All language subtitles for 9 11 United We Stand 25 Years Later 2026 1080p DSNP WEB-DL DD 5 1 H 264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

Take one.

The events of 9/11 were devastating
for everybody.

It's amazing that it's 25 years ago,
'cause I can still feel it, you know?

I'll never forget.
It's, like, seared into my soul.

I heard a plane.
The impact was unbelievable.

And then I saw a flame.

I see the towers. We're under attack.

This looks like it is some sort
of a concerted effort

to attack the World Trade Center.

I'm getting chills thinking
about how terrible that was.

My goodness,
I'm getting those chills again.

The entire building...

...has just collapsed,
and it is not there anymore.

People start calling,
and the TV goes on, and...

it all starts to sink in.

As we came downstairs,

we were just dragging people along
with us.

Everyone that rushed
down there immediately

and risked their own lives
to help others,

those were the true heroes.

My dad loved being a fireman.

He's my hero, for sure.

We were all inspired by everyday people.

After September 11th,
players and coaches knew

they had a responsibility
to be there for the public.

I wasn't a coach anymore.
I was just an American.

You wanted to do something.

Everyone was like, "Okay. Here we go.
Now do your job,

and you have to make people smile again
and know that we're gonna be okay."

And we looked at our job as this was
another responsibility to provide joy.

At the wall! See ya!

Our job was to give people
something to cheer for.

And you think, "What can you do?"

And then I was contacted
about The Concert for New York.

New York City firefighters,
police officers,

tonight is dedicated to you.

I often make fun of, you know,
who gives a crap about a play?

But we do care about those things.

And when something like this happens,
they matter a lot.

Celebrities, the-the stars of the show,

they came here tonight because they wanted
to show us that everything will be fine.

For all of us
in sports, music, entertainment,

we all realized
that we could all collectively...

help the country heal.

There's no place like New York City.

Even though I grew up in the South
and I've lived here on the East Coast

for more than half my life,

it just gets into your soul.

I was born in New York City.

I grew up in Long Island.

It was always a magical time

coming over the Long Island Expressway
and seeing Oz.

I grew up in, uh, Greenwich Village.

I love New York. I-I'm, uh...

I mean, I see why people don't.
You could not love it too.

I had never thought
I would live in New York City.

This was the furthest place
from my mind

when it came to where I'm gonna start
my football career.

But I was drafted here,
and I fell in love with the city.

My dad worked at IBM, and they
had some special bus trip to the city.

I remember just falling in love with
the smell of the hot-dog cart and the...

Even the exhaust from the subway,
I remember. And I just...

All that magic, it was just, uh...
It's larger than life.

Good morning, America. I'm Charles Gibson.

I'm Diane Sawyer.
And it's Tuesday, September 11th, 2001.

Michael may be back.

Jordan all but announced that he is coming
back to play NBA basketball.

Too much rainfall in the Bronx last night,
so the Yankees and Red Sox washed out.

On ABC's Monday Night Football,

the Broncos
and 11-point winner over the Giants.

On 9/11, I was actually going to vote.

Vote in the primary.

It is primary day. Polls are open.

Lots of races to be decided, including
who will run for mayor of New York.

We woke up that morning, my wife and I,

you know, feeling the apartment rattle,

not realizing that that was,
uh, one of the planes

on its way to hitting the towers.

We want to tell you what we know
as we know it,

but we just got a report in
that there's been some sort of explosion

at the World Trade Center
in New York City.

At that time,
I was living in Montclair, New Jersey,

and I'm looking
at this great view of Manhattan,

and the centerpiece
of the view were the Twin Towers.

And I'll never forget
looking out the window

and I see the first tower is on fire.

We lived in SoHo at the time.
Pretty close.

And so I walked down
on Charlton Street, actually,

stepped around to 7th Avenue,

and saw this big, burning hole
at the World Trade Center.

There is one report

that a plane has hit
the World Trade Center.

You know, we didn't know if it was
an accident, if it was on purpose.

It was very hard to believe
what you were seeing.

We went outside to look over the city and
we could see one of the buildings smoking.

And by the time that we were trying
to figure out what's going on,

you could hear and feel in your chest
the second building get hit.

- It's another one.
- Oh, my God.

This looks like it is some sort
of a concerted effort

to attack the World Trade Center
that is underway.

I don't know everything
George Bush knew that morning,

and we do see that look of bewilderment.

What he didn't know for sure
is what was going to happen next.

This is a plane crash
into the Pentagon.

I was innocently sitting in my office
at the Pentagon

when there was a jolting blast
on the other side of the building.

There were so many rumors.

We're getting reports
of the White House evacuating.

There has been a crash in Pennsylvania.

The flight that went down was
United Airlines Flight 93.

The government has now shut down

the entire air traffic system
in the United States.

Take two in two, one.

This is as close as we can get
to the base of the World Trade Center.

You can see the firemen assembled here,
the police officers, FBI agents,

and you can see the two towers, a huge
explosion now raining debris on all of us.

We better get out of the way!

I don't care where you were.

You remember where you were.

You remember where you were
when you heard or when you saw

the towers go down.

- Everybody out!
- Let's go!

The entire building has just
collapsed and it is not there anymore.

The whole building
has collapsed?

The building has collapsed.

We've all heard the phrase now

that while everyone else is running away
in a disaster,

it's the police and the firemen
who are running towards it.

It was unbelievable in there.

There's guys still trapped
we couldn't get to.

And in that moment on that day,
it seared in my mind on how those men

and women ran to the disaster
to be there for their fellow man.

I mean we... we go out the door
every morning,

us, the NYPD, the Port Authority officers.

There's no guarantee you're going home
at the end of the day.

You might have just hugged your kids
and your wife for the last time.

You know, call somebody
and tell them you love them.

It was an overwhelming feeling of

grief and fear.

There was not much to say
about what was going on

'cause no one experienced it before.

Everyone was walking down the streets
in silence, so it was very eerie.

It's hard to articulate
what the scene was like.

You didn't know if there was more coming
or-or what was next.

Oh, no!

Oh, my God.

Both trade towers have now
been attacked and destroyed.

It was impossible to imagine
that these two magnificent buildings...

...were now not there.

Keep running!
It's coming down!

First of all, you felt that life
would never be the same, okay?

Once 9/11 hit.

The landscape
of New York City has just been changed.

And one has to assume
that thousands of lives

have been extinguished.

You'll be all right.

New York
was such a colossal loss of life.

But the loss of life in the Pentagon
was also personal and horrific

for every person there.

We were a little bit forgotten
at that time,

and-and in some ways apologetic, like,
"No, no, no, we're fine, we're fine here,

everybody's fine,"
because of the massive loss in New York.

We're talking
about massive casualties.

- Hey, Dallas.
- Go ahead.

That guy hit the Pentagon.

- United 93, it hit the ground.
- Yes.

Diane, just exactly where are you?

We're about four and a half blocks
from Ground Zero.

I just picked up this sea
of financial documents.

The analysis of someone's budget,
and then there's an analysis

of an insurance filing, and you just keep
thinking how important all of these seemed

to someone 24 hours ago.

