Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haines is in the studio as well. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we could not skip today and not talk about the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack as we honor those who were fallen. We also not only look back, but look forward and think about the subject of never forgetting what happened on September 11th. It seems to ring very true, but this year it seems even heavier than usual because it feels like we have now had a generation grow up that maybe wasn't there. If you're a 25-year-old right now, you were not even born when September 11th happened. At this point, we have to have that conversation of what have we forgotten? What are those lessons we need to have learned? What lessons did we learn, and what lessons have we again forgotten? We will continue this conversation throughout this show. I would love to hear your thoughts on that as well at 1-800-684-3110. We have a lot of special video presentations that we are going to play for you that we have created throughout the many years. We are live doing this show right now. Later on, we are going to be joined by John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting. You may remember him and his song "Superman" that became a real anthem during the September 11th attack season, or following the September 11th attacks. He is actually going to be performing that, I believe, later this evening on a Disney special. There is a lot going on with that. We will talk a little bit about how music played a big role in the healing of our nation. Once again, we are going to have a lot of interesting videos for you to watch and to look back. I want to talk about looking forward as well because I think we can easily look at society as a whole and see where things have fallen apart.
Will Haines: Once again, as we talk about even the rhetoric, we talked this week about how shocking it was that John Fetterman would have something nice to say about a colleague across the aisle, the other Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It seems like that is our reality, and we think about what the post-9/11 world was. It was a lot less hostile to each other. It was a lot more unified. The ability to think back at those times sometimes gets lost on us as we look at how divided and vitriolic much of our politics has become.
Logan Sekulow: I think all of us who were there can easily put your mindset very quickly back. I was 15 years old; now I am 40. Think about that. That is how time is moving. When the 50th rolls around, we will be 65 years old. This is how much time is moving and how quick time is moving. I taught at a college a couple of years back. None of my students were alive during the September 11th attacks. We have to do our job in educating and not just let it become a piece of something they read in a history book that you don't take as something that really did happen. I think we can all say that. When you didn't live through something—we didn't live through Pearl Harbor—we have heard the story over and over again, but I am sure it is a much different experience for those that were living through it. Let's talk about that. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Again, our team has put together some great video packages for you to watch, hopefully for you to remember and also to inspire some hope in where we are headed. With that being said, it really was the tide-turned for the ACLJ in 9/11 when all of a sudden we got thrust into the world of politics in a way that we had not been involved with before. With the George W. Bush administration, it was really the first time the ACLJ was invited into that room to be a part of the White House, to be a part of what was happening in that world. We can easily mark that also as what became the current chapter of the ACLJ, and with that, I ask for your support as well at ACLJ.org. We will be right back.
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Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. Yes, we are still talking, of course, about the September 11th attacks, looking back on 25 years. Last year, we were talking about our kids and how my kids are in their early teens and tweens, and they do talk about it quite a bit. Last year, my son did the stair walk where they match the flights of stairs that the towers were that the firefighters would have had to run up. So there are still these things happening in society, but we even talked about how it gets a little lumped together as ancient history.
Will Haines: That is right. I was driving my daughter to school this morning, and we were talking through our days. I brought up the fact that it is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. There is a series of books that are very popular with kids, and it is the "I Survive" series. She has read quite a few of these, gets them at the library at school. In her mind, the 9/11 terrorist attacks are kind of on the same playing field as the sinking of the Titanic because that is what this series is. There is a book, "I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic," and there is "I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001." For a child's mind, they are ancient history to some degree. In talking through that, I said, "You have read that one book. I was alive and lived through that experience with everyone else in this country." You think of just the generational change of now this event that was 25 years ago. There are adults that are in the workforce, they are policymakers, and people working on this show that were not born when these terror attacks happened.
Logan Sekulow: There is going to be a lot of people talking obviously today. They are still reading the list. President Trump spoke this morning from Washington, D.C. We have seen a lot of different tributes tonight. Later on in the show, we are going to have on John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting. Tonight on Disney+, they are doing a big hour-long special. He will perform with Lainey Wilson the song "Superman" at the base of where the beams are for the September 11th Memorial. We are going to chat about that, and you're not going to want to miss that conversation with him a little bit later. Our team did put together a video. If it does feel fuzzy in your mind, or maybe you weren't there, maybe you're one of the younger people watching, even if you were under 10 years old when it happened, it may have been something you were shielded from in some ways that we need to look back. This is something our team put together, a special video presentation.
