Sheila Jackson Lee: “How familiar this day is. As a Member of the United States Congress who was in this building on 9/11, it was a bright…”

“How familiar this day is. As a Member of the United States Congress who was in this building on 9/11, it was a bright and shiny day in New York and Washington, D.C. as we fled this building, saw the billowing smoke in the Pentagon, and knew that the other towers had already fallen by someone telling us something had happened. Hearing rumors that planes were flying into the White House and the State Department, we wondered about the resilience and the freedom of this Nation. How grateful I am to stand here, 18 years later, to remind Americans and those who were not yet born that that was a day that should be reminding us every day of the greatness of our freedom, the value of our democracy, and the power of our people. We honor those who fell, those families who still do not know of their missing loved ones, those who went to war, those who have come back. But most of all, this day is to remind us of the wonderment of the representation of this Nation, the diverse Nation that it is, people from all walks of life, that whatever we have to overcome, whatever divisiveness we may see yesterday, today, or tomorrow, it will never-- it will never--undermine the greatness of this country. I will always, as one who was here, I will always remember and I will never forget. And I honor those whose lives were lost, pray for their families, but celebrate this country as we sang on the east steps, ``God Bless America.'' ____________________”