And I just thought we lost my brother.
I was just sitting there, I was like...

- They didn't know.
- You heard dogs barking.

You heard cats meowing
because they didn't come home.

There was such hurt.
Then you think, what can you do?

The night Broadway reopened.

That was a very communal feeling.
I loved it.

I felt that we had more
of a responsibility than playing baseball.

I remember a policeman giving
me his hat, and I was wearing it.

We're all in this together.

We knew we had to make people smile again.
This is why you do this.

People need you now.

Twenty-five years later,
we're never gonna stop hurting,

but hopefully we're constantly healing.

One of my brothers was in the building.

So...

I had three brothers
that are New York City firemen.

And they were all working on 9/11.

Got a call from my father because, you
know, the three of them were down there,

but he hasn't heard if everybody was safe.

Tuesday is our day off in the NFL,
so I had an early dentist appointment.

By the time I got in my car, uh,
the second plane had hit.

My father called me

and told me that Jimmy was there.

Were standing in the street,

and the-the plane,
the first plane came over our heads.

I thought I could have touched it,

it was so close to us, but my lieutenant
starts screaming, "Get on the rig!"

He just starts following
that plane downtown.

I thought it was gonna be
the biggest fall of my career.

I was actually psyched,
and I realized how stupid I was.

This way, this way.

I remember we were running into the lobby,
so we started heading up.

So I think we got to, like, 27,
and the other building came down,

and they say your life flashes
in front of you

and it does, completely, in ten seconds.

And my brother Jimmy was in tower one when
tower, uh, two fell

and he was running out of tower one
when it was falling behind him.

The lieutenant just,
she started screaming, "Run!"

And we just dove out the side windows

that were... that were already blown out
from the other building coming down.

And we didn't hear from him.

We didn't know,
and I just thought we lost my brother.

I was just sitting there. I was like...

We didn't know.

My other brother
didn't even put out a fire yet,

and that was his first day
on the job, and,

you know, he-he spent hours
just looking for my brother Jimmy.

I ended up finding Jimmy,
and, uh, this is where it was.

This was the... This was the moment.

I found my brother. Here.

Death, you know, that's how close he was,
and there's no words that need to be said.

To have him still alive
was, uh, truly amazing.

♪ With arms wide open ♪

I can never fathom
what my brothers went through,

but there's many more stories out there.

The Giants retreating
to a red-eye back to New York.

As they start the season 0 and 1.

Coming through the terminal,
we're going out of that terminal

when those who lost their lives are coming
into the terminal to get on those flights.

And kind of shakes you.

Really shakes you

inside.

Because those are some
of the final moments for people.

You saw what the passengers on United
Flight 93 did, taking over the controls

to down the plane in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania,

avoiding what might have been
a far more horrific attack.

They lost their lives,
so you wish you could go back

and in that moment change history.

We're going out and they're coming in.

And, yeah, it kind of of played the trick
with your mind, and you feel it.

266 people died on four aircraft today,

the two that crashed
into the Trade Towers,

the one that crashed into the Pentagon,

uh, and... [clears throat] ...the one
that crashed, uh, in Pennsylvania today...

When I got home on 9/11, my son
had watched enough of the coverage that

the first thing my son said to me when we
got home is, "I'm not flying anymore."

That's the way a child
would deal with that.

2001, I'm seven.

I live in a townhouse
with my mom in Staten Island.

I was about 14 years old.
It was the first day of school.

Eighteen-year-old Merrill worked in
the mail room of Lehman Brothers

at Three World Financial,
in between the two towers.

Loved cartoons.

Um, Rocky.

Rocky was huge, uh,
in the Davidson household.

Flip phones only, you know.
Internet was pretty much dial-up.

It was a good time.
It was a good time in the world.

I was big
on taking hooky days.

September 11th,
I was at my house in the Bronx.

I just didn't feel like going to work.

I was in Paterson,
New Jersey, at the time.

I remember walking in the homeroom
on that first day

and looking up at the TV screen, uh,

and-and the news being on
and me being like, "What is that?"

There was no Twitter, there was no, like,
"Let me open up an app on my phone

and see what's going on in the...
in-in the world."

So the only source of information
that I had was the TV.

Because it went in.

If it was a bomb,
it would have gone out, and it went in.

My dad was one of the many, uh, firemen
that commuted down there just to help.

My dad loved being a fireman.

Um...

Like, he-he loved it.

The hardest part was not knowing
if he was okay,

how many more days he was gonna be there.

It was a scary time for a 14-year-old kid.

You know, when you're seven and you're
told your dad's not coming back, like,

you kind of get it.

I get it more and more as you get older

when, like, you're doing stuff
that you'd want him to be at.

And, um...

He loved Stallone.
Everyone should know that.

He loved Stallone and Arnold
and Bruce Willis, and, uh...

you know, I-I-I...
he's-he's my hero, for sure.

No, because the world changed
after September 11th.

So, um, you know,
if you were young at that time,

you may not know
what the world was like before.

There's adults that are still trying
to process what happened.

I was living
in an apartment building in New York City.

It was my first apartment in the city.

I didn't realize how many people
that I didn't even know

who lived in the building
worked at-at the Twin Towers.

And the reason you knew that
is that you heard dogs barking,

you heard cats meowing, you heard their
pets because they didn't come home.

And that was really hard.
That was really hard to be, you know,

in that environment and knowing
that people that you didn't really know

but you probably saw in the elevator,
uh, they didn't make it home.

It was pretty awful.

I lived right by St. Vincent's Hospital,
and that was

where they had meant to bring
survivors who never showed up.

There are all these doctors and nurses
hanging out for hours and hours and

no trucks pulling up, no ambulances.

So that was scary.

We are a nation now on high alert,
not just militarily, but psychologically.

Shaken on every level.

Early morning of the 12th, packed up some
stuff, went down to, uh, Ground Zero

and just began working,
whatever we could do.

We're trying.

It's too...

It's too... It's too much.
The rubbles is too much.

First responders are those who wore
the uniform and the patch and the badge.

Um, would never disrespect them.

The unions, the trades that went
to Ground Zero, were responders.

You needed plumbers to turn off water.
You needed electricians to get power up

so we can work at night and get lights up.

We needed carpenters to build bridges.

We needed those
who can operate heavy machinery.

It gave me an appreciation
for anonymous individuals performing

daily functionality for the rest of us.

It's like in The Matrix, when all of
a sudden Neo can see the zeros and ones.

It's... You can see kind of what holds
this thing together, what's the fabric.

We ate there, we slept there,
we cried there, we worked there,

we went to the bathroom there.

You could be working on the pile

on one end,
and you couldn't even see where it ended.

You know, it was everywhere.

We will still conduct ourselves
as a rescue effort

as well as a recovery effort.

But we don't have any substantial amount
of hope that we can offer to anyone

that we're going to be able
to find anyone alive.

You watch shows now like these zombie
dystopian shows where they put up...

there's on a fence, and everybody's
pictures are up on the fence

of the people that are missing
and all those, and it's sort of a-a trope.

But that's what downtown Manhattan was.

It felt dystopian, and there was
a certain vertigo to it

that you didn't feel you were
on-on solid ground.

