[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17109]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 AMERICA'S RESPONSE TO TERRORIST ATTACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, the events of this past week 
clearly have brought this Nation together. And listening to my 
colleagues step forward and address the body today, I cannot help but 
reflect on the events of this past week, in so many ways surreal in 
terms of the stunning manner and catastrophic fashion in which they 
unfolded before us: the absolute horror, the unbelievable human 
sacrifice, the unbelievable human effort and heroism that took place. 
Even the elements themselves, happening during otherwise sunny and 
beautiful days, and then just proceeding to our Cathedral in a mist of 
rain to mourn and pray only entering out to the sunshine.
  As a Nation, we mourn our innocent victims, our valiant heroes, our 
men and women who wear the uniform who have perished. It is a time of 
shared pain and prayer and a reaching out with acts of kindness that 
comfort and console. It is a time that the Nation, as we have seen all 
across this great country of ours, rolls up its sleeves and comes 
together. It volunteers. It gives blood. It provides its brawn to 
continue the efforts to dig out, to recover, to rebuild, and take heart 
in what binds us all in this country: our love of freedom, our love of 
this Nation, our deep and abiding love of one another.
  This is also a time of grim resolve. Shortly, we will be voting on 
granting war powers and stand united behind President Bush and sound 
forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. There can be no 
quarter given to the cowards who perpetrate acts of evil against 
innocent people. For these cowards, the wrath of a just and free people 
will be severe. Our resolve is to ferret out the perpetrators, wherever 
they may be, and provide them no place to hide; with the further 
resolve that any Nation that seeks to harbor them, as the President has 
indicated earlier this week, we will make no distinction.
  And while there must be no mistake about our resolve, let there also 
be no mistake about the manner in which we measure the actions we will 
take and direct our efforts at terrorists and not at the innocent.
  God bless America.

                          ____________________