Guest (Male): The entire building has just collapsed. My God. 25 years ago, the world stopped. It began as an ordinary Tuesday morning. By day's end, our nation would never be the same. 2,970 innocent lives were lost. Thousands more were left bearing the scars. Families were forever changed. Firefighters climbed the towers. Police officers ran towards danger. First responders answered the call, knowing they might never come home. Over 4,000 first responders and survivors have since perished from toxic exposure at Ground Zero. Yet even in our darkest hour, America still stood together. We prayed together. We grieved together. We stood as one nation. Though 25 years has passed, the memory remains. The gratitude endures. We remember those we lost. We honor those who answered the call. And we give thanks for the heroes who showed the world the strength of the American spirit. 25 years later, we still remember. We still honor. And we will never forget.
Logan Sekulow: Incredible work from our team putting these video packages together. Even in the next segment, you're going to see a portion of a film we did marking the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. That was 15 years ago. We will have some clips on that where we looked back on the 10 years that came beyond the September 11th attack and what the world looked like 15 years ago. I think you will even see there are some major differences today, whether that is in New York City, Washington, D.C., or anywhere in this country. Of course, the changes that we saw were drastic, and they were changes that a lot of them became ingrained in us. Look at the way airports run. Those daily changes, a lot of them stuck, and they have been in this process for the last 25 years. We don't even think about them anymore, that this is really that moment. Like I said earlier with the ACLJ, you could even easily look at the work that we were doing pre-9/11 and right after 9/11 and how that shifted dramatically from not just our work that was traditional religious freedom, but then how that shifted to being something much larger worldwide and our involvement where we were welcomed into the room that would be the Oval Office into the White House under the Bush administration and then later on how that would then bleed into the Trump administration as well. To say that it changed everyone's lives, I think we can look at even little simple things like how you go about travel and how you go about almost every part of your life shifted in that moment, and some of them have not returned to what they were before.
Will Haines: That is right. I remember exactly where I was. I was in geometry class in high school. I remember there being an announcement over the intercom that was cryptic, and our teacher went and locked the door. Our school went under a lockdown at that point. She immediately called the front office, and then shortly after, we found out what was going on. But this was in Orlando, Florida. This wasn't in New York, it wasn't in Washington, D.C., but our school went under lockdown, not knowing what was going on. That fear was a collective fear across the country and even the days after, the anomalies that were seen across the country as people lived in this fear of what's coming next. Could our town, could our little community be affected by this in a different way? There was that uncertainty, but everyone knew they were in it together as well. Let's take Diane's call here from Maryland. Diane, you're on Sekulow.
Diane: I just wanted you to know that on 9/11, I was a school teacher in Prince George's County. I was teaching fourth grade, and I was on the second floor in a school building that we could look out across and see the Pentagon. We got a notice from the office to take a moment of silence. I told the children, "You know, there's some scary things that are happening out there, but you're all right. You're going to be okay. What we're going to do is take our principal's suggestion that we go to prayer." She said one moment of silence, and the kids said, "That's not long enough." I said, "Let's go to prayer." A little boy said, "Can we get on our knees?" I said, "Of course you can." The principal came back on and said, "Okay, the time is up," and this one little boy said, "I'm not done." I said, "I'll tell you what, I think it's okay that we let you continue." I looked at all of them, and I said, "We all can continue." They all stayed on their knees.
