Joe Barton: “tragic Tuesday, which occurred yesterday, is one of those days that is going to go down in history as a ``Where were…”

“tragic Tuesday, which occurred yesterday, is one of those days that is going to go down in history as a ``Where were you?'' I was not alive on December 7, 1941, but for those who were, it was one of those ``Where were you on December 7, 1941'' days when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I was alive in November of 1963. In fact, I was in the eighth grade in Innis Junior High School when President Kennedy was assassinated less than 50 miles away in Dallas outside the School Book Repository Building. I was alive in July, 1969 when the first man, a United States astronaut, landed on the Moon. Obviously, I was alive yesterday when the tragic plane attacks hit the Trade Center and the Pentagon, and then the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. So that is one of those ``Where were you'' days. The question before the Congress today, the Presidency, and to some extent the American people, is what are we going to do about it. There has been a lot of talk on the floor about the cowardly act. Well, it is cowardly in the sense that our attackers did not warn us and they did not declare war on us in the classic sense, they just hijacked the planes and attacked civilian targets in New York and the military target here in Washington. But it was not cowardly in the sense that the people that perpetrated it were cowards; just the opposite, they were probably very religiously committed, willing to die for a cause that they believe in.”