Political Quotes

“Mr. President, 18 years ago today, on a cloudless Tuesday morning, my city, our country, our world changed forever. In the span of a few hours, the Twin Towers fell, the Pentagon was hit, and smoke rose from an empty field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 souls were taken from us that day. I knew some of them: a guy I played basketball with in high school, a businessman who helped me on my way up, a firefighter I did blood drives with. It was one of the bloodiest days on American soil since the Civil War. Each year, we pause to remember that awful day. We mourn those we lost, but we also recognize, in the aftermath of September 11, the resiliency of the American people. The resiliency of New Yorkers shone through one of the darkest hours in our country. Looking back remains difficult even after 18 years. I ride my bike through the city of New York and every fifth or sixth street is named after a firefighter or a police officer who died, as are parts of Brooklyn, Bay Ridge, and places like that. I will never forget. I think of it all the time. The day after, when President Bush sent Senator Clinton and me to go up to New York in planes, we were the only planes in the sky. We were in an airliner that had us surrounded by F-18s and F-16s. When we landed, we went down to the site. The smell of death and burnt flesh was in the air. This I will never forget, a thousand people lined up-- no one knew who had lived and who had died--with little signs: Have you seen my mother, Mary?…”