Where we live,
in Monmouth County,

that was the hardest-hit county
in New Jersey.

All of our friends and neighbors
who commuted and worked in Manhattan,

these were our people.

But whether it was your friends
and neighbors or on a grander scale,

strangers that you would eventually meet,
9/12 was one of the most beautiful days

when the world came together
and said, "We are one."

The National Football League
is deliberating what to do

with week-two games
scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

You're going to tell us
that we have to play, well, then,

we're not going to be there.

I'm hopeful that you can laugh
and also be moved and, um, be together.

There were lots of tears in the audience.

Just being in the city
for those few days afterwards,

we were so confused and it was such
an upsetting time and so devastating.

Everybody just was trying so hard
to do whatever they could to help,

and nothing else really mattered.

Broadway shows
were canceled.

Times Square today was virtually empty.

And for the first time in my life,
sports didn't really matter.

Sports is an afterthought.
We fully appreciate that.

We know that you do as well.
Still, there is news to report tonight.

All Major League Baseball games
have been postponed tonight.

It is the first time in 56 years
that baseball has postponed

all Major League games
for a reason other than a work stoppage.

Baseball, to its credit, understood
right away what it needed to do.

I think other sports, the NFL just comes
to mind, weren't quite as immediate.

The National Football League
is deliberating what to do

with week-two games scheduled
for Sunday and Monday.

Some said that with the owners
and the commissioner and everyone else,

they're going to huddle up
and decide on Thursday.

And I said, "What's the decision?"

People in this locker room have neighbors
who are missing, um, you know,

our-our-our children's friends in schools
don't have dads and moms anymore.

We had heard that the Jets
were planning on not playing

regardless of what the decision
was coming down to,

and there was a lot of discussion in our
locker room about doing the same thing.

We didn't want to play football.
We didn't care about football.

How can I focus on playing
when I'm seeing what's happened

just right there on our doorstep?

I think New York City and the country
needs to be behind everybody

with the effort of trying to save
as many people as possible

and trying to get the city
back on its feet.

There were some cities that,
"Yeah, we'll play."

I don't think they really understood
and felt it

as much as you may have felt if you were
in New York, if you were in DC,

if you were in some of these other areas,
but we were adamant, like, okay.

Um, we voted no, and a lot of teams just
said, "Hey, if they say no, we say no."

We're not going to be there.

You have two New York teams
who I really gained a lot of respect for

saying, "We weren't going to play."

For the first time
in its history,

the NFL has canceled
all of its games this weekend.

And because of the push
of two players who played in New York,

Michael Strahan and Kevin Mawae
loved New York

and cared about
what New York was going through.

They made it a point to make sure there
would be no football that week,

which I think was genuinely heroic
on their part.

I can't imagine the horror
that people have gone through.

I can't imagine the horror
that the families

who are looking for their loved ones
are going through right now.

As much as we may be
caught up in the emotions of the moment,

in the fear of the moment,

there has to be some way
of returning to some kind of normal life.

Tonight, Broadway reopened.

It's kind of astonishing
that two days after 9/11,

when it was a war zone in New York,

that the show came back up in two days.

I mean, it was great for the city,
I think,

and it was great for us
because we suddenly had, like, something...

a little teeny thing
we felt like we could do.

Let's come and do this play.

The Producers
started in April of 2001,

and that was the centerpiece show
for Broadway.

This is the big hit.

The Producers, you know, when it opened,
it was like, people were crazy for it.

It's the show everyone's buzzing about.

Everything about the show is sensational.

To get a ticket was very hard.

Those tickets are going
for a hundred bucks a pop.

A hundred bucks a pop,
and that's the list price.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

Wipe that smile off your face.

This is serious business, Bloom.

We were in some ways
the symbol for Broadway.

But 9/11 happened, and we were all
told to come to the theater,

the whole cast and the crew,

we all sat in the auditorium
and on the stage.

Our producer, Rocco Landesman,

said all the producers had been called
by the mayor and told,

"You have to go back on right away."

If you were planning to come to New York,
come here now.

Come to enjoy Broadway.

It was scary to get to
Times Square and do this play.

You know, even getting to Times Square,
going through checkpoints,

there were police.

I remember you had to bring
a piece of mail with your address on it,

but we made it to the theater,
and God bless the 200 or so people

who said, "[bleep]. I'll go see, uh...
I'm gonna go see a musical comedy."

It feels like the right place to be.

I mean, the arts are what supports
our spirits in times like this.

You've got to go out tonight
and make people laugh.

Is that gonna be hard?

Um, I'm hopeful that you can laugh
and also be moved and, um, be together.

They came, and we thought,
"Will they laugh at anything?"

But they did, I think.

I'm fine.

It was a wonderful night,
that first night back.

Wonderful for us
and, I think, for the people there.

Bringing this show that was
pure happiness back to the stage quickly...

We were all holding in
all this anger, emotion, fear.

It was this

release.

We had been told to sing
"God Bless America" at the curtain call.

Which I did not know the lyrics of,

so I spent a lot of the day
trying to make sure I wouldn't forget.

You know, we're all lined up on the stage,
and we sang "God Bless America,"

and the audience sang too.

And I remember there were
lots of tears in the audience.

And probably on stage too.

That was a very communal feeling.

Like, I loved it.

I want you all to know.

Louder!

I want you all
to know the nation sends its love.

Thank you for your hard work.

Thank you for making the nation proud.

And may God bless America.

Looking at President Bush's speech,

there's, like,
some national pride in that.

It was like,
"Yeah, we're gonna come back from this.

We're gonna be resilient.
We're gonna fight."

And it did make you want to be involved.

It made us want to get involved.

The Giants' practice bubble

has become a staging area
for disaster relief.

Washington players
stocked with Redskins paraphernalia

visited victims at
Washington Hospital Center's burn unit,

intensive care unit, and MedStar.

After September 11th,
players and coaches absolutely knew

that they had a platform
and a responsibility

to be there for the public,

and I think in so many ways
really did help heal people.

The Steelers, Friday,
were in Somerset, Pennsylvania,

80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh

at a memorial service
for those who perished

in the crash of United Flight 93
in nearby Shanksville, PA.

The Steelers certainly
are heroes on the field,

but somewhere in that field
lay some true heroes.

For me, it was very simple.

I took the coach's hat off
when this happened.

I wasn't a coach anymore.

I was just an American.

And as an American,
you wanted to do something.

What were we gonna do?
You know, sit at home?

No, we wanted to collectively get together

and offer whatever kind of assistance
that we could at Ground Zero.

We just wanted to be there to show them
that there are people out there

who appreciate them most of all

because they're doing something
that we weren't capable of doing.

That's the biggest show that we wanted
to give them was a show of respect.

That trip to the armory,
I was a little sensitive about going in

'cause this is where family members
were waiting for results from DNA.

Uh, results about their loved ones.

I was there, but I don't think I was
emotionally ready to go inside

because I'm seeing the scene outside,
where people have posters and signs

and looking for loved ones,
and they're completely crushed.

You know, I-I didn't know what to say.
I wouldn't know what to do.

And Bernie Williams,
and I'll never forget this...

