Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Honoring The Lives Lost On September 11th, 2001
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to honor the lives lost on September 11th, 2001. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:
Everywhere I go, whenever I’m wearing a suit or a sport jacket, I wear this flag pin on my lapel, a small but constant reminder of a promise America made twenty-one years ago: never forget.
It was on the day after the attacks--September 12th, 2001, having seen the horror, smelled the death in the air, having heard the horrible stories, and seeing hundreds of people lined up with poignant signs that said, Have you seen my son, Bill? Have you seen my mother, Mary, because no one knew who was alive and who wasn’t—on that day, I called on Americans to wear the flag, to display it at their homes, out their windows, or at least wear it on their clothing.
I’ve done so ever since. And every day I look at that flag, I think of the people who were lost and the vicious evil of those who perpetrated this awful act.
Yesterday, I joined with the Vice President, Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams and others to honor the fallen of September 11th, to grieve for those who were taken from us, and to affirm that over two decades later, though scarred and battered, our country and our democracy endure.
An eternity can pass, and yet September 11 will always feel like yesterday to me. As clearly as you sit before me, Madam President, I still remember what it was like to visit the wreckage a day or two later. The destruction, the smell, the noise was nothing like the New York I knew and loved. People, as I mentioned, lined up along the sidewalks, hoisting makeshift signs that asked the unthinkable: have you seen my daughter? Have you seen my father? Those images, as well as the people I knew who were lost, will never leave me.
Yet in the midst of so much pain, on 9/11 America encountered its best self.
Ordinary
people banded together to do extraordinary things: taxi drivers, store
managers, businessmen, city workers—everyone in between, abandoned their
day jobs and became heroes. They donated blood. They organized prayer vigils.
I'll never forget the sight of a shoe store owner along the route as people escaped from the towers, handing out shoes, just depleting his entire stock so people could walk home. People volunteered their time and resources to comfort those in need and rebuild our city to new heights. And the same is true for millions across the country.
And to our first responders and volunteers who worked the pile, we owe you such a special and undying measure of thanks. Among all our heroes of that time, they were among the greatest and most valiant. And many of them have paid for that with their lives because the toxins in the air entered their lungs and digestive systems and caused cancers to the extent we have never known in those age groups before. That's why we've worked so hard in this chamber to help provide health care and help for those who have lost loved ones.
When we say that America will never forget what happened on 9/11, we mean something far more profound than recalling the memories of that awful day. It’s not a passive promise but rather an active one.
It is why two months ago, the Senate worked together to pass the largest expansion of veteran health care benefits in decades, to aid the nearly three million service members exposed to dangerous toxins while serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places around the world. And it’s why we must work to replenish that Ground Zero fund that helped pay for the health care of those who rushed to the towers. We must replenish that fund in the near future.
And it’s why all of us, regardless of party, must work together to defend the American way of life, to protect our precious democracy that the terrorists tried to bring down with violent means.
The world has changed dramatically since that morning that the towers fell, but the need to protect our nation from threats foreign and domestic remain.
Today, twenty-one years after the worst terrorist attack on US history, let us stay awake to the things we must do if we’re to keep our promise to never forget.
May God bless all those who died on September 11th, as well as their families, and all our first responders and service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our great nation.
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