[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14109]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            REMEMBERING 9/11

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, this morning, we had a moment of silence, but 
we recognize today 14 years of memories. All of us remember where we 
were when terrorists attacked our Nation 14 years ago, murdering 2,977 
of our fellow Americans and shocking the conscience of our country and 
of the world.
  None of us will ever forget the tears, the sorrow, and the loss of 
that day; but neither will we ever forget the extraordinary acts of 
heroism, the first responders who rushed headlong into burning towers, 
the passengers who stormed the cockpit, and the Air National Guard 
pilot who was prepared to ram her fighter into a hijacked airliner to 
stop the next attack.
  These, Mr. Speaker, are the stories that our children and 
grandchildren must hear, along with those of the brave men and women 
who donned our Nation's uniform in the years since, when they ask us to 
explain what happened on September 11, 2001.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, as we mourn the victims of the September 11 
attacks and pay tribute to the heroes of that day, we should honor them 
by renewing the sense of unity we felt that morning and in the weeks 
and months that followed.
  America, Mr. Speaker, is strongest when we stand together in defense 
of our common ideals--individual freedom, tolerance, equality, 
justice--which the perpetrators of those acts found so objectionable 
and which were the real objects of their attack.
  As we gather, Mr. Speaker, to mark this anniversary, let us remember 
that our greatest rebuttal to those who attacked us, as well as the 
most fitting tribute to all those we lost, is to keep defending these 
principles that bind us together as Americans and that will always be 
the enduring source of our strength.
  God bless those who we lost, and we commit to their memory and to 
their cause.

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