Bernie Williams went up to this one woman
and looked at her.

He says, "I don't know what to say,
but you look like you need a hug."

Members of other families came over,

and they had these photos
of their loved ones

wearing, like, a Yankee cap
or a Yankee T-shirt,

and it was at that point that I felt that,

you know, we had more of a responsibility
than playing baseball.

The loss and the grief of that day,

you have to adjust back to what really is
an overused phrase, which is "new normal,"

but it was a new normal.

You can go to work, but you cannot get
that horror out of your head.

Millions of Americans
mourned and prayed.

And tomorrow we go back to work.

For the first time
since the terrorist attacks,

Major League Baseball resumed last night,

so we sent Robin Roberts
out to Pittsburgh.

The Mets were playing
the Pirates out there,

a game that was supposed
to be played in New York,

but Shea Stadium
is still being used as a staging area.

I've never been to
a sporting event that was so somber.

Even though there was a postponement,

it was so soon after 9/11
and to be in Pittsburgh

and knowing that one of the planes
went down not far from there.

One of the hijacked planes crashed
just 80 miles from here in a field.

And I think that really was
on the minds of a lot of people.

I was gonna be with people to sing
"The Star-Spangled Banner" tonight,

and I needed to do that.

It's such a fine line that we walk,

because you want to honor
those that were fallen, that were killed.

But also you want to honor them by living
your life to the fullest in their memory.

USA! USA!

I don't know about you.

But as for me,
the question has already been answered.

Should we be here?

Yes.

We had all been trying
to process everything that had happened

for that week or so,
and it felt unbearable,

like if I don't lance this, uh, you know,

I-I will... I will burst.

A sober and visibly shaken
David Letterman

was the first of the late-night hosts
to return to the airwaves.

The first person to calm me down
was David Letterman.

He said there's only one requirement
of all of us, and that is to be

- courageous.
- ...courageous.

Because courage, as you might know,
defines all other human behavior.

And he also said, "Pretending to be

- courageous"--
- ...courageous

- is just as good as-as the real thing.
- ...the real thing.

That really stuck with me

because I don't think
these first responders

and these firefighters
and people that showed up

thought about,
"I'm going to be courageous."

They just were.

Obviously,
Letterman's return was the big one.

It was sort of that feeling of like,
"Well, if Daddy is gonna come home,

I guess... I guess the rest of us...
You know, it's-it's probably okay."

When I was thinking about
what we would do on the first show back,

I cannot stress enough
how much of it was just about caretaking.

There's no other way, really, to start
the show than to ask you at home

the question that we asked the audience
here tonight, and that is, "Are you okay?"

He was the one who gave us permission,
Jon Stewart, at that moment,

to go forward,

but with a deep understanding
of what had just happened.

The main reason
that I wanted to speak tonight

is I wanted to tell you why I grieve...

...but why I don't despair.

You're still left dealing
with your own emotions...

I'm sorry.

...and if you just stick to the specificity

of your own upset, fear, and resilience,
those things,

that if-if you can find a way
to express that honestly,

that maybe there'll be some value in that.

Any fool can blow something up,
but to see these guys,

these firefighters, these policemen,
literally with buckets, rebuilding,

that's extraordinary.

Jon Stewart that night,
he had the perfect tone.

It was healing with responsibility.

In many ways, it's the same thing
George Bush was trying to do

in his own very different way.

My fellow citizens.

For the last nine days,
the entire world has seen for itself

the state of our union, and it is strong.

Our president,
I felt what he was feeling,

and I wanted to be a lieutenant
in his army.

He knew that baseball
needed to be played again,

and it needed to be played in New York.

There are bigger things than baseball,

but, um, even though it may not be much,

baseball is a way to try to help.

You're seeing the Braves
and the New York Mets, archrivals,

kind of salute the people of New York,

and there was a camaraderie that existed
that was very uncomfortable for Met fans

because we have to despise these people.

And you sort of figured
the game would be sort of ancillary,

but this baseball game,

it was a game filled with
all the grand emotions

that is the best of sport,

including the kind of hero moment
that you almost never get to see.

It was a big time in the game.

And here's the man
the Mets want up in this spot,

down a run late in the game.

When Mike hit that ball, it was
the loudest home run I've ever heard.

It was just a spectacular sound.

And it's in deep to left center.

Andruw Jones on the run.
This one has a chance.

Home run!

Mike Piazza and the Mets lead 3-2.

You saw an explosion of emotion
from the stadium

that was a catharsis that can only occur
through unexpected exploit.

A two-run home run,
and this place exploded.

In these tragedies,
something gets muted.

It's like when a TV goes
from color to black-and-white.

Like, there's this little switch
that goes off

that takes you into this weird gray scale,

and when Piazza hit that ball,

it was like that scene in The Wizard of Oz
where it all goes into Technicolor again.

That's just what it felt like.
It was that black-and-white movie...

...that all of a sudden got light.

And part of the recovery
is reminding ourselves

that we still possess
the totality of our humanity.

Why is baseball back?

Those firefighters smiling
because of a baseball game in Flushing.

So many celebrities were leaving New York.
McCartney stuck around.

It was shortly before the concert
that he curated at Madison Square Garden.

Being on Saturday Night Live,
we were all just kind of nervous

and looking around, like, "What do we do?"

We're entertainers,
and our biggest job

is to try to take the world's mind away
from certain daily routines.

Sports always has seemed
to find a way to transcend any tragedy.

For us, it was hockey.
It was the Rangers. It was Mark.

All of us were struggling
for the right words,

and maybe what we had needed
was the right sounds.

The Who, when they're singing
"I Won't Get Fooled Again,"

Madison Square Garden was shaking.

It was shaking.

This was a moment for all of the police,
fire, emergency workers

to let their hair down.

I've worked
in entertainment journalism for 45 years,

and at every moment in those 45 years,

whoever the most famous person
in the room was was a big deal.

After 9/11, if you were famous,
you didn't matter.

There was only one sort
of important person:

a rescuer, a first responder,
or a victim and a victim's family.

Joel Gallen, who had been
my, uh, executive producer at MTV

for a good while,

called me up and said
that this telethon was coming together.

They were going to have
musicians play music

and actors read accounts of heroism

by firefighters, police officers,
ordinary civilians.

The idea was for it not to be
about the celebrities,

but to be about the stories
they were telling.

He arrived at Ground Zero
before the towers fell,

as fires raged around him.

Will Smith and Muhammad Ali were paired,
and, you know, also spoke.

This man might be
the most famous person in the world.

He's one of the greatest heroes
of our time.

And he is a Muslim.

Will explained how, you know, there was
no way that we could allow

any kind of discrimination
against Muslim people.

And then Ali began to speak.

Ali came through
in a way that was powerful

and in a way a little unexpected.

Music was part of the unifier.

Bruce Springsteen did a song
that almost no one had heard at that point

called "My City of Ruins."

♪ My city of ruins ♪

It was done in a somber way.

He had a backup choir
that was enormously powerful.

♪ Come on, rise up ♪

♪ Come on, rise up ♪

He was able to encapsulate
the pain that we were all feeling,

but the hopefulness of-of what may come.

