One of America's darkest days

Today marks the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, also know as Patriot Day, which is being marked by numerous events in Macomb County and across the nation. In Michigan, residents are asked to lower their American flags to half-staff in memory of the 3,000 who perished on that awful day.

Here are some statements made by officials marking this day of remembrance ...

 

President Barack Obama:

"We pray for the memory of all those taken from us -- nearly 3,000 innocent souls.  Our hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been -- the parents who would have known the joy of being grandparents, the fathers and mothers who would have known the pride of a child’s graduation, the sons and daughters who would have grown, maybe married and been blessed with children of their own.  Those beautiful boys and girls just beginning to find their way who today would have been teenagers and young men and women looking ahead, imagining the mark they’d make on the world.  

"They left this Earth.  They slipped from our grasp.  But it was written, 'What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose.”  What your families lost in the temporal, in the here and now, is now eternal.  The pride that you carry in your hearts, the love that will never die, your loved ones’ everlasting place in America’s heart.'"   

Gov. Rick Snyder:

"Today we join our fellow Americans in remembering those who were lost on Sept. 11, we pray for the victims and their families, and we carry on the spirit that Patriot Day stands for -- the spirit that is at the core of our country.
 “It is a spirit of heroism and bravery, sacrifice and generosity, compassion and kindness.
 “We saw that spirit in the firefighters and rescue workers who charged into the World Trade Center. We see it carried on today in our armed forces who defend our freedoms around the world, and here at home in the first responders who put their lives on the line on behalf of their neighbors."

Congresswoman Candice Miller:

“Today we mark the 12th anniversary of one of the darkest days in our nation’s history ...We will never forget, both because the horrors of that day are indelibly imprinted on the hearts and minds of all who witnessed them, and because we are obligated to honor the memory of those who died and the courageous service of the thousands who came to their aid and have protected us in the years that followed. 

"... We remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and pledge to remain unyielding in our determination that neither they nor those who have died defending us since died in vain.  God bless America.”