Arlen Specter: “Senator Santorum, Senator Ensign, and I have just returned from memorial services in Shanksville, PA, commemorating the…”

“Senator Santorum, Senator Ensign, and I have just returned from memorial services in Shanksville, PA, commemorating the downing of Flight 93. It was truly an inspirational and emotional occurrence. The families of the victims of flight 93, the crew and passengers, were seated front and center, and then a large crowd was assembled, estimated in advance to be in the range of 20,000 to 30,000 people. Gov. Mark Schweiker, Governor of Pennsylvania, spoke, as did former Gov. Tom Ridge, now the Homeland Security Director. There was not a dry eye in the entire assemblage. The message delivered by Governor Schweiker and Governor Ridge was a moment of remembrance, a moment of commemoration, and a moment of hope for the future, with a determination that a united America will repel terrorists wherever terrorists exist and that the struggle for freedom will be maintained and will be won. Governor Schweiker went to the Shanksville Elementary School in advance of the ceremony and brought to the assemblage, especially the families of victims of flight 93, this message from the Shanksville Elementary School: If God brought you to it, God will bring you through it. That brought quite a response. Churchill was quoted, I think, so appropriately: Never was so much owed by so many to so few. I think that is especially applicable to the Members of the Senate and the Members of the House of Representatives because flight 93 was headed to the U.S. Capitol.”