[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 10, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H4170-H4171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            REMEMBERING 9/11

  (Mr. Latimer of New York was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. LATIMER. Madam Speaker, death comes for all of us at a time and a 
place unknown. It may come quietly, after a long illness, or swiftly 
and violently without warning. None of us are exempt. The youngest and 
the oldest among us each will face that moment. We know it. We fear it. 
Still, we carry on, putting it out of our minds so that we can live, 
work, and love.
  In that certainty, we are united. Death does not discriminate by race 
or religion, gender or sexual orientation, or economic status. We are 
all equal in our mortality.
  On September 11, 24 years ago, death came suddenly and violently. It 
struck without mercy or logic. It took office workers, firefighters, 
police officers, maintenance workers, financial executives, flight 
attendants, secretaries. It took Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, 
Buddhists, and those with no faith tradition. They were targeted simply 
because they showed up to work.
  Others died trying to save them. Those first responders--the brave 
men and women of the FDNY, the New York Police Department, EMS, and 
Port Authority--ran into danger knowing full well the costs. Some lives 
were saved because of them, and many of those heroes never came home.

  The attacks were an attack of hate, of an ideology turned into 
violence. In highjacking airplanes, those terrorists tried to hijack 
our values, to cause casualties in pursuit of their beliefs, and to use 
death as a weapon to divide us.
  Yet, even as we still grieve, as we continue to lose 9/11 survivors 
to illnesses from that day, we remember something greater: that 
humanity goes on, even as individual lives are lost. Children who lost 
parents have grown up. Parents who lost children have passed on. Young 
Americans have graduated high school who were not yet born on that 
clear, bright, September morning. We are reminded that life continues, 
but it is up to us to give it meaning.
  In a deeper sense, we are all on the 107th floor of that day. We are 
all aboard flight 93. We all carry the weight of that day, not just in 
mourning but in mission.
  The universality of loss can and should be the foundation for our 
unity, and so I ask: Why, then, are we so divided? Have we learned 
nothing from

[[Page H4171]]

this tragedy? If death unites us, shouldn't life compel us to care for 
one another and to protect each other while we can?
  Evil still exists. It takes on many forms. It still tries to convince 
us that terrorism or hatred can be justified and that violence can 
serve a cause. We must always reject that lie.
  The deaths on that day 24 years ago give us a chance to remember. We 
remember the lost, and we honor the brave. We reaffirm our shared 
responsibility to stand against hate and those who use death and terror 
to divide us, and we hold fast to our common humanity.
  Let us say a prayer for the fallen. Let us say a prayer for the 
living, and let us walk forward together in the shadow of that somber 
day.

                          ____________________