Since September 11, there's been so much talk of getting back to normal, but I really hope we don't. I pray that we transcend what was normal for many of us.

What I know for sure is that we must use this time to make the right decisions for our children, our nation and ourselves. Our responsibility now is to not return to normal—to not live in the illusion that anything about this opportunity to be human and to breathe and to connect with one another is ordinary.

Our responsibility is to create a new standard, a new way of being in the world. If we do that, we bring honor and meaning to the lives of those who died in the attacks. We give honor and meaning to our own.