09/11/2026
“We Remember. We Honor. We Will Never Forget.”
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, we gather not simply to remember a date on a calendar, but to remember the lives, the families, the heroes, and the stories that changed our nation forever.
September 11th, 2001.
For many of us, those words immediately bring back images, sounds, and emotions that are difficult to put into words. For those who lived through that day, it is a memory that may never truly fade. And for those who were born after it happened, September 11th is something we were taught about—something we may have learned from photographs, videos, documentaries, stories from our parents, grandparents, teachers, first responders, veterans, and survivors.
But behind every photograph was a person.
Behind every name was a life.
Behind every life was a family.
And behind every family was a story.
On that morning, ordinary people woke up expecting an ordinary day.
People went to work.
Parents kissed their children goodbye.
Children went to school.
People boarded airplanes.
First responders reported for duty.
Office workers entered buildings.
Drivers headed down the roads.
People made phone calls, sent messages, drank their morning coffee, and began another day without ever imagining that history was about to change.
And then, in a matter of minutes, everything changed.
Thousands of innocent people would never return home.
Thousands of families would receive phone calls they never wanted to receive.
Children would grow up without a mother or father.
Parents would lose sons and daughters.
Husbands and wives would lose the people they loved.
Friends would lose friends.
Communities would lose neighbors.
And an entire nation would experience a kind of grief that is difficult to describe.
But even in the darkest moments of September 11th, something else became visible.
Courage.
Selflessness.
Compassion.
And humanity.
While many people were desperately trying to escape danger, thousands of first responders were moving toward it.
Firefighters.
Police officers.
Paramedics.
Emergency medical technicians.
Port Authority officers.
Emergency dispatchers.
Military personnel.
Doctors.
Nurses.
Construction workers.
Ordinary citizens.
People who had no idea what they were walking into, yet chose to help anyway.
They climbed stairways while others were coming down.
They entered buildings while others were trying to get out.
They carried injured people.
They helped strangers.
They stayed behind.
They answered calls for help.
They put the lives of others before their own.
And many of them never came home.
We remember the firefighters who entered the World Trade Center knowing there was danger ahead.
We remember the police officers who ran toward the towers.
We remember the paramedics who established emergency operations while chaos surrounded them.
We remember the dispatchers who stayed on the radio, answering call after call, trying to send help wherever it was needed.
We remember the people who opened their homes to strangers.
We remember the people who donated blood.
We remember the people who stood in long lines simply because they wanted to help.
We remember the people who searched through the wreckage.
We remember the people who spent days, weeks, months, and years afterward trying to rebuild what had been destroyed.
And we remember those who carried the emotional scars long after the smoke disappeared.
September 11th was not only about the buildings that fell.
It was about the people who were inside them.
The people on the streets.
The people in the airplanes.
The people who answered the phones.
The people who ran toward the danger.
The people waiting at home.
The people who never got that final goodbye.
Every one of them mattered.
Every one of them had a name.
Every one of them had someone who loved them.
Every one of them had dreams.
Some were young.
Some were older.
Some were parents.
Some were children.
Some had spent decades building their lives.
Some were just beginning theirs.
Some were heading to work.
Some were traveling.
Some were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But none of them should ever be remembered as a number.
They were people.
They were someone’s mother.
Someone’s father.
Someone’s brother.
Someone’s sister.
Someone’s son.
Someone’s daughter.
Someone’s husband.
Someone’s wife.
Someone’s best friend.
Someone’s coworker.
Someone’s neighbor.
Someone’s hero.
And today, we remember them.
We remember the World Trade Center.
We remember the Pentagon.
We remember the passengers and crew aboard American Airlines Flight 11.
We remember the passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 175.
We remember the passengers and crew aboard American Airlines Flight 77.
And we remember the passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93.
Flight 93 reminds us of something especially powerful.
That even in the face of unimaginable danger, people can choose courage.
The passengers and crew aboard that aircraft were ordinary people placed in an extraordinary situation.
They learned what was happening.
They understood the danger.
And they chose to fight back.
They chose to stand together.
They chose to act.
They may not have known exactly what the outcome would be.
But they knew they could not simply surrender.
Their courage saved lives.
Their sacrifice became part of the story of September 11th.
And their names deserve to be remembered alongside every other person who lost their life that day.
Today, we also remember the families.
