[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21308-21309]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THESE COLORS DON'T RUN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it was a clear, cool morning in 
America 8 years ago on September 11. The sun had risen, and people of 
the Nation went to work. I was driving my Jeep to the courthouse in 
Texas, where I served as a judge at the time.
  KILT Radio, in Houston, interrupted a Willie Nelson song and reported 
that a plane had crashed into a tower at the World Trade Center. Then a 
second plane had hit the other tower in New York City. I, like many 
others on the road that day, pulled over to the side and listened 
intensely to the radio, and heard about a third plane crashing 
somewhere in Pennsylvania and yet a fourth plane deliberately hitting 
the Pentagon.
  They were from every State in the United States, from 115 foreign 
countries and were of all races and nationalities. They were men and 
women and America's young people. At the end of the day, 2,819 people 
did not return home to the people they loved; 343 were firefighters and 
paramedics; 23 were New York City police officers; 37 were Port 
Authority officers; 125 were working for the military at the Pentagon; 
and 266 others were passengers on airlines.
  These were the victims of the attack on America on September 11, 
2001. The enemy we faced and still face killed in the name of religion 
the innocence of this Nation.
  America is great because of people like the passengers on Flight 93, 
who called their loved ones and said goodbye and then said, ``Let's 
roll.'' They knew it was up to them to stop the terrorists on that 
plane. They were unarmed and already had seen others murdered before 
their eyes, but they did what it took to stop the terrorists from doing 
whatever the terrorists had planned to do to our Nation. It didn't 
matter whether they were flying into

[[Page 21309]]

the Capitol or into the White House or exactly what they were going to 
do. The passengers of flight 93 were not going to let them do it no 
matter what it was. They saved innocent lives on the ground when they 
forced that plane down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
  What makes America great is her people--ordinary Americans who strap 
on hundreds of pounds of gear and who run into a building that's on 
fire to help people who are scared and injured and who don't know where 
to go to be safe. They are paramedics and police officers and firemen 
and Port Authority officers who climbed hundreds of flights of steps, 
climbing up while everyone else was trying to get out of a building 
that was on fire.
  They went into those darkened stairwells even after one building had 
collapsed, even after they knew that hundreds of their friends and 
family members and coworkers had just likely been killed when that 
first building came down. They kept on trying to save people whose 
lives they had been trained to save and to be responsible for. They 
took an oath and stood for that oath, and we would hope that we would 
all do the same. That's what makes America the rare breed. Through the 
smoke, the fire, the dust, and the debris, these extraordinary people 
showed the world exactly what an American hero looks like.
  What sets Americans apart is the bravery of the people who face 
challenges. We are continuing to be underestimated because no other 
country in the world can understand what an American feels when 
confronted with the type of evil that confronted us on September 11, 
2001.
  At the end of the day on September 11, 2001, I, like most Americans, 
was mesmerized in front of the TV, watching video of the attack on our 
Nation. I noticed that, when the planes hit the World Trade Center, 
thousands of people--good people--sought safety from the terror in the 
skies, but there was another group, a handful of people--that rare 
breed--who, when the planes hit those buildings, ran as hard as they 
could to confront that terror.
  Who were they?
  Well, they were the emergency medical technicians; they were 
firefighters; they were police officers; and they were just regular 
Americans. Their first inclination was not to run and hide. Their first 
inclination was to fight back, and that's exactly what they did. They 
showed the pride that we feel in our country when we see the flag 
waving and say, These colors don't run. We mean it.
  So, Mr. Speaker, while it's important to remember those who died that 
day 8 years ago, it's just as important to remember those who got to 
live and who had another chance at life because America's first 
responders were there and answered the call to defend America.
  And that's just the way it is.

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