Sekulow Weekend

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haynes in studio as well. Full lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we could not skip today and not talk about the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack. As we honor those who have fallen, we not only look back but look forward and think about the subject of never forgetting what happened on September 11th. That seems to ring very true, but on this year, it seems even heavier than usual because it does feel like we've now had a generation grow up that maybe wasn't there. If you're a 25-year-old right now, you weren't even born when September 11th happened. At this point, we have to have that conversation of what have we forgotten? What are those lessons we need to have learned? What lessons did we learn, and what lessons have we forgotten? We'll continue this conversation throughout the show, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that as well.
Will Haynes: Once again, as we talk about the rhetoric, we talked this week about how shocking it was that John Fetterman would have something nice to say about a colleague across the aisle, the other senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It seems like that's our reality. We think about what the post-9/11 world was. It was a lot less hostile to each other. It was a lot more unified. The ability to think back at those times sometimes gets lost on us as we look at how divided much of our politics has become.
Logan Sekulow: I think all of us who were there can easily put your mindset very quickly back. I was 15 years old; now I am 40. Think about how time is moving and how quick time is moving. When the 50th rolls around, we'll be 65 years old. I taught at a college a couple of years back. None of my students were alive during the September 11th attacks. We have to do our job in educating and not just it becoming a piece of something they read in a history book that you don't take as something that really did happen. We didn't live through Pearl Harbor. We've heard the story over and over again, but I'm sure it's a much different experience for those that were living through it. It really was the tide turned for the ACLJ in 9/11 when all of a sudden, we got thrust into the world of politics in a way that we had not been involved with before that. With the George W. Bush administration, that was really the first time the ACLJ was invited into that room to be a part of the White House, to be a part of what was happening in that world. We can easily mark that also as what became the current chapter of the ACLJ. Last year, my son did the stair walk where they match the flights of stairs that the towers were that the firefighters would have had to run up. So there are still these things happening in society, but we even talked about how it gets a little lumped together as ancient history.
Will Haynes: I was driving my daughter to school this morning and we were talking through our days and I brought up the fact that it is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. There's a series of books that are very popular with kids called the "I Survived" series. She's read quite a few of these. In her mind, the 9/11 terror attacks are on the same playing field as the sinking of the Titanic because that's what this series is. There's a book, "I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic," and there's "I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001." For a child's mind, they're ancient history to some degree. Talking through that, I said, "I was alive and lived through that experience with everyone else in this country." You think of the generational change. There are adults in the workforce and policy makers that were not born when these terror attacks happened.
Logan Sekulow: President Trump spoke this morning from Washington, D.C. We have seen a lot of different tributes tonight. Later on in the show, we're going to have on John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting. On Disney Plus, they're doing a big hour-long special. He'll perform with Lainey Wilson the song "Superman" at the base of where the beams of light are for the September 11th Memorial. If it does feel fuzzy in your mind, or maybe you weren't there, we need to look back. This is something our team put together. Twenty-five years ago, the world stopped. It began as an ordinary Tuesday morning. By day's end, our nation would never be the same. 2,977 innocent lives were lost. Thousands more were left bearing the scars. Families were forever changed. Firefighters climbed the towers. Police officers ran towards danger. First responders answered the call, knowing they might never come home. Over 4,000 first responders and survivors have since perished from toxic exposure at Ground Zero. Yet even in our darkest hour, America still stood together. We prayed together. We grieved together. We stood as one nation. Though 25 years have passed, the memory remains. The gratitude endures. We remember those we lost. We honor those who answered the call. And we give thanks for the heroes who showed the world the strength of the American spirit. 25 years later, we still remember. We still honor. And we will never forget. The changes we saw were drastic. A lot of them became ingrained in us. Look at the way airports run. Those daily changes, a lot of them stuck and they have been in this process for the last 25 years. We don't even think about them anymore. You can even easily look at the work that we were doing pre-9/11 and right after 9/11 and how that shifted dramatically from not just our work that was traditional religious freedom, but then how that shifted to being something much larger worldwide.
Will Haynes: I remember exactly where I was. I was in geometry class in high school. I remember there being an announcement over the intercom that was cryptic and our teacher went and locked the door. Our school went under lockdown at that point. Shortly after, we found out what was going on. This was in Orlando, Florida. This wasn't in New York or D.C., but our school went under lockdown not knowing what was going on. That fear was a collective fear across the country. Everyone knew they were in it together.
Diane (Guest): On 9/11, I was a schoolteacher in Prince George's County. I was teaching fourth grade on the second floor in the school building where we could look out across and see the Pentagon. We got a notice from the office to take a moment of silence. I told the children there are some scary things that are happening out there, but you're okay. We're going to take a moment of silence. The kids said that's not long enough. One boy said, "Can we get on our knees and pray?" I said, "Of course you can."
Will Haynes: Diane, I think your students were blessed to have you in that moment as no one knew what to do. Being able to pray and seek wisdom and comfort in the Lord in that moment is what many of us knew. That was the only thing we knew to do. Having a teacher that could be there for fourth graders is a remarkable thing. Your students were fortunate to have you.
Logan Sekulow: We're going to continue these tributes throughout this edition of Sekulow. We're live, though. If you do want to call in, you can at 1-800-684-3110. It feels like this year is particularly heavy. It also is very easy to look around in society and see not only the changes that occurred that brought us together, but the ones that also feel like they have crumbled. We'll take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. This was marking the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks from a film the ACLJ team put together called Forever Changed.
Guest (Male): He was working in the World Trade Center on the 105th floor. I was working on the 77th floor. We went into work together like we did every day. I got down to the train depot and I said, "Todd, why don't we take the ferry over?" He said, "No, I'm going to take the train." I said, "Todd, it's a beautiful day, come with Daddy." He just was lazy. He didn't want to take the ferry because it's a little longer walk. In any event, I said to him, "Have a great day, sweetheart."
Guest (Female): Christopher saw the world in a very simple way. He wanted to be a firefighter from the time he was a little boy. Our son was only on the job for a short time and he would constantly say, "We haven't caught any work yet." I said, "Relax, you'll get some work."
Guest (Male): Everybody remembers how beautiful the day was. Spectacular. I went to work at 7 World Trade, which was my office. I was having breakfast around 8:00 AM in our cafeteria. I was 19 years old; I was a student at George Washington University. I had an early morning class in our political science building. On September 10, 2001, I started interning at the Department of Justice in public affairs. Ashcroft was the Attorney General.
Guest (Male): I basically worked for NYPD Emergency Service Unit. We did heavy rescue and SWAT. We came in, we got our equipment for the day. We were going to get ready to get something to eat. That day, I was taking my daughter to the bus stop. I remember saying to myself, "Today feels like this is going to be a day I'm never going to forget." I didn't understand why I felt that way.
Guest (Male): At about 8:46 on that morning, I was in my office, I was on the phone and the building shook. Boom! And it moved. The glass case in my office exploded. I remember the lights went out. For the power to go out was pretty unusual. It went out and seven seconds later, it just came back on. I knew from my experience that meant we lost a feeder cable. I knew something fairly serious had occurred.
Guest (Male): Then the people that were sitting on the windows that looked at Tower One all got up and started running screaming toward me. The radio started going off that a plane had crashed into one of the towers downtown. I had been in the building on February 26, 1993, when the truck exploded. So when this happened, I knew: leave. Don't hesitate. Leave. Unfortunately, many people didn't follow that advice.