“It’s why this weekend we remember the true spirit of 9/11”.
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At the same time, the terrorist threat has evolved, as we’ve seen so tragically from Boston to Chattanooga, from San Bernardino to Orlando.
The president said extremist organizations such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaida know they can never drive down the US, so they focus on trying to instill fear in hopes of getting Americans to change how they live. Out of many, we are one. So, instead, they’ve tried to terrorize in the hopes that they can stoke enough fear that we turn on each other and that we change who we are or how we live. “American diversity “not a weakness” but a great strength”, the US President added.
“That’s why it is so important to day that we reaffirm our character as a nation of people drawn from every corner of the world: every color, every religion, every background, bound by a creed as old as our founding – E Pluribus Unum, out of many, we are one”, Mr. Obama said.
Across the country, Americans are coming together in service and remembrance, he said.
The Al-Qaeda hijackings of September 11, 2001 – the first foreign attack on the USA mainland in almost two centuries – ruptured a sense of safety and plunged the West into wars still being fought today. We run our fingers over the names in memorial benches here at the Pentagon.
President Barack Obama on Sunday invoked Scripture and praised the resilience and diversity of Americans while attending a Pentagon ceremony honoring the 3,000 lives lost 15 years ago in the nation’s worst terror attack. We walk the hallowed grounds of a Pennsylvania field.
On Sunday, in what will be Obama’s last 9/11 memorial service as the nation’s president, Obama urged Americans not to let its enemies divide them.
The hours-long reading of the names of the dead took place at the memorial plaza in New York City.
He stressed on the values of American nation including diversity and tolerance and urged people of USA to stay true to these values.
As they do every year, the families of the victims read the names of their lost loved one, in pairs, pausing for another moment of silence at 9:03 a.m., when a second airliner struck the South Tower. “That we do not let others divide us”. We stand with the survivors who still bear the scars of that day. We will preserve our freedoms and the way of life that makes us a beacon to the world. May God bless the memory of the loved ones here and across the country.
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“Over the past decade and a half, the United States has led that response”.
