Melvin Watt: “like every American citizen, the emotions that we as Members of Congress and I personally have gone through over the…”

“like every American citizen, the emotions that we as Members of Congress and I personally have gone through over the last 31 days since September 11 have spanned the whole course. As I saw the buildings crash in New York, I wondered whether the terrorists would prevail, only to see the firefighters and police officers and rescue workers spring to their work, lift their shoulders, observe my colleagues on the steps of the House of Representatives that evening singing ``God Bless America'' and raise my head and say, we will prevail over them. When I heard the Attorney General come and say we had to pass an antiterrorism bill in 2 days following that, I wondered whether the terrorists would prevail. And the admiration that I had for our committee chairman, the gentleman from Wisconsin, and the ranking member of our committee as they stood and said, we cannot do this in the heat of passion, we must honor the constitutional requirements, caused me to raise my head and say, we will prevail. When I saw the incidents around the country of attacks on Arabs and Muslim mosques, I wondered whether the terrorists would succeed. And with pride I saw my President spring and say, ``We cannot tolerate this kind of attack on our people,'' and I raised my head with pride. On the floor of this House, I saw Secretary Colin Powell and Secretary Rumsfeld come and brief us and say that we are approaching this methodically; and I raised my head with pride and said, we will prevail.”