[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16480-16481]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to share a few 
thoughts on the eve of tomorrow's anniversary of the terrorist attack, 
September 11, 2001. Tomorrow, a lot of our colleagues, both in this 
Chamber and the other body, will be expressing themselves, with many 
Members attending memorial services at the Pentagon. The Senate, as a 
body, plans to come together late tomorrow morning to meet as a body 
and to share our thoughts with the country about the events of a year 
ago. I take this opportunity to remember and to honor the nearly 3,000 
of our fellow citizens and others who had come to this country to 
work--not all were Americans; the majority were--but lost their lives 1 
year ago tomorrow in one of America's darkest of days.
  I also join all of America in paying tribute once again to the 
countless men and women whose acts of bravery and heroism so inspired 
us on that day and the days that followed the tragedy of September 11, 
and continue to serve as a solemn reminder that the American spirit 
shines as bright as ever despite the events of that day, that horrible 
day a year ago.
  Thousands of families across this great country of ours, including 
families in my home State of Connecticut--families in my State lost 
some 149 people, most of whom lost their lives in the World Trade 
Center--these families and their loved ones have endured a year of 
unimaginable grief and unimaginable bravery. Every American grieves 
with them as many of our fellow citizens the world over from

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around the globe have shared with us the sense of grief and horror of a 
year ago and have continued to relate to us and to share their thoughts 
and prayers with all Americans as a result of our commemoration of the 
events of 12 months ago.
  Over the past 12 months, I have heard countless stories, tragedies 
that were once unthinkable. In Connecticut, I know of a man who lost 
both his wife and his only child on that day a year ago; of parents who 
lost their young children in their twenties, just beginning their lives 
as young adults, with professional careers; of wives who had received 
the last phone calls from their husbands before the Twin Towers fell.
  Every American will always remember where they were when the Twin 
Towers were attacked and collapsed. Every American will always remember 
where they were when they heard a hijacked plane had crashed into the 
Pentagon, only a few blocks from where I am sharing these thoughts this 
afternoon. Every American will always remember how they felt upon 
learning that a group of passengers fought back against the terrorists 
who hijacked their plane before it crashed in the field of 
Pennsylvania. September 11, 2001, is a day that will be etched in all 
of our memories for the rest of our lives and etched in history 
forever.
  Although all Americans went through that day together, we will always 
share its memory. Last September 11 was also a deeply personal day for 
each and every one of us. We each had our own highly personal 
experiences during those horrid hours that began in the early morning--
that wonderful clear, bright, cloudless sky over the eastern part of 
our country.
  For me, the hours and days and weeks following the terrorist attacks 
were filled with immensely mixed emotions, as most of my colleagues 
know. I see my friend and colleague from Texas on the floor. We shared 
the great joy last year of having children come into our lives. My 
first child, my daughter Grace, was born just 48 hours after the 
attacks, born on September 13, at a hospital right across the river in 
Virginia. From the window of the maternity ward, my wife Jackie and I 
watched the smoke rising from the still-burning Pentagon as we held our 
newborn child in our hands.
  I can still vividly recall trying to balance my feelings of 
incredible, intense joy with this new beautiful life, mixed with the 
powerful feelings of horror and trepidation over what kind of a world 
my daughter Grace would grow up in, in the 21st century.
  Something heartened me that day. I have told this story on numerous 
occasions. In the hospital as my wife held our newborn daughter, many 
of the doctors and nurses, several of them who held her shortly after 
she was born, came from places outside of America to become citizens. 
Three of them came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Lebanon. Here we 
are, 48 hours after the events, those countries had been the places of 
refuge for those engaged in the attacks on our country, and here were 
people from that very part of the world, United States citizens today, 
nurturing and caring for my newborn daughter.
  That was all the evidence I needed at that particular moment that 
America was attacked not for who we are, but for what we stand for: 
Freedom, liberty, and community. And we shared something very powerful 
in common: We were devastated over the attacks, and we were never 
prouder to be Americans, almost simultaneously.
  Word was already out that the terrorist attacks were the work of al-
Qaeda, a fanatical group which hijacked planes, but also an otherwise 
peaceful religion, Islam, to perform their evil deeds.
  Word was out that Osama bin Laden and his minions of hate thought 
that by attacking us, our buildings, our Pentagon, and our planes, they 
could somehow divide our great Nation and somehow weaken our resolve to 
be a global power, to be a force for freedom and democracy around the 
globe.
  Word was out that those who hate the United States simply for who we 
are, for our freedoms, our prosperity, and our diversity, thought that 
by murdering thousands of innocent Americans and shattering the lives 
of thousands of families, our Nation would somehow lose its ability to 
function as a great democracy.
  They were wrong. We are today stronger, I argue, than ever.
  September 11 changed America forever. At one level, the attacks made 
us aware of our vulnerabilities and forced us to realize there is no 
such thing as the unthinkable. Yet at another level, the way in which 
the entire Nation came together, in the days and weeks and months after 
the attacks, has served as a profound and inspirational reminder to 
strengthen the American people and the breadth and depth of the 
American spirit.
  So as we mark this historic day, a day of sadness, we look back and 
remember September 11, not just for the tragedy it evokes but also in 
renewing our faith in the greatness of the wonderfulness of our Nation, 
in which we are charged temporarily to be custodians, as Members of 
this body, to see that that daughter of mine and the children of our 
colleague from Texas grow up in a world far safer than what we 
witnessed a year ago. That becomes our collective responsibility as 
public officials: To put aside differences and, wherever we can, to 
work together as one people to make our country stronger and better, to 
achieve that sense of perfection that the Founders of our Nation 
envisioned more than 200 years ago.
  With those thoughts in mind, I extend my deepest sympathies, my 
thoughts, and prayers to the families in my State and across our Nation 
who still grieve terribly for the loss they suffered a year ago.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Before Senator Dodd leaves the floor, I appreciate so 
much his beautiful remarks. We do share something very special, and 
that is that each of us had a new baby--mine through adoption, yours 
with your wife. It was right during that very sad time. I think it was 
so helpful to have this new life I knew then we were fighting for, to 
make sure that my young son and my young daughter would have the same 
kind of life as I did.
  I know you feel that way about Grace, and to look out from her birth 
to see the Pentagon smoldering must have been an emotional experience 
beyond any ability to describe.
  So I am so proud that I have two babies born in 2001, and I have the 
firmest commitment to make sure we do everything in our power to assure 
that they have the freedom and the love of this country and the 
diversity we champion and the tolerance we have shown to the world. 
That is the way people should live. I thank the Senator for his 
remarks. I just wanted to say how their lives will be intertwined 
forever.
  Mr. DODD. I thank the Senator.

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