A Speech to Commemorate 9/11

The 9/11 Memorial Committee of Newton, Massachusetts, invited me to give the speech at its annual commemoration this evening. It was an honor of a lifetime to speak before a community that lost eight of its citizens on that awful day, and to meet survivors. I thought I’d share my address with you.

Good Evening.

I was invited to speak to you today because I served as a Special Agent with the Federal Aviation Administration and, after September 11, worked to rebuild security at Logan International Airport as Assistant Director with the then-brand new Transportation Security Administration.

In this era of acrimony in Washington, it is difficult to imagine that in 2001, Congress passed and the President signed a sweeping piece of legislation just two months after the attacks on our country. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 completely transformed how our airports would be secured.

We deployed 1,200 new federal screeners, built nine baggage screening buildings, and deployed millions of dollars in new security technologies. It marked the formation of the largest new federal agency since the Air Force was created 54 years earlier.

TSA formed so quickly that people think of it as our nation’s first response to terrorist attacks on the United States. But it wasn’t. The first response took place before the tragic events had even concluded.

The passengers aboard United Flight 93, aware that the hijackers were not going to land the aircraft safely and hold them hostage as in most previous hijackings, made a pact and planned with each other to act. Their courage in storming the cockpit and fighting the terrorists is now the stuff of legend.

They fought for their own lives, yes. But they knew from phone calls to loved ones that there was an attack on America underway. So they told their families and friends they loved them. They prayed. And they fought for their country, too.

The 9/11 Commission believes that the likely target of Flight 93 was the Capitol Building. There’s no doubt that together, Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, and their fellow passengers, spared the nation from having yet another horrific image etched into our collective memory forever. 

It mattered to no one that Beamer was a devout Christian, or that Bingham was a gay man. Why would they ask? What matter was what united them--their shared humanity and devotion to their fellow man. No asked “Wait, who did you vote for?” or “Are you a liberal or conservative?” They formulated a plan, placed their trust in each other, and said “Let’s roll.”

Meanwhile, in New York, the city’s firefighters, EMS, and police were putting their lives on the line to save people trapped in the two buildings of the World Trade Center. Two decades later, we’ve all heard recordings of scared office workers trapped in the Twin Towers speaking with 911 operators. No one discussed their differences. They prayed together, reassured each other, and promised to deliver messages to loved ones.

We’ve heard about the first responders who fearlessly climbed up the stairs, into the fire, so that others could walk down them to safety.

When their commanding officers told them to go inside and rescue people, not one of them declined. Like the heroes of Flight 93, they cared not about the race, ethnicity, religion, or politics of the people in the buildings. Only that they were their fellow men and women, and they needed to be saved. The same is true of the heroes at the Pentagon.

Like you, when I consider September 11, I feel grief for the victims and their families. I feel awe for the heroism so many exhibited on that day and afterwards. I remember that at one time—not so long ago—300 million Americans were united as one people. Today, that unity seems a distant memory.

It is my prayer that we Never Forget—that we never forget the attacks on our country 22 years ago. That we never forget the lives we lost and the families left behind. And that we never forget our capacity to unite as a nation and as a people. Let that be the legacy of this day and this memorial.

I thank you.