Recommitting to Civility and Unity

Floor Speech

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Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, 24 years ago today, our Nation was changed forever. I remember that day as a high school student. Standing along the Hudson River, a cloud of smoke and destruction hung over the New York skyline. There was palpable fear and terror in the air. I witnessed a stream of people covered in ashes, trying to get home. It is impossible to forget.

What I remember most is how we came together as a country after that fateful day and how we bridged our divide and joined together as one Nation in grief and mourning but also in resolve and patriotism.

Today, 24 years later, we are once again reminded of how easily those divisions can take hold of us and how they can divide us if we allow them to. We owe it to ourselves and, even more so, to the bravest Americans who answered the call that day and laid down their lives to recommit ourselves to civility and unity.

We must never forget 9/11. We must never forget the victims, the survivors, and their families. I believe with every fiber of my being that we can heal our Nation and mend our wounds. We can truly be the United States of America and ``out of many, one.''

Mr. Speaker, that is the best way to honor their memory today and every day hereafter.

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