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In Memory of September 11, 2001

 

"Who, O God, is like you? Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again;  from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again."  Psalm 71:19-21

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."  Isaiah 41:10

"The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles."  Psalm 34:15, 17

 

President George W. Bush’s Remarks on the
Day of National Prayer and Remembrance

September 14, 2001

     THE PRESIDENT:  We are here in the middle hour of our grief.  So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation's sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them.

     On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty.  We have seen the images of fire and ashes, and bent steel.

     Now come the names, the list of casualties we are only beginning to read.  They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport, busy with life.  They are the names of people who faced death, and in their last moments called home to say, be brave, and I love you.

     They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers, and prevented the murder of others on the ground.  They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States, and died at their posts.

     They are the names of rescuers, the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others.  We will read all these names.  We will linger over them, and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep.

     To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation.  And I assure you, you are not alone.

     Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history.  But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.

     War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.  This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger.  This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others.  It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.

     Our purpose as a nation is firm.  Yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed, and lead us to pray.  In many of our prayers this week, there is a searching, and an honesty.  At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Tuesday, a woman said, "I prayed to God to give us a sign that He is still here."  Others have prayed for the same, searching hospital to hospital, carrying pictures of those still missing.

     God's signs are not always the ones we look for.  We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own.  Yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard, and understood.

     There are prayers that help us last through the day, or endure the night.  There are prayers of friends and strangers, that give us strength for the journey.  And there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own.

     This world He created is of moral design.  Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time.  Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die, and all who mourn.

     It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves.  This is true of a nation as well.  In this trial, we have been reminded, and the world has seen, that our fellow Americans are generous and kind, resourceful and brave.  We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion; in long lines of blood donors; in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible.

     And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend.  A beloved priest died giving the last rites to a firefighter.  Two office workers, finding a disabled stranger, carried her down sixty-eight floors to safety.  A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burn victims.

     In these acts, and in many others, Americans showed a deep commitment to one another, and an abiding love for our country.  Today, we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called the warm courage of national unity.  This is a unity of every faith, and every background.

     It has joined together political parties in both houses of Congress. It is evident in services of prayer and candlelight vigils, and American flags, which are displayed in pride, and wave in defiance.

     Our unity is a kinship of grief, and a steadfast resolve to prevail against our enemies.  And this unity against terror is now extending across the world.

     America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for.  But we are not spared from suffering.  In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom.  They have attacked America, because we are freedom's home and defender.  And the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.

     On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come.  We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow.  We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come.

     As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, can separate us from God's love.  May He bless the souls of the departed.  May He comfort our own.  And may He always guide our country.

God bless America.

In Memory, September 11, 2001

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

CHORUS:
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on.

I have read His fiery gospel writ in rows of burnished steel!
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you My grace shall deal!
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,"
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!
While God is marching on.

If you would like a free gold-framed jpg of the flag & eagle graphic, email me.
You are also welcome to download the blue-framed jpg on this page.

If you would like free patriotic stationery or other graphics, click on the flag below.

If you want to send a contribution to an organization which is helping the victims:

People

http://www.disasterrelief.org

Animals

http://www.uan.org

Visit Let Freedom Ring for a look at important American documents, quotations by Patriots, and related information and links..