♪ Come on, rise up ♪

Bon Jovi doing "Livin' on a Prayer"
was a suitably powerful moment.

♪ We've got each other
And that's a lot for love ♪

"We got each other, and that's a lot."
That's what it is, right?

In that moment in time,
when you felt helpless,

to have a lyric that is about
just simple unity and-and-and faith.

♪ Whoa-oh
Livin' on a prayer ♪

All of us were struggling
for the right words,

and maybe what we had needed
was the right sounds.

This was everybody doing their part
to help elevate a people in despair,

and it sounds trivial
when you think about it

along the sides of-of-of music
and art and those things,

but it wasn't.

The NFL heads back to work.
It's good to be back.

The NFL is implementing
its tightest security measures

since Super Bowl XXV during the Gulf War.

You could feel tension
because you realize

there's so many people
in one concentrated area.

It was always a-a scary thought.

While the Giants are in
Kansas City, the Jets are in Foxborough.

Both the New York teams
were out of town that weekend.

It mattered, obviously, to them, being
able to go back into action and play.

There were more American flags,
there were more...

it was like everything was like, "Wow."

Patriot right guard
Joe Andruzzi's thoughts

certainly involved his brothers,
Billy, Jimmy and Mark,

who are all New York City firefighters,
all honorary captains, for today's game.

You know, probably the most
butterflies I had in my belly that day

was me running out there.

The cheering of the crowd was
pretty amazing,

especially when they introduced
my brothers who were out there

and, you know, representing
for what they stood for.

They represent not only New York City,

but also all of America today.

They wore their uniforms,
and the-the chills,

you know, knowing that
they stood out there for not themselves,

they stood out there
for what they did as a job,

and that's, I think, when people learned
that they risked their lives every day.

You kind of get a little timid.
You're like, "This is overwhelming."

And then for some reason, I just took
my helmet off and I raised it up,

and then the whole crowd went bananas.

You felt the vibration
of the screams through your body.

It was crazy.

It was an interesting time because you did
see so much patriotism around the country

in support of what was happening
in New York.

We're entertainers, and our biggest job
is to try to take America's mind

and the world's mind away
from certain daily routines,

especially during these times.

Just seeing people come together

and seeing sort of
the generosity of spirit.

I don't remember a time
ever feeling that kind of unity.

♪ God bless America ♪

We just want to go back to living our life

and showing people, whoever did this,
that they're not going to keep us down.

USA! USA! USA!

There was definitely
a united sense of purpose,

a pride in being American.

It really did bring us together,
didn't it?

Being on Saturday Night Live,
we were all just kind of nervous

and looking around like, "What do we do?"
and "What is the first step?"

How do you entertain through all this?

When is it okay to talk about this stuff?

They didn't mess with your feelings

about what had happened on 9/11,
but they did make you laugh.

Being on Saturday Night Live...

we were all just kind of nervous
and looking around, like,

"What do we do,"
and "What is the first step?"

How do you...
how do you entertain through all this?

I think Lorne had a perfect idea
to have first responders and firefighters

on stage with the mayor.

The mayor of New York City,
Rudolph Giuliani.

I think Mayor Giuliani really eased us
back into, "Okay, we're gonna be okay."

But even as we grieve for our loved ones,

it's up to us to face the future
with renewed determination.

And then it was Lorne who had the idea
of the line of, "Can we be funny?"

Can we be funny?

Lorne Michaels has produced SNL
for almost all of its 50 years,

and he will never have written
a better joke

than the one that Giuliani delivers
at that moment.

Why start now?

And that was--
that was kind of the icebreaker

that everyone was like,
"Okay, here we go. Now do your job."

And then
the show begins, and SNL is back.

And you begin to understand
how comedy will deal with 9/11.

The way to do comedy was to sort of go in
through the side door,

and that's what Tina Fey
and Jimmy Fallon did on Weekend Update.

US officials continue the search
for Osama bin Laden.

Reports suggest that bin Laden
is most likely hiding out

somewhere remote and barren,
where he will not encounter others.

They didn't mess with your feelings
about what had happened on 9/11,

but they did make you laugh.

The FBI has begun searching
theaters showing the movie Glitter.

And you have to make people smile again
and know that we're going to be okay.

No one's gonna take our spirit away.

People need you now. You got to show up.

I think that's what New Yorkers did.
You know, Broadway showed up.

Our musicians showed up.

Our athletes showed up.

Two division winners,

the two teams with the best road record
in the league last year

and it's all a forgotten footnote when
the Saints visit Giants Stadium today,

eight miles away
from where the Twin Towers once stood.

We're in New York City,
the hardest-hit city with the attacks.

Yesterday, the Giants were
brought another step closer

to the events of September 11th.

They invited the children of some of the
fallen firefighters and police officers

to join the annual team photo.

And to have these kids come out
who were affected by all of this,

it meant the world.

Saying, "Hey, this is bigger
than just us as football players.

This is us as a community."

I was doing an interview for GMA.

Now to our GMA cover story
with pop sensation Ariana Grande.

She kept saying,
I want you to meet my guy, Pete Davidson.

Now, I was a big fan of his
at that time, on SNL.

I'd be just as happy
if there were no hurricane

and Staten Island just fell into the sea.

Oh...

So he comes in,

he said, "Do you remember 9/11
and the first game back?

You had a kid on your shoulder"...

I was like, "You remember that kid
that you put on your shoulders?"

And he goes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

I go, "You're looking at him."

Now, you talk about chills.

- You [bleep] me? Are you [bleep] me?
- What?

No, I'm gonna freaking cry now.

- No, that was Pete.
- You can't have me crying

up in here, man.

Like, whoa.

Well, he's not the same size
he was back then,

- I'll tell you that.
- No, he's definitely not.

My grandpa went with me.
I remember I was wearing a leather jacket.

I was really into Grease
because my grandpa liked musicals,

and I wanted to be John Travolta.

'Cause when I was seven,
I was like, "That's what a man is."

Seriously, I'm over here getting chills,

- 'cause I remember that.
- And I was like seven or eight,

Pretty sick.

Oh, my God.

When you're a fan of a team
and you're going through something

and they deliver for you,

it feels personal.

You know, you're a part of something.

It was really... it was a special moment.

It's even more special now
'cause he's a good friend of mine.

Sports, movies, moments,
they're very meaningful.

- Congratulations.
- Oh, thank you.

And, you know, we needed that.
Well, you need that in life.

You need moments like that.

NHL action Sunday night.
Rangers hosting Buffalo.

The Rangers and Sabres uniting
to wear New York jerseys

that will be auctioned off to benefit
charities of the World Trade Center.

We had the FDNY and NYPD at the game.

There was probably a handful of times
in my career over 26 years

that something was more important
than that game at that time.

This is one of those games
that felt secondary

to acknowledging what these folks had done
in the face of adversity.

So I was working that day in the Bronx.

The general manager
for the fire department hockey team called

and said the Rangers are inviting
us down for the home opener.

"Bring your sticks, bring your gloves,
bring your skates and bring your jersey."

I'm like, nobody said anything
about bringing our helmets.

