Speech
Remarks by the Hon Alexander Downer, MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs,
at a memorial service for victims of the attacks on the World Trade
Center, New York City
Church of the Epiphany, New York City
11 September 2002
Australians and New Zealanders on 11 September
Fellow Australians, and New Zealanders
Our friends from the United States of America.
At sunset this evening, at The Sphere, which once stood in the plaza
of the World Trade Center, New York City Mayor Bloomberg will read
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.
Speaking to the US Congress on the sixth of January, 1941, FDR called
for a "world founded upon four essential freedoms": freedom of speech,
freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
It was a calling that resonates today, much as it did then.
________________
One year after the tragic events of 11 September 2001, we have an
opportunity to reflect.
An opportunity to remember those killed, not just here in New York
City, but at the Pentagon in Northern Virginia, and in a field in
rural Pennsylvania.
An opportunity to think of the tens of thousands directly affected,
and to extend our sympathy and support to the families who lost loved
ones.
And an opportunity to see the full turn of the seasons since that
fateful day at the beginning of the Northern Fall last September as
chance for renewal – an opportunity to look to the future, and all
that it might hold.
________________
11 September galvanised not just the United States, but Australia
and New Zealand, prompting many to demonstrate their sense of shock,
and affinity.
In the end, our feelings of compassion and resolve have prevailed
over those of fear, or horror, or retribution.
This was, I am sure, in part because 11 September was an attack on
the lifestyles and values that we hold so dear.
The enormity of the crime was such that it brought home to us all
the need to be resolute, deliberate, and measured – both as individuals
and collectively.
I believe that it is our common belief in individual rights, tolerance
and diversity - the values which the perpetrators sought to undermine
– that will help us to remember, and recover.
________________
It was those same values on which President Roosevelt drew for his
inspired words of more than sixty years ago, at another juncture in
world history.
It is those same values, too, which I am certain that those who were
lost to us would want us to renew – most of all, I believe, within
ourselves.
Our task now is not to seek needless revenge or retribution in our
search for justice and remembrance, but instead to renew a sense of
decency, respect and responsibility to ourselves, and to others, and
especially to our children.
In doing so, we would do well to remember the wisdom, compassion
and optimism of FDR and his four freedoms – freedoms that assume a
special poignancy on this day, one year later, and on every such day.
They are freedoms that inform how we live, as individuals, and as
nations.
'Freedom of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear'.
________________
Today, as we did almost a year ago, we ask that God watch over us,
comfort us, and strengthen us in our grief and sorrow.
We ask that He grants us patience and resolve in facing all that
is to come.
And we thank Him for the lives we mourn today, and for the promise
of life anew, tomorrow.
This page last modified:
Monday, 16-Sep-2002 12:24:37 EST
Local Date:
Sunday, 05-Jul-2009 12:51:00 EST
