We were there on 9/11. This Memorial Day, we can’t let America forget

We come from different parties and have walked different paths, but we share something few Americans do: we have held the weight of this country’s security in our hands. 

On Sept. 11, 2001, parties and titles didn’t matter. We were Americans, and that was enough.

We have stood at the intersection of crisis and consequence. One of us leaned down in a second-grade classroom in Sarasota, Florida, and whispered four words into former President George Bush’s ear: “America is under attack.” While the room was quiet, the world was not. The other watched the news unfold at a meeting with members of Congress at what was another possible terrorist target: the U.S. Capitol. He was soon drawn back into the urgent work of rebuilding a safer nation, leading the CIA in the operation that brought the leader of Al Qaeda and mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, to justice.

MANHATTAN’S CONSTRUCTION DOORS