commemorate the 
solemn anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/2001.
  If you ask anybody who is old enough to remember where they were that 
day, I bet they can tell you. It is one of those rare moments that 
defines an entire generation.
  I have always said that it is etched in my memory like the only other 
event in my lifetime that might rise to that level of shock and horror, 
and that is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
  Eighteen years ago today, I was in Austin, talking on the phone to 
then-Governor Rick Perry. When I hung up the phone, my wife said, ``You 
need to see this,'' pointing to the TV set. That was just as the second 
plane hit the World Trade Center, and we all know what came after.
  It was the same image that millions of Americans struggled to 
understand on that morning and still struggle to comprehend today--how 
someone could be so evil and so determined to take innocent lives.
  September 11 serves as a dividing line in American history. For 
people like me, there is before and there is after, but for an entire 
generation of younger people, there is really only after. I believe 
this 18th anniversary carries special weight because those young people 
who have only lived in a post-9/11 world will now be able to vote in 
our elections, serve in our military, and help shape the future of our 
country.
  It is a reminder of our commitment as a nation to carry out the 
promise we made in the wake of the attack to ``never forget''--never 
forget.
  As Americans, we must remain vigilant, and we must remain with a 
strong sense of purpose and a strong moral clarity regarding 
confronting evil in all its forms. We vow to carry the memory of the 
nearly 3,000 lives lost that day in our hearts, the sense of patriotism 
that welled up inside of each of us, and the determination never to be 
intimidated, and never to back down.
  Today, we remember the families who lost loved ones that day, the 
first responders who ran not away from but toward the danger, and the 
commitment of our Armed Forces, who fight to eradicate terrorism around 
the globe each and every day.