Christopher Shays: “I do say and acknowledge that after September 11, I think all of us thought a little longer and a little harder about…”

“I do say and acknowledge that after September 11, I think all of us thought a little longer and a little harder about how much we owe to our firefighters, how much we appreciate what they do for us and how grateful we are to them. I was reading in preparing for today to think that 446 firefighters lost their lives in the line of duty during the past year. And even if you subtract out the incredibly large number of 343 whose lives were taken on September 11, it is amazing to me to think that over 100 firefighters sacrificed themselves for the protection of their community. I am very grateful to them. I am very grateful to our other service industry providers, our police, our EMS and others; but tonight we are recognizing the firefighters, and this is a resolution that clearly will have 100 percent support and for very good reason.”