Missoula County: Commissioner Curtiss' Sept. 11 Remembrance Ceremony Speech

September 11, 2015, Missoula County Courthouse Lawn, Remembrance Ceremony, Jean Curtiss

Good Afternoon

We are joined here today to remember and honor those who died on September 11, 2001.

· Those in planes

· Those in the World Trade Towers

· Those in the Pentagon

· Those who responded- including firefighters and people on the street

This blue spruce tree was planted by the Missoula County Employee Council on October 11, 2001 in remembrance and honor of the tragedies on September 11^th. It is a nice memorial.

I have read the poem titled “One” by Sheryl Sawyer at previous remembrances of this tragic day. It is a powerful poem about how the attacks on September 11, 2001 pulled our nation together. It ends with ‘We are the Power of One. We are United. We are America.’

We must be cautious not to become One and let fear and prejudice shape our perceptions, opinions and actions. I think we all came to realize we were more vulnerable than we believed. Our feeling of safety in our own land was violated. It was easy to get sucked up into the ‘you will get your just due’ whoever you are who attacked us. The United States was quick to engage in a ‘war against terrorism’. We felt justified and called upon to do so. We sent men and women to war, called them patriots, but did not provide for their safety with adequate armoring of vehicles and vests etc. And we surely have not provided adequately for their return. Organizations and individuals are always out raising money to provide for returning veterans from this war and previous wars. 22 Veterans take their own life every day. We have to continue to work on this issue. OK, maybe that should be my Veteran’s Day speech.

Today I would like us to step back and focus on where that attitude of justification can take us, unintentionally. There is a danger of painting all people we associate with the Middle East with the same brush as those responsible for the events of that day. – That brush is colored with fear and hate.

I found a few quotes I would like to share:

‘There was never a good war or a bad peace.’ Ben Franklin

‘There can be no greater motive for evil than a sense of justice.’ Bill Ward

‘The act of war is the last option of a democracy.’ Joseph Wilson, New York Times, July-6-2003

‘War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.’ President Jimmy Carter, Nobel lecture, December-10-2002

So let’s not allow what brought us together and made us One destroy what America is about. Many have become fearful, suspicious, mistrustful, hateful, accusatory, hypocritical of religious freedom (if it is not the same religion as theirs), and confused about freedom vs rights.

As we go forward from this day, let us go with empathy and compassion and seek to understand. Let us look the person who is struggling with addiction and homelessness in the eye. Let us understand that the veteran who cannot hold a job right now and is self-medicating with alcohol has seen Hell and came home to find we don’t provide the supportive services he or she needs to survive.

September 11, 2001 was a tragic day in our history. But so was:

April 19, 1995 (Oklahoma City, 168 dead -19 in a day care; 100’s injured);

April 20, 1999 (Columbine High School, 13 dead; 20+ injured);

August 29, 2005 (Hurricane Katrina, 1833 dead, millions homeless);

April 16, 2007 (Virginia Tech, 32 dead, 17 wounded);

July 20, 2012 (Movie Theater in Aurora, CO, 12 dead, 70 injured);

October 29, 2012 (Hurricane Sandy, 149 dead-7 states and 3 countries);

December 14, 2012 (Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown, CT, 20 kids, 6 adults and his Mom);

May 6, 2015 (on Brooks Street in Missoula, MT 3 dead, 5 children lost one or both parents);

June 17, 2015 (Charleston, So. Carolina in a church prayer meeting, 9 dead) – Just to name a few.

As the world, currently, watches the giant exodus of people from Syria and other countries who have been engaged in war for a long time, there are those who have responded with fear of inviting the refugees into other countries, including ours. It is less personal to focus on fighting terrorists, who are like the faces on wanted posters than on the little brothers who washed ashore because their boat capsized. I remember hearing once that we have no idea how hard life is in some of these countries until we think about what it must take for a parent to put their child at risk by placing them in that boat knowing they may not make it to the other shore.

So let’s call this our Tree of Hope and use it to remind us that people all around us are facing a crisis. It may not be in the news for weeks. It may not be in the news at all but it is still a crisis for them. So we remember those who lost their lives and those who lost loved ones on September 11^th. But, as you add a ribbon to the tree today, I ask you to also think about honoring someone going through a crisis today. Maybe you know them, maybe you don’t but let’s honor them, too.

Let us be Powerful. Let us be United. Let us be America. And let us make a difference in people’s lives.

Go and show compassion and spread Hope. I wish you Peace.