2001 Speeches
December 11 Remarks by Chargé d'Affaires John Medeiros
December 11, 2001
Good evening. For those of you who don’t know me, I am John Medeiros, and I am the Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission here at the U.S. Embassy. Ambassador Frank Lavin is in the United States and cannot be with us tonight, but he sends his best wishes and deep appreciation to all of you for coming.
Let me say a few words of thanks. First of all, to Minister Lee Yock Suan, for honoring us with his presence tonight. Minister, in coming here you demonstrate once again the unwavering support of the government and people of Singapore in the struggle against terrorism – the struggle to build a civilized and humane world. We are grateful for that support.
I would also like to thank the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Ambassador Jorgen Moller of Denmark, who has come tonight to represent the entire international community. As you all know, the citizens of many countries perished in the terrorist attacks of September 11. We are here tonight to honor the memory of them all. I would like to acknowledge as well the presence of representatives from several organizations whose employees suffered greatly in the terrorist attacks. They are Bill Byrne of United Airlines and David Kerr of American Airlines, Colm McCarthy of Bank of America, and Rear Admiral Jeffrey Cassias of the United States Navy.
Finally, our deep appreciation goes to Boy Scout Troop 07, our color guard, and to Choir Director Brad Moffatt and the talented young musicians from Singapore American School. In a few minutes they will unite their voices in singing the national anthems of our two countries. They are a diverse group. Their voices are different; their faces are different; they come from many different backgrounds. But they will sing as one, and in doing so they will remind us that in this struggle against barbarity differences between us matter less than our common humanity.
Ladies and gentlemen, In a few moments, it will be exactly three months after the first of the hijacked airplanes was flown deliberately into the World Trade Center.
None of us, I think, will ever forget the awful moment when we heard the news of the attacks. Nor will we ever forget our horror at seeing this work of fanatical minds, our disbelief when watching those searing television images, or our grief, as we realized we were witness to the deaths of thousands of innocents.
The death toll in the attacks, initially thought to be close to 7000, is now believed to be only around 3500.. Only 3500 dead. The phrase mocks itself. So many lives shattered – mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who never returned home that fateful night. In an effort to make that large number more than just a mere statistic, the New York Times has been printing a series of life portraits of those murdered. Here are descriptions of four victims:
Doreen Angrisani, 44, divorced mother of two teenage children. A fan of 1960s rock music and the New York Mets, she had worked her way up, beginning as a clerical worker, to a job as the finance manager for Marsh & McLennan.
Gerald Atwood, 38, father of two, and a third child to be born early next year. Atwood was a firefighter with Ladder Company 21; he loved fixing up his house, and meeting new people.
Ang Siew-Nya, 37, mother of two girls in primary school. Because she left home early each morning to work as a technical analyst at Marsh USA, she called the girls at 8 AM, making sure they were ready for a day of school, dance, and ice skating. Shabbir Ahmed, 44, father of three. An immigrant from Bangladesh, he worked as a waiter in the 'Windows on the World' restaurant; he loved to fish and to garden. Four people; four families -- multiply these examples by 1000, from 80 countries, and that is September 11. At 8:00 AM, living their lives quietly; by 10:30 AM, all dead in the rubble of two 110 story buildings, in the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania.
The 3500 victims on September 11 died not for anything that they had done, but because fanatics wanted to send a message – a message of hatred -- and a political statement. They hoped to begin a process of action and reaction that would lead the world to a great war – a war based on race and religion. Their failure has been total. The world utterly rejected their message. Those who saw the mass murder of innocents as an acceptable way to make a political statement are condemned in the eyes of all humanity.
Much has happened in the three months since then. We have resumed our daily lives in a changed world, and this is a good thing. Like the citizens of New York who are now laboring to clean and rebuild their city, we must heal the damage done to the global community and to the global economy. That work is well begun, but much remains to be done. We must persevere; we must work, and shop and fly and live as normally as we can. We have many tasks: to rebuild our cities, our companies, and our lives, to bring the terrorists to justice or bring justice to the terrorists, to restore a civilized government in Aghanistan, and to relieve the suffering of the dispossessed and hungry people there.
We will do all of this. The world is united by this as it has never been before. We will do all of this together. But we will not forget what prompted our labors. And so, all around the world, groups like this are coming together tonight to remember the awful moment in time that began these struggles. All around the world, the national anthems of the United States and of the host nation will be played, as a sign of remembrance, of sorrow, of our resolve for the future.
As we go about this important work, as we continue our daily lives, as we rebuild and reconstruct and restore, we make this pledge to the victims of September 11: We will not forget.