Alistair Burt’s column: Lessons to learn from 9/11, ten years on

After nearly thirty years of active political life, I cannot pretend to remember every remark I have ever made on public occasions.

But one speech I do recall.

I had looked forward to speaking at Bedford Modern’s prize giving the first week of September 2001.

School awards give the principal guest an immense privilege; to address young people, some on the brink of adulthood, with so much to look forward to.

Celebrating achievement allows the chance to offer congratulations for what has been attempted and delivered, and encouragement to stick to tasks in the future.

But what future had I to talk about, when, just a couple of days before, with what became known as 9/11, the world for all of us, the world into which I was urging their involvement, commitment and leadership had changed horrifically before our eyes?

I tore up what notes I had previously made. The usual encouragements seemed peripheral to events; avoiding the issue would have insulted all present.

However by the evening of my remarks word had filtered through of what I believed would be the real memory of 9/11, one that I begged all present to take note of. In their last moments, workers in the Twin Towers and passengers on aircraft had made phone calls.

They called not to express hate and outrage at those who were killing them, but overwhelmingly their love for family and friends.

At the height of horror, love triumphed.

I quoted from the Bible Philippians 4:8: “Whatsoever is noble, true, right, pure, lovely or admirable –anything excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” I urged people not to use casually the word ‘hate’. Hate was what the perpetrators hoped to inspire. Hate had filled them. Instead so many of the stories of 9/11 were of love, tenderness and recovery.

For these few days our minds will again have had to endure the images we remember so well, but my belief remains the same.

Remember 9/11 for those incredible messages, for the triumph of the human spirit, and the unconquerable and eternal strength of love that overcomes any temporary phenomenon.