LEST WE FORGET

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of 9/11 and it is inevitable that time dulls the memories of what happened that day, making it all the more important that we make the effort to remember. Who can forget the sight of people leaping to their deaths from the World Trade Center towers before they fell? Or the hundreds of New York City firemen and police officers who rushed into the buildings as others ran out? How about the passengers of United Flight 93 who fought back and whose efforts led to a crash in rural Pennsylvania rather than into the Capitol or the White House? Remember the stories of servicemen at the Pentagon making their way through wreckage and burning jet fuel to lead their fellow soldiers out of the fires? The footage in its gruesome detail should be run regularly to remind us of the enemy we face and that it is just the latest in a long line of those who threatened our freedom.

A few words to remember:

“Let’s roll.”
-Todd Beamer

“The determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.”
-Ronald Reagan

“We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
-John F. Kennedy

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.”
-Franklin Roosevelt

“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
-Abraham Lincoln