Remembering September 11, 2001

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, September 11 is a day of the year that has special resonance for all Americans and always should. Earlier this week I was honored to stand with some of the family members of those who died 8 years ago this morning on flight 93. They were here to mark the establishment of a memorial to those brave men and women who gave their lives that day over a field in Pennsylvania and who in the process may very well have saved the lives of many of us here. Their role in history will now be forever memorialized here in the Capitol, ensuring that we never forget their sacrifice nor the sacrifice of the thousands of other innocent men and women who were taken from us on that terrible day. This is just as it should be, because as I said during the ceremony earlier this week, there are some moments in the life of a nation that are worth remembering. There are others that are impossible to forget. September 11, 2001, is both.

All of us who lived through that day know this to be true. We know that with each passing year, the day itself may become more distant in time but the memories do not.

And yet it is important we mark that day each year with sadness for those whom we lost; with solemn pride in the heroes of 9/11; and with renewed determination to confront terrorism wherever it is found. The memory of the fallen impels us.

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