Because September 11th did not end when the towers fell.
For thousands of families, the tragedy continued long afterward.
There were empty chairs at dinner tables.
Empty bedrooms.
Unanswered phone calls.
Birthdays without someone who should have been there.
Anniversaries without the person who was supposed to celebrate them.
Graduations where someone important was missing.
Children who grew up asking questions.
Parents who had to learn how to live with an unimaginable loss.
Spouses who suddenly had to face the future alone.
For those families, September 11th is not simply history.
It is personal.
It is a name.
It is a photograph.
It is a voice they remember.
It is a last conversation.
It is a final hug.
It is a memory that never leaves.
So today, we do not only honor the people who were lost.
We honor the people who were left behind.
We remember their strength.
We remember their courage.
And we recognize that grief does not have an expiration date.
Twenty-five years can pass.
Fifty years can pass.
A lifetime can pass.
But love does not disappear simply because time moves forward.
The people we lose remain part of who we are.
Their stories become part of our history.
Their memories become part of our families.
Their names become part of our nation.
And as long as we continue saying those names, they are not forgotten.
We also remember the survivors.
The people who escaped the towers.
The people who were pulled from the rubble.
The people who watched the buildings fall.
The people who witnessed unimaginable scenes.
The people who lost friends and coworkers.
The people who carried those memories home.
Some survivors spent years rebuilding their lives.
Some continue to struggle with what they experienced.
Some still carry physical injuries.
Some carry invisible wounds.
And some simply wake up every September 11th and remember.
To every survivor:
We see you.
We honor you.
We remember what you endured.
And we will never ask you to forget.
We also remember the heroes who responded in the days and weeks afterward.
The firefighters.
The police officers.
The paramedics.
The doctors.
The nurses.
The search-and-rescue teams.
The volunteers.
The construction workers.
The engineers.
The military personnel.
The emergency crews.
The people who searched through mountains of debris hoping to find someone alive.
They worked through exhaustion.
They worked through grief.
They worked through uncertainty.
They kept going.
And many of those who survived the initial response would later pay a terrible price for their service.
Exposure to hazardous materials affected countless responders and survivors.
Some became sick years later.
Some developed serious illnesses.
Some passed away long after September 11th.
Their stories remind us that the consequences of that day did not disappear when the smoke cleared.
The sacrifice continued.
And for that reason, when we say that we remember September 11th, we must remember not only the lives lost on that morning, but also the lives lost in the years that followed because people answered the call to help.
We remember them too.
Today, we also remember the spirit of unity that emerged from the ashes.
For a brief moment, differences seemed smaller.
People stood together.
Neighbors helped neighbors.
Strangers helped strangers.
Flags appeared everywhere.
People gathered.
People prayed.
People cried together.
People comforted one another.
The country was hurting, but it was hurting together.
And perhaps that is one of the most important lessons September 11th can teach us.
When everything else is stripped away, we are still human beings.
We need one another.
We depend on one another.
And when tragedy comes, we should not ask first what separates us.
We should remember what connects us.
Compassion connects us.
Courage connects us.
Love connects us.
Community connects us.
Humanity connects us.
September 11th showed the world some of humanity’s darkest moments.
But it also showed some of humanity’s brightest.
A firefighter carrying someone down a stairwell.
A stranger helping another stranger.
A person opening their home to someone who had nowhere to go.
A doctor working without rest.
A police officer refusing to leave.
A family waiting at home.
A volunteer showing up simply because they wanted to help.
These moments mattered.
They still matter.
And they remind us that even in the darkest moments, there are people willing to become a light for someone else.
That is the legacy we should carry forward.
Not hatred.
Not division.
Not revenge.
But courage.
Compassion.
Service.
And remembrance.
We should remember September 11th not because we want to live in the past, but because we want to learn from it.
We remember because history matters.
We remember because people matter.
We remember because sacrifice matters.
We remember because freedom comes with responsibility.
And we remember because forgetting would mean allowing those lives and those stories to fade away.
We cannot change what happened.
We cannot bring back those who were lost.
We cannot erase the pain their families experienced.
But we can decide what we do with their memory.
We can honor them by helping others.
We can honor them by serving our communities.
We can honor them by standing beside people who are hurting.
We can honor them by appreciating the first responders who answer the call every single day.
