John B. Breaux: “for so many Americans the day began with a bright, sunny morning, with beautiful, clear skies. It ended with darkness…”

“for so many Americans the day began with a bright, sunny morning, with beautiful, clear skies. It ended with darkness and a profound sense of vulnerability and a profound sense of anger of all Americans. It will certainly be a day that we as Americans should, and I argue will, never forget. Our greatest sympathies go out to those who have suffered the greatest of losses, the death of members of their families, their loved ones. Especially our thoughts today are with those people from the New York area and also for the people from the greater Washington area who are most directly touched by this travesty. Indeed, all of us have been touched in our own ways by what happened yesterday. My own office has been working with a Louisiana constituent who is trying to find out the status of her husband who was attending a meeting yesterday at the World Trade Center. She talked with him after the first plane struck the first tower, but she has not been able to hear from him ever since. Mr. President, the American people want and expect us to act. They expect us to act quickly, they expect us to act decisively, and they expect us to act with great determination so that this will never happen to us again. President Bush and his team have given us their assurances, and all of us pray for his leadership and pledge our strong, bipartisan cooperation and support in his efforts. We must all act as one. We must all act as one Nation and we must all speak with one voice.”