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Good morning.
Good morning!
From Scripture, we learn of the miracle of restoration. "You who have made me see many
troubles and calamities will revive me again. From the depths of the earth you will bring
me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again."
Secretary Hagel, General Dempsey, members of our Armed Forces and most of all, the survivors
who bear the wounds of that day and the families of those we lost, it is an honor to be with
you here again to remember the tragedy of twelve Septembers ago -- to honor the greatness
of all who responded and to stand with those who still grieve and to provide them some
measure of comfort once more. Together we pause and we pray and we give humble thanks
-- as families and as a nation -- for the strength and the grace that from the depths
of our despair has brought us up again, has revived us again, has given us strength to
keep on.
We pray for the memory of all those taken from us -- nearly 3,000 innocent souls. Our
hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been -- the
parents who would have known the joy of being grandparents, the fathers and mothers who
would have known the pride of a child's graduation, the sons and daughters who would have grown,
maybe married and been blessed with children of their own. Those beautiful boys and girls
just beginning to find their way who today would have been teenagers and young men and
women looking ahead, imagining the mark they'd make on the world.
They left this Earth. They slipped from our grasp. But it was written, "What the heart
has once owned and had, it shall never lose." What your families lost in the temporal, in
the here and now, is now eternal. The pride that you carry in your hearts, the love that
will never die, your loved ones' everlasting place in America's heart.
We pray for you, their families, who have known the awful depths of loss. And in the
quiet moments we have spent together and from the stories that you've shared, I'm amazed
at the will that you've summoned in your lives to lift yourselves up and to carry on, and
to live and love and laugh again.
Even more than memorials of stone and water, your lives are the greatest tribute to those
that we lost. For their legacy shines on in you -- when you smile just like him, when
you toss your hair just like her, when you foster scholarships and service projects that
bear the name of those we lost and make a better world. When you join the firehouse
or you put on the uniform or you devote yourself to a cause greater than yourself, just like
they did, that's a testimony to them. And in your resilience you have taught us all
there is no trouble we cannot endure and there is no calamity we cannot overcome.
We pray for all those who have stepped forward in those years of war -- diplomats who serve
in dangerous posts, as we saw this day last year in Benghazi, intelligence professionals,
often unseen and unheralded who protect us in every way -- our men and women in uniform
who defend this country that we love.
Today we remember not only those who died that September day. We pay solemn tribute
to more than 6,700 patriots who have given their full measure since -- military and civilians.
We see their legacy in the friendships they forged, the attacks they prevented, the innocent
lives they saved and in their comrades in Afghanistan who are completing the mission
and who by the end of next year will have helped to end this war.
This is the path that we've traveled together. These are the wounds that continue to heal.
And this is the faith in God and each other that carries us through, that restores us
and that we summon once more each time we come to hallowed ground -- beside this building
or in a Pennsylvania field or where the towers once stood. Here, in such moments of grace,
we are renewed. And it is here that we reaffirm the values and virtues that must guide us.
Let us have the strength to face the threats that endure, different though they may be
from 12 years ago, so that as long as there are those who would strike our citizens, we
will stand vigilant and defend our nation.
Let us have the wisdom to know that while force is at times necessary, force alone cannot
build the world we seek. So we recommit to the partnerships and progress that builds
mutual respect and deepens trust and allows more people to live in dignity, prosperity
and freedom.
Let us have the confidence in the values that make us American, which we must never lose,
the shining liberties that make us a beacon of the world; the rich diversity that makes
us stronger, the unity and commitment to one another that we sustain on this National Day
of Service and Remembrance.
And above all, let us have the courage like the survivors and families here today to carry
on, no matter how dark the night or how difficult the day. "You who have made me see many troubles
and calamities will revive me again. And from the depths of the earth you will bring me
up again. You will increase my greatness and you will comfort me again."
May God bless the memory of those that we lost. May he comfort you and your families
and may God bless these United States of America. (Applause.)