America was attacked on September 11. No one has sole ownership of 9/11, including my family because we lost someone.
Here is the text of Rudy Giuliani’s advertisement:
“Right before September 11 and months before I had read this book about the greatest generation written by Tom Brokaw and the book explains how brave, and how persistent, and how courageous the people were in the generation that won the Second World War.
“And during the day of September 11 living through the things that I saw and observed, immediately, when I saw people helping each other, I saw the picture of the firefighters putting the flag up, I said these are the children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the greatest generation. They have the same resolve, the same understanding.
“When you challenge Americans, there’s no country that stands up stronger and better than the United States of America. When you try and take something away from us like freedom, my goodness, Americans are going to be one in resisting you.
“So, the Islamic terrorists would make a terrible mistake if they confuse our democracy for weakness.
“Our democracy means we disagree with each other but when you come and try and take away from us our freedom, when you try and come here and kill our people, we’re one and we’re going to stand up to you and we’re going to prevail.”
Debra Burlingame adds:
“It’s perfectly legitimate for Giuliani to remind us of that day, and how the country responded and his role in it,” said Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, and whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
“I was very moved by Giuliani’s great leadership on Sept. 11,” added Burlingame, who said the “silent majority” of families affected by the attacks are not Giuliani critics.
“He helped me get through that day. He helped rally the nation when we were on our knees.”