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A Personal Reflection on September 11, 2001
by
Patricia De Stacy Harrison
Acting Undersecretary of State
for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy
United States Department of State
Venice,
September 11, 2004
As an American of Italian heritage it means so much to me
personally to be in Venice on September 11, 2004. Among my
activities today, Veneto Region President Galan and I, in
the company of renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, will
visit the model of a memorial that commemorates the victims
of the terrorist acts that took place in my country three
years ago today. This memorial, when constructed, will symbolize
Italian-American unity in rejecting terrorism and keeping
alive the memory of its victims.
On September 11, 2001, I was in Washington, DC, preparing
to enter the Department of State – where I was about
to be sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Educational and
Cultural Affairs. The day that began so beautifully - the
sun shining, the sky clear - ended in horror and sadness.
My good friend Barbara Olson was on the plane that crashed
in Pennsylvania. In my hometown, Brooklyn, New York, so many
of the sons and daughters of my friends were in the World
Trade Center Towers on that day. Among the three thousand
people who were murdered that day in those three barbarous
attacks were citizens from ninety countries, including Italy.
Through rituals that included everything from church services
to a New York Yankees baseball game, we began to pray for,
remember and honor those who died that day. We began to understand
that we had had heroes among us all the time – we just
never recognized them appropriately – the firefighters,
the police, the emergency workers, our great Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, who is also a son of Brooklyn, our teachers, our
community leaders, chief among them.
Our First Lady Laura Bush said that everywhere she went
people had just one concern: How can I help? How can I serve?
And I think each of us has asked those questions of ourselves
from that day until today. When we looked up from our grief
we could see that the U.S. Embassy lawn in Rome was covered
in flowers brought by the Italian people. President Ciampi
and Prime Minister Berlusconi were there to provide sympathy
and support.
Now, three years later, the generosity of the Italian people
is still evident in the annual scholarship drive by Il Vero
Cuore di Venezia for the children of the New York firefighters
who perished on this date three years ago. The firefighters
who did survive will not soon forget the outpouring of affection
and assistance offered by the Italian people.
At the State Department we received thousand of e-mails
from Italian men and women who had come to America on Fulbright
or International Visitor exchanges, or had studied in the
United States. They all contained the same questions: Is
the family I stayed with OK? How can I help? How can I serve?
Daniel Libeskind asked the same questions of himself and
the result is to be seen in his winning design for the new
World Trade Center, and again, in the model being unveiled
today in Venice.
In his model for a September 11, 2001 memorial in Padua,
Daniel Libeskind has taken two great symbols of challenge
and hope – a beam from the World Trade Center and the
book held by Lady Liberty – and woven them into a monument
that reminds us all of the values that unite us and the responsibilities
that we bear for assuring a future in which all people can
live together sharing peace, prosperity, democracy and human
dignity.
My grandfather, Nunziato di Stacio, was born in Venice.
When he left Italy for the United States, like so many generations
of Italians, he sailed past the Great Lady in New York harbor,
the Statue of Liberty, on the way to his new home. Lady Liberty
infused my grandfather with the dream that, building on his
Italian roots and traditions, and with the hope offered by
the United States, he could play a part in constructing a
great new world.
Today, many years after my grandfather said goodbye to Venice,
I am honored to be back in this lovely city once again. I am
here to commemorate September 11 among so many friends and
in the shadow of Daniel Libeskind’s model for the Padua
9/11 memorial. I am here to advocate for that shared future
that unites us, even as we pray for those who gave their lives
on this date three years ago.
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