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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><img width="624" height="147" style="width:6.5in;height:1.5347in" id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D7A4D0.F4E88170" alt="Graphical user interface, application
Description automatically generated"></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">September 8, 2021<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">Remembering 9/11 and America’s response to tragedy</span></u></b><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">By Governor Brad Little<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">There are moments that define a generation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">If you’re over the age of about 25, you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing during the unthinkable attacks on our country on
September 11, 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">When I heard that the second plane hit the Twin Towers, I was headed back to Emmett from the ranch. I drove past Freezeout Hill, where one year
later we would dedicate a 9/11 memorial. Like many other Americans, when I heard what happened I spent much of the day watching the coverage on a small TV at our office in Emmett, wondering what to expect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">Like the first moon landing or President Kennedy’s assassination, there are historic events that escape no one’s memory.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">Now, two decades later, we reflect on 9/11 – both our memory of the events and what we learned from them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We remember watching the footage in horror, jaws dropped in disbelief as the second plane hit the Twin Towers and we, as Americans, started to
realize we were a country under attack.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We remember seeing terrified faces of Americans watching on as black smoke billowed out of two buildings so massive that they made Manhattan’s
other skyscrapers look like toothpicks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We remember hearing the blaring sound of sirens and seeing heroic firefighters, police officers, and other first responders charging into the burning
buildings as others fled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We remember watching the Twin Towers crumble, ash and debris filling the streets in a way a bomb couldn’t, and the deafening, eerie silence that
followed. An unbelievable amount of smoldering rubble was piled high at Ground Zero.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We witnessed an enormous hole in the side of the Pentagon – a building that symbolizes the strength of our U.S. military and where Idahoan and
Rexburg native Brady Howell died that morning working – and the image of soldiers and firefighters hanging a large American flag on the side of the building following the attack, signifying our country’s strength and resolve.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We remember seeing a hole in the ground outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where brave Americans onboard took control of a hijacked plane with
an unknown target – saving countless American lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We heard stories of tragedy and of heroism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">Just as we can recall specific details about what we saw and heard on that tragic day, we also remember our individual and collective reaction
to the events of 9/11.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We can remember a country coming together in a way rarely seen before.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We all tempered our personal political opinions to come together and demonstrate strength and patriotism. We inspired the rest of the world. American
flags could be seen everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">Our younger generation didn’t experience it, but those of us who did can share with them what we learned – that in the middle of a crisis we have
an opportunity to come together and build up each other and our country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">One year after 9/11, with both military and first responders, Governor Dirk Kempthorne and I dedicated an American flag and memorial on Freezeout
Hill to commemorate the men and women who lost their lives and the heroes who acted in bravery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">We will never forget 9/11, and we must never relent in helping future generations understand the lesson of patriotism that grew out of 9/11 – that
all of us, despite our individual and varied political opinions – can live out a love for our country during a tragedy, and every day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">God bless America!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"># # #<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif">568 words</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
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