It's usually, fire department,
you wear your helmet.

I mean, the helmet is a staple
of a fireman, right?

That's the only thing that separates you

from other rescue workers,
it's the helmet.

There was a picture of Chief Downey
in the firehouse, so I made a copy,

put it on the front of my helmet
and brought it down,

thinking, "Okay,

if I get a chance, I'm gonna sneak this
on the ice and wear it."

Chief Downey was a legend
in the fire department.

He was the guy you wanted.

At any tragedy, you wanted Chief Downey
there because he was gonna get it done.

He just loved the FDNY.

But his number one passion
might have been ice hockey.

So after 9/11, Chief Downey
should have been at the command post

for the entire operation.

But he was in the building with his men
when the collapse happened.

So I go down to the garden
with the helmet

and the picture of Chief Downey.

I snuck it in.

Put it on as we were going out on the ice.

USA! USA!

- And the Rangers started to come out.
- Number 11...

- Mark was last.
- ...Mark Messier.

Let's go! Let's go!

It just happened
that Mark did not have a helmet on,

and on a whim,
I just said to my co-captain,

I'm gonna skate over
and ask Messier if he'll wear the helmet.

He goes, "What? That's not a good idea."

I thought he was just
coming over to shake my hand,

and he got over there,
and he did shake my hand,

but then he said, "We would love you to
wear Chief Downey's helmet in memory."

He said to me, "They don't know
you're doing this, do they?"

And I said, "No."
He goes, "Oh, my God, I love it.

And at that point, I'm thinking to myself,

"Am I worthy of of putting
that helmet on?"

He goes, "No, no, no, put the helmet on.
We would all really appreciate that."

Here's this legendary hockey player
who's got six Stanley Cups,

and who could have expected that?

Haven't seen Mark in 25 years.

- Mark.
- Hey!

- Oh, my God. Good to see you.
- Hi.

- Been a long time. 25 years.
- Twenty-five years.

Long time.

Oh, my goodness. Look at this.

We haven't been together
in that long.

Seeing him here, it's emotional.

- The chief.
- Yeah, great guy.

It turned out to be a moment

that will last forever,
and I'm glad to be a part of it.

- I'm glad to represent.
- You were the right guy for it.

- Oh, thank you. Thank you.
- You were... you know?

I think there are certain people
in your life that are great reminders

about the importance of giving back.

Chief Downey was an amazing guy.

I wish he was here.
He would have loved meeting you.

Oh, my goodness.

- That would have been amazing.
- It would have been amazing.

- Maybe he is over here with us...
- Yeah, he is.

- ...in spirit, for sure.
- He's looking down for sure.

Absolutely.

Sports always has seemed to find a way
to transcend any tragedy.

There's just something about sports,
whatever sport, you know?

For us it was hockey,
it was the Rangers, it was Mark.

It meant a lot.

Once things got moving again,

there were discussions about, you know,
what we were going to do at Rolling Stone.

It seemed a little ridiculous
to sit around and talk to somebody

about their new album or whatever
when 9/11 had just occurred.

But the artists that I speak to
all had plenty of interesting things

to say about that.

One of the most memorable interviews I did
around that time was with Paul McCartney.

That was the time when
so many celebrities were leaving New York,

whereas McCartney stuck around.

I met him at his office.

And it was a beautiful October afternoon

and we were going
to do the interview at a restaurant.

But I remember so distinctly
Paul McCartney saying, "Well,

why don't we just walk to the restaurant?

Let's walk and let's talk.
Let's do the walk.

We walked, like, three or four blocks
up 6th Avenue.

- And it was really just extraordinary.
- Thank you.

- What's up, Paul?
- Okay, okay.

People just couldn't believe it.
They were so happy to see him.

Paul McCartney's here. I can't believe it.

He was just very casual,
like, "Hey, great to see you."

- Hey, how are you?
- I'm all right, man, yeah.

How are you doing? Are you okay?

- All right.
- Sure, all right.

I really feel like McCartney
wanted to send a message that he was here.

It was shortly before the concert
that he curated at Madison Square Garden.

I always think about that time,
and I think about the McCartney lyric,

"Take a sad song and make it better."

I think McCartney felt he needed
to do that for New Yorkers.

The Yankees were in the playoffs.

Paul was at the game.

Very American moment for
Sir Paul McCartney as a big Yankee fan.

There was such incredible belief
in New York, in the Yankees.

As a New Yorker,
we all rally around our teams, right?

Sports is like a unifier.

You could be a Dominican
18-year-old kid from the Bronx,

you could be a 46-year-old
Italian construction worker from Queens,

but we're both Yankees fans.

And it's only something like baseball
that can cure things sometimes.

It was ours.

The Yankees had won
three World Series in a row,

but they had a rocky start
to the playoffs.

We lose both games at home.

Now I'm packing my bag
to go west,

with 9/11 just right there,

where we're all affected by it,
it doesn't go away.

Never before

in a best-of-five series has a team lost
the first two games at home

and come back to win that series.

So when we got to Oakland,

I just said, "Guys, you need to win
one game. Just win one game."

If they lose that game, they go home.

Ready, here's the set
and the pitch, swung on,

smashed down the first baseline,
base hit in the corner.

Jeremy around second, going to third.
Spencer digs it out.

And that was the great Jeter flip play.

They're gonna try to score him.

The ball rolls. Here's the pitch by Jeter.

And he gets the out at the plate!

Derek Jeter with one of the most
unbelievable plays you will ever see

by a shortstop.

I always looked at it
as I was just doing my job.

If you do your job,
you can always bounce back.

I think New Yorkers are built like that,
you know?

New Yorkers, even when they're down,
they bounce back.

That play that Jeter made
sealed it for me.

I was like, "This is it."

We're going all the way
to achieve our destiny.

It became more than just playing baseball.

Our job was to bring joy,
especially to New York at that time.

Ball game over.
Yankees win. The Yankees win!

It was so interesting
to watch that series.

It was some joy for the city, but, you
know, it was still smoldering downtown,

and there was such hurt.

Then you think,
"All right, What can you do?"

And then I was contacted
about the concert for New York.

It was 20-something-thousand people there.

Everybody that you could imagine
wanted to be there, had to be there.

It was an amazing night.

New Yorkers come together and just showing
that fear is not going to stop us.

I remember I was backstage.
I saw Billy Crystal and Adam Sandler,

Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi.

Every door was open,
every dressing room was open,

Everybody was,
you know, hanging out together.

Opening the show was David Bowie
with this incredibly haunting version

of "America,"
the Simon and Garfunkel song.

♪ They've all come to look for America ♪

But then of course he played "Heroes."

♪ We can be heroes just for one day ♪

And that served as a kind of tribute
to the firefighters and policemen

and all of the other first responders
being honored that night.

We have 6,000 special guests.

That was the single
hardest thing I've ever had to do

because you walk out there...

...all I saw were signs.

"Have you seen my father?"

"Have you seen my mother?"

"Have you seen my brother?"
"Have you seen my uncle?"

Have you seen, have you seen,
have you seen, have you seen?

Well, it's amazing that it was
25 years ago, 'cause I can still feel it.

