Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty
George W. BushandLaura Bushmarked the 20th anniversary ofthe Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacksthat defined his presidency — and the country for years after — with an appearance Saturday atthe United Flight 93memorial site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The 75-year-old former president gave a keynote speech marking the occasion.
“Today we remember your loss, we share your sorrow and we honor the men and women you have loved so long and so well,” he said in reflection of the passengers' bravery that day.
“Here, the intended targets became the instruments of rescue,” Bush continued, “and many who are now alive owe a vast, unconscious debt to the defiance displayed in the skies above this field.”
Bush said he was “proud” to lead what he called “an amazing, resilient united people” in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, but feels those days of unity in America “seem distant” compared to the present day.
“Maligned forces seem at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument and every argument into a clash of cultures,” he said. “So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.”
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty
“They are children of the same foul spirit and it’s our continuing duty to confront them,” he shared while appearing to reference theJan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Later Saturday, he and Mrs. Bush, 74, will host a screening of his new 9/11 documentary at his eponymous presidential center in Dallas.
The film,9/11: Inside the President’s War Room, includes extensive memories from Bush and various aides about how the attacks unfolded 20 years ago and the decisions — including war — that came after.
The documentary also includes President Bush remembering how he first learned of the attacks while he was visiting schoolchildren in Florida. The moment was famously caught on camera.
“[Chief of Staff] Andy Card comes up behind me and says, ‘Second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack.’ And I’m watching a child read,” Bush states in the documentary. “And then I see the press in the back of the room beginning to get the same message that I just got.”
“And I could see that horror … on the face of the news people who had just gotten the same news. During a crisis it’s really important to set a tone and not to panic,” he continues. “And so I waited for the appropriate moment to leave the classroom. I didn’t want to do anything dramatic. I didn’t want to lurch out of the chair and scare the classroom full of children, and so I waited.”
The current and former presidents are marking the 9/11 anniversary Saturday in a variety of ways, withPresident Joe BidenandBarack Obamaspending the morning in New York City.
source: people.com
