Choosing unity amidst adversity

In this time of great division, we are stronger when we remember what binds us. We draw inspiration from the way our Nationall of us, as citizens and neighborscame together after the tragedy on 9/11.

At 9:51 am on September 11, 2001, I was working in Washington when the fire alarm sounded and Capitol police instructed us to evacuate. Once roads and sidewalks emptied, the usually frantic pace of Washington was replaced with a somber, quiet city. Only the occasional siren, the roar of jet fighters, and whirling helicopter blades punctured the silence.

The U.S. Capitol, federal buildings, and landmarks were all cordoned off. Some were blocked with flares, others with more substantial barriers or squad cars positioned to let no vehicle pass. Every law enforcement officer who had ever served seemed to have been recalled for duty with an automatic weapon. At the Tidal Basin, I was struck by the sight of gray smoke from the Pentagon wafting up from behind the white marble Jefferson Memorial.

That evening, I joined fellow Members of Congress on the Capitol steps where Abraham Lincoln had long ago taken the oath to lead a deeply divided nation. We pledged to work together to resolve this crisis and raised our voices in an impromptu rendition of “God Bless America.”

Marking this week’s 9/11 anniversary, let’s be both mindful of its horrors and sustained by the memory of its heroes, especially first responders who put service ahead of self. This year, Congress finally approved legislation, which I joined in sponsoring, to permanently authorize the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to address their medical needs from the toxic effects of that attack.

This Wednesday, in front of City Hall, Mayor Jane Hughson read out an official proclamation to mark “9/11 Remembrance Day.” It states that we are “rededicating ourselves to the principles of freedom and democracy that are the foundation of our nation.”

In that rededication, let us never forget that the rights we all hold, and the peace that we enjoy, were so hardwon. On battlefields, in civil rights marches, and at the ballot box.

Protecting those rightswhether the right to vote or freedom of speech—often necessitates exercising them fearlessly. As I shared recently at the Texas State fall convocation, that includes vigilantly protecting the right to dissenting speech and never tolerating violence as the answer. We are not, unfortunately, immune to the forces of segmentation and recrimination that we see spreading across our Nation.

But as many seek to divide neighbor from neighbor, and to convince us that the strength of our community’s diversity is somehow our weakness, we can bring the unity they would like to deny us. It starts with standing up together for the safety and security of all our neighbors. Americans may hold different political views than us, but those that do are not the enemy, as some would have us believe. And no one is excluded from aspiring to join the American Dream by their identity or the circumstances of their birth.

Let’s recall the inscription on the walls of the Lincoln memorial. To a Nation at war with itself, Lincoln urged: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

May we recommit to that mission, as we are shaken daily by attempts to hollow out our founding values. We must together speak out for our Nation’s true tenets and against encroaching authoritarianism, domestic terrorism, violence, and acts of hate, as well as the corrosive and un-American rot of white nationalism.

And may we continue to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and those who struggle to this day. To never forget what has been paid for our liberty, never surrender these precious democratic freedoms, and firmly resist those who would divide us against one another.