Mark Souder: “it is hard for us, as we have been in one of centers of the firestorm, to react emotionally as we have tried to deal…”

“it is hard for us, as we have been in one of centers of the firestorm, to react emotionally as we have tried to deal with this issue with our staff. We can see the pictures like other Americans. But last night, when I went home to my apartment and actually could look out the window and see the smoke from the Pentagon across the interstate and smell the smoke in my apartment, it became a little more real. Until the Republican Study Committee organized this first group of Members to go over this afternoon and we were standing there at the site, we thought that it is just a small measure of what they must feel in New York. The ability to thank our workers who are strained, who are stressed, who are now going in trying to find the bodies, the dads and the moms and the brothers and the sisters of Americans who have been brutally assassinated by terrorists and to talk about how in their offices now they have the names and how they are targeting where they are going to go in and try to find them. The building is still burning in some parts as they try to find the black box. The men were trying to figure out whether the structure was safe for them to go in. Yet, if they do not go in soon, they cannot get the black box out and this holds valuable information. So time is of the essence. We wanted to personally thank, in our small way, those Americans so dedicated and make it clear to anybody around the world that this is a Nation of love but also a Nation that is angry.”