    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
    [December 11, 2001]
    [Pages 1499-1500]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a September 11 Remembrance Ceremony
    December 11, 2001

        A great writer has said that the struggle of humanity against
    tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting. When we fight
    terror, we fight tyranny, and so we remember.

    [[Page 1500]]

        We remember the perfect blueness of the sky that Tuesday morning. We
    remember the children traveling without their mothers when the planes
    were hijacked.
        We remember the cruelty of the murderers and the pain and anguish of
    the murdered. Every one of the innocents who died on September the 11th
    was the most important person on Earth to somebody. Every death
    extinguished a world.
        We remember the courage of the rescue workers and the outpouring of
    friendship and sympathy from nations around the world. We remember how
    we felt that day: our sadness, the surge of love for our country, our
    anger, and our determination to right this huge wrong.
        Today, the wrong is being righted, and justice is being done. We
    still have far to go, and many dangers lie ahead. Yet, there can be no
    doubt how this conflict will end. Our enemies have made the mistake that
    America's enemies always make. They saw liberty and thought they saw
    weakness, and now they see defeat.
        In time, this war will end, but our remembrance never will. All
    around this beautiful city are statues of our heroes, memorials,
    museums, and archives that preserve our national experience, our
    achievements and our failures, our defeats and our victories.
        This Republic is young, but its memory is long. Now we have
    inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It's a memory of tragedy
    and shock, of loss and mourning--but not only of loss and mourning. It's
    also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice and the love that lays down
    its life for a friend, even a friend whose name it never knew.
        We are privileged to have with us today the families of many of the
    heroes on September the 11th, including the family of Jeremy Glick of
    Flight 93. His courage and self-sacrifice may have saved the White
    House. It is right and fitting that it is here we pay our respects.
        In time, perhaps, we will mark the memory of September the 11th in
    stone and metal, something we can show children as yet unborn to help
    them understand what happened on this minute and on this day.
        But for those of us who lived through these events, the only marker
    we'll ever need is the tick of a clock at the 46th minute of the 8th
    hour of the 11th day. We will remember where we were and how we felt. We
    will remember the dead and what we owe them. We will remember what we
    lost and what we found. And in our time, we will honor the memory of the
    11th day by doing our duty as citizens of this great country, freedom's
    home and freedom's defender.
        God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:46 a.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. The observance was entitled ``The World Will Always Remember
    September 11.'' The Office of the Press Secretary also released a
    Spanish language transcript of these remarks.