California State Treasurer Phil Angelides' Statement on the 5th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks

On September 11, 2001, fifty-one Californians perished in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United Airlines flight 93. In all, nearly 3,000 people died in those attacks. Most were Americans, but the victims also included those from a dozen other countries. Five years later, the pain is still fresh and our sorrow at the loss of so many of our loved ones and friends is still great. Those bright minds and ambitious souls who should be building the American Dream and California's prosperity are instead lost to us forever.

In their memory we should resolve not to allow any such attack, or any such loss, to happen again, not in America, not in California. Repeated terrorist incidents since 9-11 – train bombings in Madrid, London and Mumbai, and the recent threat against airlines traveling from London to the U.S. – are all warnings that we cannot allow our vigilance to ebb.

On the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento there is a memorial to those who died on 9-11. A huge, twisted beam from the World Trade Center is there, braced in the shadow of a tall carillon. Nearby, atop a fountain, a massive granite sphere bears the names of the 9-11 dead, mourned and never far from our thoughts. We owe to them and to their survivors the simple promise that we will never allow ourselves to be taken by surprise in that way again.