One nation indivisible

New York Daily News ^ | 9/07/02

[kattracks]

Bringing Congress back to lower Manhattan, where it had its beginnings and where lies America's newest and deadliest battlefield - Ground Zero, was a way of reaffirming the unity between the nation and the city. It worked - splendidly and dramatically. Though this page came up with the idea of a joint session of Congress in New York to memorialize 9/11, the actual event, held yesterday, was even more uplifting than we had hoped it would be.

In Federal Hall, erected where the first U.S. Capitol once stood, history was everywhere. And history was being made. Said Vice President Cheney, "It's a humbling experience to stand on the site where the first Congress met, where the first President was sworn in, where the Bill of Rights was introduced."

An overwhelming majority of the 535 members of Congress attended: Republicans and Democrats, freshmen and veterans, liberals and conservatives, from the Deep South to the Great Plains, from the East Coast to the West. Addressing them were House Speaker Denny Hastert, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and Senate leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott. All were instrumental in bringing the day about, as were New York's Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. But it was Rep. Charles Rangel who was the session's first supporter and its strongest.

They all deserve thanks, as does the Annenberg Foundation, which underwrote the day's events with a $1 million grant. For such selfless philanthropy in support of the common good, Lee Annenberg, a former U.S. chief of protocol, was appropriately an honored guest at the proceedings.

Following the session, there was a power lunch unlike any even this city has ever seen. That event, with Mayor Bloomberg as host, was held at the Regent Hotel, a former Customs House. And finally the members made a pilgrimage to the empty place where the World Trade Center once stood and where an inferno consumed more than 2,800 souls.

Some people might say that now there is nothing there. Not true. That vast space is filled to overflowing - with memories and pain and tears and hope and courage and the spirit of a nation stricken but undaunted. A nation united in brotherhood and courage by a tragedy so immense it still at times seems unreal.

A year ago, terrorists thought they would divide us. How little they knew of America. We were, we are, we will remain a single country, with a single purpose. We are one. E Pluribus Unum.

Trent Lott went to the heart of the matter in his remarks yesterday: "From this city's one day of horror - out of all the loss and sorrow - has come a strength, a resolve, a determination, which from Manhattan to Mississippi now binds us together for the mighty work that lies ahead."

That is not rhetoric.

That is truth.

[snip}

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[kattracks]

It's true that the horror and tragedy of 9/11 have brought the people of this country together. I only wish the same could be said for some of our politicians.

[exit82]

It was sickening to hear Daschle and Gephardt lying through their teeth about American ideals when they have been sabotaging and obstructing progress in all levels of the gov't since not only 9/11/01, but 1/20/01. And the shot of Leahy, after the political lynching of Judge Owens, was almost more than I could bear.

And stupid Sen. Lott's remark about "Manhattan to Mississippi" was insipid. The country stretches a whole lot further west, if you look on a map. Like to the Pacific Ocean.

And these are our leaders. God help us.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I put a sticker on my bumper. It said, United We Stand. As the months progressed, it became tattered and torn. Now it can't be read at all. Just shreds of paper clinging to the bumper. Seems to fit the times.

[B4Ranch]

Diversity is promoted by every socialist believer. The problem seems to be we are being overwhelmed with conservatives who are afraid to offend 'someone' and fight for America.