I'm Congressman Matt Gates. A great nation never forgets its heroes, its triumphs, or its pain.

Never forget. I think often of that dark yet beautiful morning, standing silent with

hundreds in the University Student Union at Florida State. Young, ambitious, men and women

who almost never stay quiet or still, frozen in shock. I know of some on that Tallahassee campus

on September 11, 2001, who would die fighting the global war on terror so the rest of us could live

free and safe. I also remember driving at night on Interstate 10 from patriotic Niceville, Florida

back to Tallahassee. This time not for the libraries and ladies of FSU, though both often got my

attention in my university days, but for my own service as a state representative. Bin Laden had

been killed. Later I would meet Rob O'Neill, a friend and patriot who pulled the trigger. He got the

job done, as Americans do. Joe Biden was opposed to the mission. We'd learned that as well, to

worry that we might offend the Pakistanis who clearly knew more than they were telling us.

Fake friends aren't good friends, and scared leaders should never be given the chance to govern.

Bin Laden had hoped to lead a movement, and in some ways he did, but we lead a country, an enduring

people. This is the first election in which the children born after 9-11 can vote. Votes are small

things that, when added together, send a message. Bin Laden didn't have the power of a republic.

He had a low-tech, low-grade militia. But there was another militia that assembled on 9-11.

It too took its shot. A shot heard around the world as United 93 crashed far from its intended

target in a Pennsylvania field. It is to them, I turn my attention. The passengers that did the

most American of things. They took a vote. They still pledged to one another. Their lives and

made good on that promise. They pledged allegiance to one another, just as all of us pledged allegiance

as we stand for the flag, the anthem, or for taps. These are the things we do together.

We do them together not because they are easy. There are squabbles in every family after all.

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