Where were you when the North Tower of the World Trade Center was hit the morning of September 11, 2001? I was asleep in bed. My dad came and took my older siblings and me into my parents’ room to crowd around the television. I remember walking into the room and seeing my mother crying and praying with her hand over her mouth. My dad had tears on his face as he explained to us that the United States had been attacked. 

Like most Americans, seeing the Twin Towers fall was a pivotal moment for me. I was young, but I remember feeling a profound sense of loss and pain. In the days that followed, we were around the television a great deal, watching for updates, praying for survivors, and waiting to see what was going to happen next. There was a heavy sadness, but also a sense of love for this Land. Perhaps those were the early moments when my love of liberty was born.

Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy-seven Americans were killed on September 11, 2001, in New York, at the Pentagon in northern Virginia, and in a field in rural Pennsylvania, and countless more have died in subsequent years from illness related to the attacks, suicide, or war.  

We will never forget what was taken from us on this day 25 years ago. We will never forget the 2,977 lives lost in the aftermath, the parents who never made it home to their babies, and the children who never got to grow up because their lives were cut short.

We will never forget the devastation, but we will also never forget how the United States emerged from the ashes that day. We will never forget the ordinary Americans who, driven by the American spirit, ran toward danger to save the lives of others. We will never forget that from the smoke and rubble, we rose.

You can destroy our buildings. You can tear down our infrastructure and institutions. You might even take some American lives, but you will never destroy the American spirit. That spirit is defined by resilience in the face of adversity, courage in the face of fear, patriotism in the face of division, and an unwavering belief in liberty and justice. 

September 11, 2001, showed the world how even in our darkest hour, the American people do not surrender. Now, 25 years later, we reaffirm that commitment. We stand. We endure. We rebuild. We rise. We come back stronger. And we will never forget.