was delivered by Haleema Salie, a Muslim-American of Sri Lankan descent. She lost her daughter who was 7 months pregnant and her son-in-law on American Airlines Flight 11.

Those we lost that day were husbands and wives, children, neighbors and friends. We thought we would have them longer. We thought we had more time. As the families we stood in clothes of mourning and wiped our children‘s tears. The whole country grieved with us and we leaned on their support.

In our grief, and its ground-shattering aftermath, we truly understood that as Americans everything had changed and we will not have the luxury of time and innocence again.

Tonight, I come here to ask that you never forget our loved ones, to remember that they were people exactly like you and me each with their own story. Dignity asks that you give them a human face.

And then I want to ask that you remember September 11th as the day we were one. It was the day we acted as if we were responsible for each other. Human life was valued above all else. It was and must remain the defining moment that reminds us what unites us is stronger than what divides us.

For the sake of those innocent souls we lost and for the soul of our country, life moves forward as it must. We bring our memories but we turn our faces towards the future towards our children, towards the ongoing stream of life.

Now, as we turn our faces toward a new day and a new world the strength of who we were on 9/11 should stay with us, a light in the darkness, to show us the way.