By: Shannon McCaffrey
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Congress honored the human loss
and heroism of the Sept. 11 attacks - and swore the
nation's resolve in the war against terrorism in a rare
special session Friday and a somber visit to ground zero.
More than 300 House and Senate members came to
Federal Hall, the massive marble-columned building
on the site where Congress first met more than two
centuries ago, and located only a few blocks from
where the World Trade Center once punctuated
the city's skyline.
"From this city's one day of horror - out of all the loss
and sorrow - has come a strength, a resolve, a determination,
which from Manhattan to Mississippi, now binds us together
for the mighty work that lies ahead," Senate Minority leader
Trent Lott, R-Miss., said during a 50-minute session.
Vice President Dick Cheney joined House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., in presiding over the session, with a
huge American flag behind them. Although largely symbolic,
many lawmakers say the trip was a necessary statement of
support for the city and its people as the Sept. 11th
anniversary approaches.
"We still feel the loss of every single person who perished on
that fateful day," Hastert said. "But as we lament the loss of
life, we can marvel at the bravery of those who rushed to help."
After the session, lawmakers clutching small American flags
attended a wreath-laying to honor the victims at the site where
the trade center once stood. Before departing, lawmakers
placed the hand-held flags in baskets surrounding the wreath,
a lone flute playing in the background.
The Senate chaplain, Rev. Lloyd Ogilvie, said the World Trade
Center site, "once a metaphor of the might of our human
achievement - so to now is this ground a sacred memorial"
to heroes and victims.
Cheney said the Revolutionary War was still a fresh memory
when that first Congress met more than 200 years ago in New York.
Today, he said, the nation must rise to defend the principles laid
down by those founding fathers.
"As a nation born in revolution, we know that our freedom came
at a very high price. We have no intention now of letting it slip
away," Cheney said.
Those sentiments were echoed by Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
"Let history record that the terrorists failed," he said. "They did
not understand that the true strength of America is not in steel,
is not in concrete. It's in our shared faith in liberty and in our
unwavering commitment to each other."
The poet laureate of the United States, Billy Collins, read a poem
written for the event, titled "The Names," a reflection on the
thousands who died in the attacks.
"So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart,"
Collins said.
"We think of those last calls on cellphones from a doomed building,
that the life of a good person is like a wellspring that does not run
dry," said House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri.
"The sorrow has been matched by strength ... not just to defeat
terrorism but to show once again that good can triumph over evil."
As the session closed, the Stuyvesant High School choir sang
"God Bless America" joined by most members of Congress, who
clasped hands as they sang.
The lawmakers then walked about five minutes down Wall Street,
closed to traffic and heavily guarded - to a hotel for a luncheon with
Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Demonstrating New York's recovery,
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis played a jazzy version of
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" to close the event.
"In our action, in our passion, we can do great things, and show
that we will not allow our lives to be ruled by fear," Bloomberg said.
Several dozen demonstrators gathered a block from the hall,
protesting that too little of the $20 billion that Congress has
appropriated for rebuilding New York is getting to low-income
residents and complaining that the Environmental Protection
Agency has not done enough to clean up apartments infested
with asbestos dust from the collapsing World Trade Center towers.
Accompanied by many spouses and aides, lawmakers arrived via
two special Amtrak trains from Washington for the session.
Police presence was heavy, with police dogs and officers with
assault weapons standing guard as legislators boarded.
The sense of history was underscored when the Rev. Daniel Coughlin,
the House chaplain, delivered the invocation with the Bible used by
George Washington to take the oath of office at his first
presidential inauguration.
The session in New York marked only the second occasion in
modern times when Congress has met outside Washington.
The purpose was unmistakable: to show solidarity with the city
that lost more than 2,800 people in the attacks.
Security was extremely tight, with hundreds of New York City police
officers on overtime and the Capitol Police and Secret Service traveling
from Washington to beef up the ranks.
New York has been struggling with multibillion dollar budget deficits
since the attacks devastated the city's financial center. At the request
of Bloomberg, the Annenberg Foundation offered $1 million to pay for
the ceremonial session.
The last time Congress met in New York, in 1789-90, lawmakers
watched as George Washington was inaugurated as the nation's
first president. The chunk of sandstone flooring where Washington
stood was on hand for Friday's event at Federal Hall, just blocks from
the 16-acre site where the 110-story towers once stood.
New York was then the nation's capital. But lawmakers held their final
session in New York on Aug. 12, 1790, having decided to move to
Philadelphia for a decade while a new capital city was built in what
became Washington.
Some lawmakers had reservations about the trip, especially given
the crush of unfinished business.
"I think Congress ought to be here, working," Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.,
said Thursday. "There's not anything that I can do by going up there.
Lord knows, there's not anything more that can be said about our sorrow."
House leadership aides said that Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas
stayed behind in Washington because police had suggested a senior
member remain in case of an attack or accident. Byrd, as president pro
tempore of the Senate, is third in the line of succession to the presidency.
 |