16 Years Later

Today is always a hard day but it is important to take the time to sit with those memories that might upset us, remember, and be grateful for where we are now and what we have in our lives. It is a day to hold tight to your family and think of those who lost theirs, either during the attacks or in the war the followed.

I was in fourth grade during the attacks of 9/11, and sixteen years later the day is no less vivid than when I was nine. I've spent years watching strangers and friends go to war to defend the freedom we fought so hard for. I saw debates, intellectual and impassioned, about what we do and where we go from here. I saw neighborhoods and schools pull together to support those who needed them most. And the one thing that always returns to me, every year through the images of terror, is hope.

There's a resiliency to American hope, an elasticity that no one in the world could have imagined. It's because, I believe, love -- for our country, for each other -- is an unshakable value we all share. Despite our differences, we come together. In recent times, this may be difficult to remember, but it is no less true now than it was then. When one of us is under attack, all of us is under attack, and each of us should stand at the ready to care for and protect one another. The best way to overcome evil is to drown it in goodness.

On a day like this, there's a speech from Aaron Sorkin's West Wing that I think is especially appropriate. I hope the words stay with you the same way they've stayed with me:

The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.