You know? You can still feel their hurt,
you can still feel their pain.

It's something I'll...

...I'll never forget.
It's like seared into my soul.

We were sad, but we were also exhilarated
because we just felt like,

"Okay, we've been to hell and back again
and we're still here,

we're the ones that are here.
Okay, let's go."

And we went on as the first band,
just all...

♪ This ain't a song
For the broken-hearted ♪

The energy of Madison Square Garden--
again, and I'm just, wow...

I just got chills again thinking of it.

Yeah, I remember
a policeman giving me his hat

and I was wearing it
for a good portion of the song.

We're all in this together.

I remember The Who coming out that night

and just, that was the release valve
that we all needed.

When they're singing
"I won't get fooled again..."

♪ We don't get fooled again ♪

Madison Square Garden was shaking.

It was shaking.

There was a... [screams] ...when he screamed.

Everyone was screaming.

This was a moment for all
of the police, fire, emergency workers

to let their hair down,
to be alive, to turn it up again.

And they did. It was glorious.

Thank you very much.

Everybody had one purpose,
and that was to show resilience and hope.

Adam Sandler was out there.

♪ Osama says he's tough
Osama says he's brave ♪

♪ Then tell me why Osama
Is [bleep] in a cave ♪

Usually they have a hard out
at the Garden, like 11 o'clock or...

they have to shut it down.

But not that night.
That night they just said, "No.

Let's go until, until...
let's just put on a show."

Paul, truth be told,
really was at the middle of all of this,

and whether it was Paul McCartney

or David Bowie,
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,

they were all Americans that night,
they were New Yorkers that night.

We were one people of this one world.

We did it.

You know, there was a moment immediately
after 9/11 where people were saying,

"How can you listen to music
or go to the theater or any of it?"

That's why we have art.

At moments like that,

you want artists who are going to help us
come to terms with the things in our lives

that are the most frightening things.

This is what we do,
and what better time to do it than now?

So President Bush is in there,

and I say, "Hey, I hear
you're throwing out the first pitch,

and then when I walked out,

I turned around and said,
"Don't bounce it."

I said, "'Cause they'll boo you.
This is Yankee Stadium."

At Yankee Stadium tonight,
game three of the World Series.

At Madison Square Garden,
the NBA return of Michael Jordan.

New York City law enforcement
is having a very visible show of force.

9/11 changed a lot of paradigms.

What do you got here, boss?

It was a month and a half
after the attacks

and at that point,
as a nation we want to be protected.

I was at game three.

And as we're approaching the stadium,

there were police and there
were gunmen on the roof of the stadium.

Helicopters all over the place.

And I remember you had to go through two
metal detectors to get into the stadium.

President Bush was coming
to throw out the first pitch.

I remember when the president walked
into the locker room,

he had a bulletproof vest on,
and he went to warm up.

Jeter took him down in the batting cage
and, uh,

I think he made his life miserable.

So President Bush is in there
and I say, um, "Yeah, I hear you..."

you know,
"You're throwing out the first pitch."

And he says, "You think I should throw it
from the mound or in front of the mound?

I said, "No,
you gotta throw it from the rubber."

I mean, you know,
president of the United States.

And then when I walked out,

I turned around and said,
"Don't bounce it."

I said, "'Cause they'll boo you.
This is Yankee Stadium."

I've never divulged
what came from him, but, uh...

He did look a little nervous though.

Please welcome the president
of the United States.

He went out on the field, proud as can be,
went to the mound, the top of the mound

and threw a strike.

In that particular moment, whether you are
a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent,

I don't care what religion you are...

Very nice throw, Mr. President.

...at that moment in time,

President Bush
represented us as a country.

And as far as unity,
here it is.

You look around, and it shows unity.

There's no more unity in the world right
now than right here at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees, down two games
to none to the Arizona Diamondbacks,

have Roger Clemens on the mound tonight.

I felt like you almost had a little help
that, you know, when I'm out there.

I wasn't the only one on the mound.
I really believed that.

We all have angels,
and we had a ton of angels with us.

It was Roger pitching game three.
He got us on the right track.

We were off and running, and then, uh,

we went through probably the most exciting
three games at Yankee Stadium

in postseason that I can ever recall.

Both game four and game five
were extraordinary baseball games.

These are both games

where the Yankees were
an out away from-from losing.

Fly ball, center field.

It is way back. At the wall.

Home run! Home run! Home run!

Tino Martinez with two outs
in the bottom of the ninth.

He drills a game-tying two-run home run.

This was, uh, game four,

and you know, everybody was on the edge
of their seat. Derek comes up.

Drilled to right field.
Going back... On the track. At the wall.

See ya! See ya!

See ya!

A lot of people, I think, have hit
walk-off home runs in the World Series

and they've been special
for their fan bases,

but the circumstances here were different.

And I'm sure there were people in there
that didn't plan on cheering that day

that were cheering
and screaming and emotional.

There's a... It's a lot of emotion
that was in that stadium.

And on a cool
November morning,

Derek Jeter ends a long,
thrilling night of baseball.

Really is tough to explain
because if you're watching it,

it's like no way that
just happened, right?

Okay, move on to the next night,
and then it happens again.

That one hit in the air
into left field. Do you believe it?

Goodbye. Home run!

They have done it again!

I don't believe it.

It's like it's a higher power that's...

that's helping us out there,
is what it seemed like.

The interesting thing is,

when you run into a lot of Yankee fans,

they will mention games three,
four and five in that World Series,

but will never mention the outcome.

Diamondbacks win!
They're the world champions!

Still, um, bothers me today

that we lost that World Series.

But our job was to give the people
something to cheer for.

I think what the Yankees
were able to do in those games

by just sort of summoning
something deep inside of them

and knowing that those wins
weren't just for themselves

but for millions of other people too,

there may be something
that was inside of them

that I think
everybody was feeling as well.

New York really needed it.

There was gonna be a weight
put on the shoulders

of whoever we're gonna perform
at this halftime, and it was U2.

They were a great voice in this moment.

Bono opening up his jacket
and having an American flag sewn into it.

That was very, very, very powerful.

America watches the spectacle
that is the Super Bowl.

Security outside the stadium,

tighter than
any American sporting event in history.

The Super Bowl that year was
the first Super Bowl I ever went to

as a spectator.

To watch fittingly a team named
the Patriots with a... a young quarterback

who no one thought much of at the time.

It was very fitting for the whole year.

Pats 14-point underdogs.

We were a bunch of nobodies.

But as my brother Billy told me
prior to the game,

he goes, "Yeah, it's destiny.
You're a red, white and blue team."

They are American colors,
red, white and blue.

The Patriot.

It was just... it was like a-a script
that was written

that they were supposed to win.

I remember that ball going through
the uprights and winning that game.

The Patriots
have won Super Bowl XXXVI.

You know, I wasn't thinking about, you
know, anything but looking for my family.

I jumped on the field,
gave the hugest hug.

I couldn't believe it, and I told him,
I said, "I told you, I told you."

Who have you personally
dedicated this win to?

My brothers.

The FDNY and everybody out there,

you know, with that Trade Center...
the tragedy.

