[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17085-17086]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             AMERICA UNITED

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, at midday today I attended the prayer 
service at the National Cathedral which President Bush called. It was 
attended by President Bush and four former Presidents, and many 
Americans, of course. And I think millions of Americans watched on 
television. It was a remarkable, moving, and emotional prayer service.
  As I sat in the prayer service, I thought about something that 
happened yesterday as I toured the damage to the Pentagon with my 
colleagues, Senator Daschle, Senator Reid, and others. Yesterday, we 
were touring the Pentagon where, of course, many Americans died as a 
result of an airplane, loaded with jet fuel and commercial passengers, 
which was flown by a terrorist into the Pentagon and caused a fire and 
collapse and so much damage.
  Yesterday, as we were being briefed at the Pentagon about the damage 
that was caused and the loss of life, my colleague, Senator Reid, will 
remember that there was a crane near the building. The crane had a long 
steel cable attached to it. On the end of the steel cable was one of 
these little baskets. There was a man standing in the basket in 
uniform. The crane hauled this basket up to the fourth floor of this 
gaping wound in the middle of the Pentagon building. This man, who is a 
soldier, reached around from this basket deep into the hole of the 
Pentagon building, and from outside of this hole he pulled out a red 
and gold flag. He put it into this basket, again, dangling from a 
crane. They brought him back to the ground. It turned out he had pulled 
out of this gaping hole in this burned-out structure at the Pentagon a 
U.S. Marine flag that had for some reason not burned. It appeared to be 
the only thing that could not have possibly burned in that entire area.
  This young Marine, who grabbed this U.S. Marine Corps flag--this 
beautiful gold and red flag--marched over to where we were, and he 
stopped and said he was taking this flag to the U.S. Marine Corps 
Commandant.
  He said he saw the flag as he looked through the wreckage up on the 
fourth

[[Page 17086]]

floor in an office, and miraculously this flag had not burned. He 
wanted to get to it, so he got somebody to take him up in a crane in a 
basket, and he retrieved this flag.
  As he held this flag proudly, on his way to the Commandant of the 
Marine Corps, he said to us: They couldn't destroy this flag, and they 
can't destroy this country. And I thought, wow, what a thing to say. 
This morning I woke up and looked at the Washington Post, and there is 
a full color picture of this young Marine holding that U.S. Marine flag 
as he came away from that building. It was just before he came over to 
greet us on his way to the Marine Corps Commandant.
  It was but one act--a symbolic act, in many ways--of a young soldier 
who used that flag that he saw, that had survived the fire and survived 
the carnage--the one flag that was left standing--to make a point that 
those who committed these heinous acts, those madmen who perpetrated 
these acts of evil that murdered so many innocent men, women, and 
children in this country, could not destroy that flag and cannot 
destroy this country.
  As I said the other day, all of us are heartbroken in America today. 
We express that in many ways. Prayer services across the country, 
recommended by our President, have reflected a common understanding--
the ability to grieve together and the ability to come together. It was 
important to do that. It is important to do that.
  But there is something else that is important for us to understand. 
The terrorists did something they could never have possibly imagined: 
They created in this country a togetherness that has not been here for 
some long while. People want to show the flag these days.

  My 12-year-old daughter yesterday said: Dad, let's put out the flag. 
People all over this country are putting an American flag out in full 
view. And people around this country are doing things that we know 
represent the inherent goodness of people.
  Within hours of the terrible tragedy at the World Trade Center--
within hours of those evil acts--we had scores of people lining up to 
give blood in this country. I saw the interview of one person who was 
in a 5-hour line, and she was asked: Why are you in line 5 hours 
waiting to give blood? And she said: Because it's the only thing I can 
do, and I want to do something today.
  The terrorists could not have possibly imagined what their acts would 
do to bring Americans together. This country has a common purpose. Yes, 
it has a great deal of grief and, yes, our heart is broken, but our 
spirit is not broken.
  The common purpose in this country is to grieve together, to pray 
together, and then understand that we want to--and we must--find those 
who planned and committed these acts, and those who harbored them, and 
punish them and at the same time take the kind of precautions we know 
we must take to prevent this from happening again.
  It is a free country. We are proud of that freedom and liberty. And 
it is also understood by everyone that we have the risk of acts of 
terrorism committed in free countries precisely because of that 
freedom. Perhaps we can never make certain that we will not ever see a 
terrorist act again. Perhaps we can never do that. We can certainly 
exert all the energy and all the genius available to all of us in this 
country to take the steps we think can try to prevent these acts again.
  But notwithstanding the challenges and the tragedies, and 
notwithstanding the common grief that was born of these evil acts, this 
country will remain a free country. We will remain a country of which 
all of us are enormously proud.
  There is a spirit about America: A spirit to prevail, a spirit to 
build, a spirit to come together. It is reflected by a lot of things, a 
couple of which I just mentioned. And that spirit is, in my judgment, 
not dimming; that spirit is growing. In the coming weeks and days, I 
think manifested today on the floor of the Senate, that spirit will 
nurture all of America.
  Today, on the floor of the Senate, we passed a piece of legislation, 
without a dissenting vote, that said we want to help people in need. We 
provided the resources to say to the people who were victims of this: 
You are not alone. Your families are not alone. Your loved ones are not 
alone. Your cities are not alone. And then we passed, without a 
dissenting vote, an authorization to the President, who asked for an 
authorization from Congress, to be able to take appropriate action 
against those who committed these evil acts.
  Without a dissenting vote, the Congress said to the President: Yes, 
we are with you. That is quite a remarkable thing to have done. And it 
reflects a spirit not just here in the Senate; it reflects a spirit, in 
my judgment, borne in the breast of every American today, proud to be 
an American, and determined to make sure we are able to retain and 
nurture this way of life, to defeat terrorism wherever it exists, and 
to nurture freedom and liberty.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I hesitate to interject any more words prior 
to our going out today because I think the tone has been set by my 
friend from North Dakota, but I just say that there are so many 
examples of people coming together. The example of the blood drives is 
certainly one of the most appropriate.
  People are now all over America in reservation lines. They are there 
to sign up to give blood 2 weeks from now, 3 weeks from now because the 
lines are so long.
  I think my friend from North Dakota would agree that the prayer 
service held today at the National Cathedral was touched. I think 
everyone there participated with the prayers. Billy Graham gave some 
remarks. He has been an adviser to many Presidents over the years, and 
even though his body is frail, his mind certainly is not.
  I hope all Americans will realize that the President of the United 
States needs everyone's prayers now. There are 535 Members of Congress. 
I was able to sit with Senator Dorgan today at the prayer service at 
the National Cathedral. We were together. And that is what we 
legislatures are; we are together; we are always with each other. But 
the President of the United States is alone. He does not have people to 
lean on. He has to make decisions by himself.
  So I hope that everyone will be involved in praying for this 
President, recognizing the tremendous burdens he has and the decisions 
he has to make, decisions that are so vitally important to the virtual 
freedom of this country, matters dealing with life and death.
  So I do hope people will join together and have continual prayers for 
this country and the President of the United States.

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