Twenty-Five Years Ago This Week: “Responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens told reporters in a statement, “I join all Coloradans in expressing outrage and horror at the senseless terrorist bombings in New York and Washington D.C. First and foremost our most heartfelt sympathies go to the victims and their families. I have directed that state flags be flown at half-staff in honor and memory of the victims.”

Other state-elected officials joined with Owens to express their grief and pain about the horrific tragedies of Sept. 11. Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers wrote, “We must take this time to care for each other and all who have been directly affected by this massive tragedy and to stand together in support of the country. Americans must remain united behind our leadership as we discover who is responsible for these attacks.”

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-CD1, quoted U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt in his speech after Pearl Harbor, “We will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.”

Colorado General Assembly Senate President Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland, called the terrorist attacks deplorable beyond words, but wrote that every senate member stood united in their condemnation of the attacks and promised, “We will do our best to prove to the world that our country will continue to function as a democracy.”

Walter B. Kopilow of Adams County wrote that, “Watching a Catholic bishop, an Islamic imam and a rabbi walking together at the National Cathedral in a show of national unity was amazing.”

“There is a fine line between justice and vengeance,” wrote Littleton-area real-estate developer, community activist and Columbine High School parent Steve Schweitzberger. “I hope and pray American’s response demonstrates the difference. God and all humanity knows we must retaliate for the terrorist attacks on our civilization.”

John K. Bernstein, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Colorado, wrote in The Colorado Statesman that he and his fellow party members, “call on Gov. Bill Owens to deliver one thing that might actually save lives: statewide concealed carry.”

Bernstein called weapons-free zones “very dangerous places” and said commercial airlines were “risky ventures because the passengers are denied all means of self-defense.”

Bernstein called out Gov. Bill Owens on how far he would go to protect himself from a possible terrorist attack and suggested that a few armed state troopers were not the equal of a hundred armed legislators and their guests.

Peggy Loonan, founder and executive director of Life and Liberty for Women, an organization dedicated to aggressive abortion rights education, demanded a public apology from Christian evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for their claim that the September 11 terrorist attack “was because gays, lesbians, abortion rights supporters, NOW, the ACLU, non-Christians, television, pornography on the internet and courts who wouldn’t allow children to pray in school, made God mad.”

On the 700 Club, Falwell said, “I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’”

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius replied to Falwell, saying, “The president believes that terrorists are responsible for these acts. He does not share those views, and believes that those remarks are inappropriate.”

“The responsibility for the death of … thousands of our fellow Americans in this terrorist attack lies solely with the religious fanatics who perpetrated them,” Loonan wrote and opportunistic fantastics like Falwell, Robertson and bin Laden who with deliberate forethought use the name of God to call to arms their violent fringe. Shame on them.”

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels, including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in political science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and The Denver Gazette.