What we were doing as a team
was pretty amazing and comforting

and knowing that sports helped people
through that and helped people heal.

What was so special
is that I have my whole family.

All my boys are there.

I'll never forget watching that
game and being inspired as a fan,

and also the U2 halftime show was

insane.

The halftime is a coveted spot.

There was gonna be a weight put on the
shoulders of whoever we're gonna perform

at this halftime, and it was U2.

They were a great voice in this moment.

You know how sometimes these
halftime shows are great on television,

but they're not great in the house?

This was unbelievable.

And then they did
"Where the Streets Have No Name."

♪ Where the streets have no name ♪

And on the screen behind them
is this roll of victims of 9/11.

♪ Where the streets have no name ♪

And I remember so well
Bono opening up his jacket

and having an American flag sewn into it.

That was very, very, very powerful.

That was an amazing
halftime show. It really was.

Yeah, they had the names going.

I'm just trying to find names
that... of everyone that we knew.

It capsulized what so many
people's takeaway from 9/11 would be,

which was
how many people lost their lives.

I mean, it's a tragedy
that it continues to unfold.

We lost more people post 9/11
than we lost during 9/11.

I'm retired now,
and we get called down every year

to do our, um, 9/11 medicals.

You know, you get a little worried
every time you go.

There's people I know that-that, you
know, have come down with stuff and...

and unfortunately have perished.

I think we're up to 700
and something firemen, right?

Yeah, yeah, they send us emails
every time there's a 9/11 funeral.

Yeah, it's something you think about.

You just don't wanna be,
you know, go out that way at least.

But would you do it again?

- Yeah.
- You have to.

So many good men, so many good women--
uniform and non-uniform--

have suffered deeply from 9/11.

We were exposed 24-7 to those toxins.

The federal government had the audacity
to challenge us and say we weren't sick.

There is one thing that Washington
did fail to pass:

the bill to help those firemen
and rescue workers

who raced to the scene on 9/11.

People on TV don't necessarily have,
uh, a ton of options.

But the one monkey trick
we can pull off is,

uh, we can get some cameras focused
on something when we need to.

Now you see the, uh, the Senate
is filibustering, uh, uh, the bill.

What-What's going through your mind

as you're watching this process go down?

Uh, we're-we're, uh, we're disgusted,
we're disappointed, and, uh...

and, uh, unfortunately we're hurt.

We watched The Daily Show

and saw the guys and what he did, and, um...

it moved the needle.

Jon Stewart, like really no one else,
he was there as often as he could.

He would not be silenced.

John is the first celebrity

who rolled up his sleeves
and got embedded with us.

I welcome everyone
to today's hearing on the need

to reauthorize the September 11th
Victim Compensation Fund.

When everybody sat down
and Jon went...

Mr. Stewart.

...he delivered nine minutes with dignity
and passion and compassion.

Sick and dying,

they brought themselves
down here to speak.

Your indifference cost these men and women
their most valuable commodity:

time.

What Jon Stewart did
came from anger, came from love.

They responded in five seconds.

They did their jobs.

Eighteen years later, do yours.

Anger and love
are the most powerful emotions.

Thank you.

When you put them together, embrace
the love and do something about it.

And Jon Stewart did that.

Now to a huge victory for 9/11
first responders,

the Senate passing a bill that
will permanently fund their health care,

a battle that was championed
by Jon Stewart.

The bill is passed.

We hugged and we cried,
and I think it was me exhaling

of so much...

...so much pain.

And I think Jon...

...was the only one, uh,
who can bring it out of me.

I'm hopeful that today

begins the process of being able to heal
without the burden of having to advocate.

I mean, uh, I gained some
incredible friendships.

Those same people that I talk about

that kind of are the fabric
of what holds us,

kind of tethers us to this world.

But, um,
I would certainly give all that back.

If I could have the knowledge that
they were just still with the families,

watch the Islanders or...

Jon bled with us.
Nobody else bled with us.

Sorry.

You know the expression, "He set the bar
high for others to embrace and emulate"?

Jon is the bar.

He's the bar.

People were afraid
to go downtown.

People were worried about the air.
People were worried about toxicity.

People were worried about,
"This doesn't feel right."

All those people died down here.

But the arts are healing.

Hollywood stars are in New York
this weekend for a brand new film festival

that actually begins tomorrow night.

In the wake of 9/11,
Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro

created the Tribeca Film Festival as a way
to restore that part of town, you know,

that had been the site of so much tragedy.

Because of what's happened
in September 11th,

so that sort of galvanized everything

and made us feel
that this is the time to do it.

It's very important for many reasons.

I think it means a lot for Tribeca
just to get people back down here,

'cause for this part of New York,
it's been hard.

It was really exciting to see
that people embraced it

and let the creative people
do what they do

and brought beauty to downtown.

Tribeca Film Festival reflected
the renewal, the resilience,

the creative energy that
New York was always known for.

It's been amazing.
I've seen the whole thing.

And I think leaving the footprints

of the Twin Towers was a great tribute.

You know, there's not a day
that I've driven by the Trade Center now...

and not stopped
to say a prayer for the fallen.

It's a spectacular place
of remembrance.

When you walk past the burnt-out truck...

when you see the wall
that held the river back...

when you walk down that staircase
that survived...

and then when you leave and you see this...

this amazing city
in this amazing part of town flourishing...

then you understand
what America is and can be.

It's hard to believe
it's been 25 years.

Because in some sense,
it is still fresh in my mind. Um...

But how we heal?
I mean, we're still healing.

It's a big question: "How has this changed
you?"

Oh. 9/11 changed the way I see,

you know, society, life.

I was a very immature 18-year-old.

That made me kind of like zoom out
in a way that I had never done before.

It made me a better person.

Because I, too, was one of those
that was in New York

and kind of got
too busy to make eye contact.

Not after that.

I think the biggest thing
that we learned is that it's compassion.

I'd never seen the level of unity
that we had during that time.

You know, to think back and to realize
that that unity has not survived

the intervening 25 years
is-is-is one of the most heartbreaking,

uh, consequences of the 9/11 attacks.

My dad loved being a fireman.

I'm not glad this happened at all,

but he got to go out doing something
that he loved with his buddies.

I'm glad he was, uh, with his buddies.

Engine 54,
ladder four on 8th Avenue.

That was my neighborhood,
and man, I'm so grateful for them

and for everybody that lost their lives
and all the families that were affected

uh, by that, you know...
...we'll never forget.

It gave me gratitude...

for the first responders.

It's a selflessness

that goes into being a firefighter
that you're doing something for others.

I'm so proud to have been able
to represent all the FDNY in that moment...

- Thank you. Thank you.
- ...and certainly Chief Downey.

For New York,
if we didn't have the Rangers winning,

if we didn't have Messier
with Downey's helmet,

if we didn't have, um, Piazza hit that
game-winning home run,

how many people were standing,
cheering for 20 minutes?

And for what the city was going through,
it was a different kind of feeling

that you have that connection, you know?

Yeah.

Whatever gifts anyone has,
all of them using their talents

and their skills...

to bring the best of themselves...

then to rise to the occasion

so the country can feel better...

was truly a gift to us all.