We can honor them by thanking the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, dispatchers, military members, nurses, doctors, and countless other public servants who put themselves in harm’s way.
And we can honor those we lost by remembering that every life has value.
Every name matters.
Every story matters.
Every family matters.
Every sacrifice matters.
So tonight, as we stand together, let us remember the skyline of New York City before September 11th.
Let us remember the towers.
Let us remember the people who worked inside them.
Let us remember the firefighters who climbed those stairs.
Let us remember the police officers who ran toward the danger.
Let us remember the paramedics who refused to stop helping.
Let us remember the passengers and crews who faced an unimaginable situation.
Let us remember the Pentagon.
Let us remember Shanksville.
Let us remember Lower Manhattan.
Let us remember the families waiting for loved ones who never returned.
Let us remember the survivors.
Let us remember the responders.
Let us remember the volunteers.
Let us remember everyone whose life was changed forever.
And most importantly—
Let us remember their names.
Because a name is more than a word.
A name represents a life.
A family.
A childhood.
A dream.
A future.
A person who mattered.
And today, every one of those names matters.
There is an old saying that says people die twice:
Once when their heart stops beating,
and again when their name is spoken for the last time.
So let us make sure that second death never comes.
Let us continue to speak their names.
Let us continue to tell their stories.
Let us continue to teach future generations what happened.
Let us continue to honor their families.
Let us continue to recognize the courage of those who responded.
And let us continue to remember.
Twenty-five years may have passed since that terrible morning.
But September 11th remains a part of our history.
The buildings may be gone.
The smoke may have cleared.
The emergency sirens may have stopped.
The streets may have been rebuilt.
The skyline may have changed.
But the memories remain.
The names remain.
The stories remain.
And the love remains.
To the nearly 3,000 innocent souls who were taken from this world:
You are remembered.
To the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, emergency workers, and other first responders who gave everything:
You are remembered.
To the passengers and crew of Flight 93:
You are remembered.
To the survivors:
You are remembered.
To the families who continue to carry the weight of September 11th:
You are remembered.
To every person who helped, served, searched, rescued, comforted, rebuilt, and carried on:
You are remembered.
And to every generation that comes after us:
Remember this.
Remember that behind every statistic was a human being.
Remember that courage can appear in the most unexpected places.
Remember that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
Remember that compassion can survive tragedy.
Remember that unity is stronger than division.
Remember that freedom should never be taken for granted.
And remember that history is not simply something we read about.
History is made by people.
People who live.
People who love.
People who serve.
People who sacrifice.
And people who choose to stand together.
So as we close this tribute, I ask everyone here to take a moment.
Look around.
Think about the people standing beside you.
Think about your family.
Think about your friends.
Think about the people you love.
And remember how precious life truly is.
Tomorrow is never promised.
A simple goodbye can become a final goodbye.
A normal morning can become a moment remembered forever.
That is why we should not wait for tragedy to remind us to appreciate one another.
Call your loved ones.
Tell them you love them.
Thank the people who serve your community.
Help someone who is struggling.
Stand beside someone who feels alone.
Be the person who runs toward someone else’s pain instead of walking away.
Because that is how we carry the legacy forward.
Not by allowing September 11th to remain only a day of sadness.
But by allowing it to become a reminder of what courage, compassion, sacrifice, and unity can look like.
Today, we lower our heads in remembrance.
We stand in silence for those who were lost.
We honor the heroes who gave everything.
We support the families who continue to carry their memories.
And we promise that their stories will not disappear.
Their names will continue to be spoken.
Their sacrifices will continue to be honored.
Their memories will continue to live.
And their legacy will continue to remind us that even in the darkest moments, there can still be light.
Twenty-five years later, we still remember.
Twenty-five years later, we still honor.
Twenty-five years later, we still mourn.
Twenty-five years later, we still carry their stories.
And twenty-five years later, we still say the words that should never stop being said:
We remember.
We honor.
We stand together.
And we will never forget.
May we remember every life.
May we honor every sacrifice.
May we support every family.
May we never forget the courage of those who answered the call.
And may the memory of September 11th forever remind us to cherish one another, serve one another, and stand together when the world becomes dark.
For those who were lost—
For those who survived—
For those who responded—
For those who continue to grieve—
And for the generations who will carry their memory forward—
We remember.
We honor.
We will never forget.
Thank you.
