Notable speeches.

Reflections on September 11, 2001

The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin presents two speeches delivered in the wake of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. They aptly demonstrate the immense impact that the attacks had on the lives of all Americans throughout the country. They also reveal a change in the nation's perspective as illustrated by Sergeant Gustafson's observations after the tragedies, "Over the weeks that followed, our class focus was repeatedly drawn to the need for domestic homeland security in contrast to our national ideal of individual liberties."

Freedom

Michael J. Hunter

Freedom...freedom is why most of our ancestors came to this country. While others came in bondage, we fought a terrible war to free the slaves and keep the nation together. We have the freedom to speak our minds, the freedom to write what we believe. We have freedom from tyrants and despots, the freedom to live where we want, the freedom to work at what we love. We have the freedom to send our daughters to school and the freedom for women to go out in public. Women have the freedom to go without a veil or the freedom to wear it if they want. And, for many, there is the freedom to worship--as a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, or a Christian--or not to worship at all.

Freedom...the United States of America celebrates the freedom to live, the freedom to dissent, and the freedom to make mistakes. More than 5,000 Americans and many foreign nationals in New York City were freely and innocently making a living in the World Trade Center September 11th. A group of well-funded, narrow-minded disciples of the devil usurped their freedom to exist by murdering them, wantonly destroying families, buildings, aircraft, and businesses. Their lives were taken from them!

Then, some groups of people stepped into history against all odds to save others; strangers, some riding hijacked airliners, some working in the damaged buildings, many emergency medical technicians. Many were employees of the New York City Transit Police, the New York City Fire Department, and the New York City Police Department.

The day was one of powerful televised images that none of us will forget, but it was the sounds that made such an impression on me. The sound of a 200-ton aircraft hurtling at over 300 miles per hour 1,000 feet above Broadway to its doom. The sound of a 110-story building as it collapsed to the ground. The voice of a physician carrying a video camera as the building came down saying, "Here it comes... Oh, God, I hope I live...I'm sorry I came...." Then, a pause in blackness so that I thought the tape was ended. Then, in the blackness, his voice continued, "It's a sunny day, but it's black as night.... Wait! There's a bit of light." As the doctor staggers to his feet emerging into the gloom and dust and asks one person if he is all right, there is another sound--actually dozens of sounds. Fweep, fweep, fweep. Sounds that I couldn't at first make out. The NYPD cruisers were sitting there covered in debris, windows smashed, and people staggering away bewildered. Still that sound--fweep, fweep, fweep. It suddenly came to me what I was hearing. The sounds of "man-down" alarms coming from all of those smashed emergency vehicles and from the firefighters' emergency packs as if they were crying for the dozens of men and women who had just perished.

Freedom...freedom is what it is all about. America stands for freedom. Those hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and other volunteers chose freely to go in harm's way. They could have gone the other way, but they did not! Their lives were not taken. They were given! Freely! No greater love has a person than they will give their life for another.

No firefighter or police officer goes to work knowing that he or she will be called upon that day to give it all. These people want to come home at the end of the day. Their families want them home. Our officers did not sign tip to fight using the rules of war, but they will accept any challenge. Certainly, a war against terrorism is worth winning. And, unfortunately, this time we are on the front line.

Almost certainly, the free will suffer more losses. The police and firefighters will continue to stand on the front line in America and do their part. They will stand up to this not-so-new hazard among their already vast number of duties. There is a reason for this--to help keep the citizens of this nation free. Those who died did their part. Now, as we remember them, it is for the rest of us living to dedicate ourselves to stamping out this evil.

Lieutenant Hunter, the Ohio State Highway Patrol post commander in Athens, Ohio, delivered this speech at a September 25, 2001, memorial service held at the Athens County fairgrounds for the public safety employees who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001.

The Front Line Is Ours

Bryon G. Gustafson

A short time ago, we came together unacquainted, yet interrelated in our grand system of justice; an order tasked with the ponderous and foremost burden of humanity--the engagement of evil by good. Today, we part compelled and united in our striving, not by pretense or illusion but by dedication to duty, a tradition of honor, and esprit de corps. Our charge has been strengthened by our mutual resolve, zealous benevolence, and the very truths we hold self-evident--none of which will be shaken.

Still, upon return, there will be those in our communities who believe our times and future uncertain. They doubt the duration of America' s bountiful blessings from above. They bear witness to failing families, erred education, and misguided morals, and, because of their consciousness, they cower and cringe. While this is comprehensible, now is not a time for reticence. It is a time for response. My friend the late Dr. W.T. Purkiser said, "To suppose that unruffled seas and blue skies are a token of divine approval is the cruel conceit of those with whom all things go well." (1) He further remarked, "An untested faith is an unsure faith. Faith grows strong and steady only as it is exercised against the hard pressures of adverse circumstances." (2)

The adverse circumstances are here my friends. But, make no mistake, they always were; only now, the manifestation is distinct and our realization anew. Has our faith been misplaced for the past 275 years? Does it lie dormant? I think not. Benjamin Franklin said, "Those things that hurt, instruct." I say, let us feel the pain, find the lesson, and fight the good fight. The battle against evil, in all of its guises, begins at home. And so, the front line is ours.

There always will be evil in the world. Of this I have no doubt, but, likewise, I lack fear. M. Scott Peck insightfully wrote, "There really are people, and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They hate the light and instinctively will do anything to avoid it, including attempting to extinguish it. They will destroy the light in their own children and in all other beings subject to their power. Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. They hate goodness because it reveals their badness; they hate love because it reveals their laziness. They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love in order to avoid the pain of such self-awareness." (3) I, for one, am not inclined to afford them the luxury to be evil and ignorant. Instead, I urge it to be our resolve to use each and every day given to abate evil and stay the course for good. This enterprise might seem dauntin g were we not constituents of such a capable and true assemblage. By no means will our endeavor be in vain.

I am drawn to the words of Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cordozo. "The future is yours. We have long been called to do our parts in an ageless process... you will be here to do your share and to carry the torch forward. I know that the flame will burn bright while the torch is in your keeping." (4) Our pro-cess is justice. It is the "American Dream." Not only do we guard the dream--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--we live it! And, the torch? It is the fire that bums in our hearts, minds, and souls. We cannot help but to advance it--day by day, generation to generation--and as long as breath passes through our lips, our future is certain, staunch, and secure. Our light will shine, and the cause of good will prevail.

Endnotes

(1.) W.T. Purkiser, When You Get to the End of Yourself (Kansas City, KS: Beacon Hill Press, 1970), :12.

(2.) Ibid., 18.

(3.) M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 278.

(4.) Benjamin N. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1921), 179-180.

Sergeant Gustafson, risk manager for the Sutter Creek, California, Police Department, delivered this commencement speech on October 19, 2001, as the president of the 113th graduating class of the Delinquency Control Institute at the University of Southern California School of Policy Planning and Development in the Center for the Administration of Justice.