The Task Before Us

What will be the legacy of Sept. 11, 2002? Years from now, will our observances make a difference? As Gov. George Pataki read from the Gettysburg Address this morning at Ground Zero, it struck me that Abraham Lincoln and those gathered at Gettysburg probably wondered the same thing. "The world will take little note, nor long remember, what we say here," Lincoln said on Nov. 19, 1863. He was wrong. Nearly 149 years later, those words speak to a different generation of grieving Americans.

And yet, Lincoln realized that speeches alone would not suffice. His words retain their power because they sprung from a deeper commitment, and called a wounded America to respond to the extraordinary demands of the moment; to be "dedicated to the great task remaining before us."

And so it is for America this morning. Our remembrances of Sept. 11, 2001 have produced an awesome quantity of words. Yet the sum total of all the speeches, eulogies, poems and songs will be diminished if we fail to follow through on our nation's unfinished work. A year after the terrorist attacks, it is still not easy to define exactly what that means, and how we go about it. History will judge the meaning of Sept. 11, 2002 not by the eloquence of our words, but by the depth of our convictions, and where they lead us from here.