Jay Reding.com

One thing I have learned about the presidency is that whatever shortcomings you have, people are going to notice them — and whatever strengths you have, you’re going to need them. These four years have brought moments I could not foresee and will not forget. I have tried to comfort Americans who lost the most on September 11th — people who showed me a picture or told me a story, so I would know how much was taken from them. I have learned first-hand that ordering Americans into battle is the hardest decision, even when it is right. I have returned the salute of wounded soldiers, some with a very tough road ahead, who say they were just doing their job. I’ve held the children of the fallen, who are told their dad or mom is a hero, but would rather just have their dad or mom.

And I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers – to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong.

The world saw that spirit three miles from here, when the people of this city faced peril together, and lifted a flag over the ruins, and defied the enemy with their courage. My fellow Americans, for as long as our country stands, people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose.

Even now just reading this section of the speech brings a tear to me eye. Whoever wrote this section of the speech just created one of the single most heartwrenching bits of oratory I’ve ever read. As a writer, this is the sort of thing you could spend your whole life hoping to achieve. It’s almost crass to talk about the political implications of this section.

Someday I want to visit the site where the towers fell, and see not the whole that is there now. I want to walk out of the World Financial Center’s beautiful Winter Garden and I want to walk to the memorial to the people who died on that terrible day, and there written in stone for the ages I want to see these words:

Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose.

Not because of who said it, not because of the politics of our time, which will be lost to the sands of history and forgotten, but because it is the truth.