Logan Sekulow: Diane, I think your students were blessed to have you in that moment as no one knew what to do, but being able to pray, being able to seek wisdom and comfort in the Lord in that moment is what many of us knew. That was the only thing we knew to do. Having a teacher that could be there for fourth graders, as you said, is a remarkable thing. Once again, your students were fortunate and blessed to have you as someone to lead them in that moment. We are going to continue these tributes throughout this edition of Sekulow. We are live, though. If you do want to call in, 1-800-684-3110. I know a lot of you are tuning in to a lot of the other coverage, but if you are watching us live right now, be a part of the conversation. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. I'll take a call coming up in the next segment. We also have a special video package put together again. We have been talking about the September 11th attacks just like everyone has every year for 25 years now. It feels like this year is particularly heavy. Obviously, it marks a big milestone. It also is very easy to look around in society and see not only the changes that occurred that brought us together but the ones that also feel like they have crumbled. Let's talk about that when we get back as well. 1-800-684-3110. In the second half of the show, I will be joined by John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting. He will be performing tonight all over the world on Disney+. We will chat about that and how music really helped heal our country as well at the time. When we get back, we're going to take your calls. If you do want to support the work that we do here at the ACLJ, you know what to do. Go to ACLJ.org. You can become a champion if you'd like, and we appreciate it. Thanks. We'll be right back.
Narrator: For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in court, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. If you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today at ACLJ.org.
Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have a few lines still open at 1-800-684-3110. I didn't want to waste any time, and when we get back from this clip, I'm able to take some calls because some of you are calling in right now. This is from a special video presentation we made almost 15 years ago now. This was marking the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks from a film the ACLJ team put together called "Forever Changed." It was marking 10 years, and here we are marking 15 years since then. This gives you even a look back to 2011, when things were still pretty fresh. Take a look.
Guest (Male): He was working in the World Trade Center. He was working on the 105th floor. I was working on the 77th floor. We went into work together like we did every day. I got down to the train depot and the first train we took, and I said to him, "Todd, why don't we take the ferry over the Hudson?" He said, "No, I'm going to take the train." I said, "Todd, it's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful Tuesday. Come with Daddy." No, he was just lazy, I told him. He didn't want to take the ferry because it was a little longer walk. But in any event, I said to him, "Have a great day, sweetheart."
Guest (Male): My son used to constantly say, "Oh, we haven't caught any work yet. We haven't had a good job." I said, "You know, relax, you'll get some work, don't worry." I was a firefighter detailed into the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, so basically I wasn't really wearing the helmet anymore; I was wearing a tie and helping represent Mayor Giuliani at the scene of major emergencies in New York City. Everybody remembers how beautiful the day was. Beautiful fall day, just spectacular. I went to work at 7 World Trade Center, which was my office, just like a normal day. I was having breakfast around 8:00 AM, 8:30 in our cafeteria. I was just sitting there reading the paper.
Guest (Female): That day I was taking my daughter to the bus stop to pick up the bus to go to school. She was in middle school at the time. I remember sitting in a three-seater behind my bus driver and saying to myself, "Today feels like this is going to be a day I'm never ever going to feel like I'm going to forget." I didn't understand why I felt that way. For me, it was my first day of retirement. I had decided to retire in July of 2000, and this was the first day of school. So it was my first day of real retirement, and I expected the day to play out very differently.
Guest (Male): At about 8:46 on that morning, I was in my office, I was on the phone, and the building shook. Boom. It moved. The glass case in my office exploded. I remember the lights went out. Now this is a new high-rise, newer high-rise building, so for the power to go out is pretty unusual. It went out, and seven seconds later, it just came back on. I knew from my experience that that meant that we lost a feeder cable. Something major happened. We lost a feeder cable, and the power came back on through another feeder cable. I knew something fairly serious had occurred. Then the people that were sitting on the windows that looked at Tower One all got up and started running, screaming toward me. The radio started going off that a plane had crashed into one of the towers downtown.
Logan Sekulow: We are about to head to break, but that was a special video presentation from our film "Forever Changed" that came out on the 10th anniversary of September 11th. That's what we were talking about in 2011, and now here we are in 2026 discussing the 25th anniversary. With that, I do want to take some phone calls coming up in the next segment. 1-800-684-3110. Then just a little bit later, we will be joined by John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting talking about his song "Superman," which became one of the many songs, but really one of the highlight songs that helped us get through that era. We'll talk to him and I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air today. Go to ACLJ.org. We'll be right back.
Narrator: The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. If you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today at ACLJ.org.