authority police officers, 403 first-responders who gave up their lives that day so that 25,000 people could come out of the towers. you re right, maria, you know, the comradery started that morning, sharing of phones, hugging, sheltering people from the clouds as the two towers came down, starting today though, look back 20 years ago, you know, it was the beginning of the rebuilding process. you know, america was one. we were united. members of the house and senate stood on the on on the capitol steps, sang god bless america. public and private sector leaders got together here in new york. the great then mayor rudy giuliani, our terrific governor george pataki,
once again. thanks very much for being here. good morning, maria. good to be with you. maria: so i was just thinking about the day, the morning of september 11th, when i ran out of my office at the new york stock exchange, up to the corner of wall street and broadway and we were all watching a small group had developed on the corner, we were watching a couple blocks away the building on fire. this was the first plane that went into the north tower and it occurred to me, dick, at that point there was so much comradery. i was giving my blackberry, they were giving me there, calling home, telling people we were okay. we knew who the enemy was, we were united. what a change 20 years later. so true, maria, yesterday we honored the memory of 3,000 people and we promised to never forget them. today and particularly important, the 343 firefighters, 23 police officers and 37 port
mister rogers was right. even as the ruins in new york, washington, and pennsylvania were still smoldering, thousands of americans lined up to help firefighters, police officers, ems workers, and even random passerbys put their lives on the line, at risk to return to the smoking ruins in an attempt to rescue strangers. meanwhile, charities and blood banks across the country faced weeks of crowds as americans lined up by the millions to give anything they could. in tragedy, americans turn on one another united. but somehow in the intervening decades, some of us have lost that sense of comradery and responsibility and community. sometimes loving thy neighbor isn t as demanding as running into a collapsing high-rise.
of what is happening here, the total and absolute destruction here in this garage a loan, you think about this is a high-rise building for a suburban area here in new york, not a high-rise compared to what we see in manhattan, but it is six or seven stories, the water got up really high and above here is just an electrical area so no apartments were damaged, but still you have to think about what is to did b done to fix a lot of the things that went down here. larry, you re the president of the board here, you have a big uphill battle to deal with. is everybody okay in your building? we re okay. we have great comradery, it was wonderful to be together and try to address the process. this is a floodplain, and we were designed to be a floodplain. what does that mean?
would start and the father embrace the son and say something encouraging. theo. that s the dumbest thing i have ever heard in my life. you can hear the audience gagged because this is a strong father who says to his son, i brought you in this world and i will take you out. the audience cheered because the parents are saying yes, we are taking back the house. i want you to do the best you can. that s all. there was a such a love and comradery family. we have super bowl rating every single week. the cosby show revitalized sitcoms. okay, let s put cosby in and put family ties at 8:30. family ties went boom.