This page is dedicated to the victims of the horrible terrorist attacks on the United States at the World Trade Center in New York City and at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on September 11, 2001, and to the New York City emergency personnel who were killed or injured in the attacks, as well as the passengers of a fourth plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.  We pray for the victims, their families, and our military personnel overseas and their families, and our hearts go out to them.  We also pray for the safety of U.S. and coalition military personnel and law enforcement authorities who are tracking down terrorists around the world.
    The terrorists likely considered themselves adherents of Islam.  If so, they were tragically mistaken and misled.  By destroying the World Trade Center, where people of almost every nationality and ethnic group in the world worked, the terrorists have galvanized the will of the people of the world against them.  It is sad to see any religion hijacked by terrorists and hate-mongers.
    The events of that dark day have forever changed the United States.  What makes our nation the greatest nation on Earth is its Constitution and how it is used by its citizens.  The authors of our Constitution knew what a fragile thing liberty is, that it must be protected, and that the cost of protecting liberty and freedom in the new republic they were creating would be great.  Lest we forget, here is what some great Americans have had to say about liberty.  God bless America.

    "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate ... "
         -- From the Koran (Quran)

  "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
      -- Benjamin Franklin, motto of the Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

  "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."
      -- Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775.

  "God who gave us life gave us liberty.  Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?  Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."
      -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781.

  "Where liberty dwells, there is my country."
      -- Benjamin Franklin, letter to B. Vaughan, March 14, 1783.

  "God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."
      -- Senator Daniel Webster, Speech on the Senate Floor, June 3, 1834.

  "While I trust that liberty and free institutions, as we have experienced them, may ultimately spread over the globe, I am by no means sure that all people are fit for them; nor am I desirous of imposing or forcing our peculiar forms upon any other nation that does not wish to embrace them."
      -- Daniel Webster, speech at Springfield, Massachusetts, September 29, 1847.

  "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
      -- President Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

  "Give me your tired, your poor,
         Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
      The wretched refuse of your teeming shore:
         Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed, to me:
      I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
      -- Inscription on the Statue of Liberty (gift of France to the United States), New York harbor, unveiled October 28, 1886.

  "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
      -- Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 1928.

  "Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world; we cannot insure its domestic tranquility, or provide for its common defense, or promote its general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.  But joined with other free nations, we can do all this and more.  We can assist the developing nations to throw off the yoke of poverty.  We can balance our worldwide trade and payments at the highest possible level of growth.  We can mount a deterrent powerful enough to deter any aggression.  And ultimately we can help to achieve a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion."
      -- President John F. Kennedy, speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1962.

  "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.  And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
      -- Senator Barry Goldwater, accepting the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States, Republican National Convention, 1964.

  "Well, I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children and our children's children.  And as we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the world. We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.
     "To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment. We will match loyalty with loyalty.  We will strive for mutually beneficial relations.  We will not use our friendship to impose on their sovereignty, for or own sovereignty is not for sale.
     "As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it -- now or ever.  Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.  When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.  We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength.
     "Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.  It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.  It is a weapon that we as Americans do have.  Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.  I am told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this day, and for that I am deeply grateful.  We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free.  It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer."
     -- President Ronald W. Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

  "The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake:  America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom.  We will defend our allies and our interests.  We will show purpose without arrogance.  We will meet aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength.  And to all nations, we will speak for the values that gave our nation birth."
     -- President George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, January 20, 2001.

Boyd F. Campbell

Immigration Law Center, L.L.C.
P.O. Box 11032
Montgomery, AL  36111-0032
Tel.  (334) 832-9090
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