This transcript appears in the September 17, 2021 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
[Print version of this transcript]
9/11 Memorial Concert
Messages of Determination and Hope
This is a transcript of remarks made by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and President of the Schiller Institute; and Terry Strada, National Chair of the 9/11 Families and Survivors, United for Justice against Terrorism, as part of the 9/11 memorial concert presented by the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus at Our Lady of Pompeii Church, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City on September 10, 2021. The entire concert may be seen here.
Jen Pearl: Welcome to the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus 9/11 Memorial Concert, titled, “Beethoven’s ‘Agnus Dei’: Peace for Ourselves and the World.” My name is Jen Pearl, and I am the current chair of the board of the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus.
Our concert tonight comes on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the horrific September 11th, 2001 attacks. In 2016, the Chorus performed four consecutive performances of Mozart’s Requiem for the 15th anniversary of 9/11, and since then has been committed to performing a memorial concert every year. Tonight, we both remember and reflect upon those lives lost in that tragic event, and those who suffered the aftermath. And we also, through listening to and participating in great, Classical music, find the inner strength to fight to ensure this type of terror never happens again.
I will now read a statement from Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, for this occasion.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche: These last 20 years, starting with the attacks of 9/11—an event which seemed to be unfathomable before it occurred, followed by a series of “endless wars,” which hopefully will now have come to an end—have brought enormous harm and sorrow over millions of people, both in the U.S., as well as in the countries targetted by these wars. This agony can not be undone.
There may be nothing that will give humanity more comfort and elevation than the Classical music of the great composers of the world, who represent the most lofty ideal of what mankind must be striving for: that better vision of the true purpose and identity of man as the only being capable of love, beauty of the soul, and reason. It is not an idle hope, that the human species—as the only one that has proven through its existence that creativity is that quality which can transcend all seeming limitations—will soon leave conflict, aggression, and war behind it, and we become truly human.
These last 20 years are hopefully the final chapter in the adolescence of humanity, followed by adulthood, where people and nations relate to each other based on the creative potential of the other, thus bringing out in themselves the best they can be. To learn to think that way requires an elevated state of mind in all of us, to think from above, from that higher One of humanity which shows the way to a future, in which all nations and all people will create peace on Earth and colonize the stars together.
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis incarnates that spirit. It evokes that sanctuary in which we have to find home, country, and peace among nations in the world.
[The Chorus performs Nathaniel Dett’s arrangement of America the Beautiful.]
Pearl: I would like to now introduce Terry Strada, National Chair of the 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice against Terrorism.
Terry was at home, caring for her four-day-old infant son, on September 11th, 2001, when the attacks took place that killed her husband, Tom, and almost 3,000 others. Since then, she’s led a nonstop fight to uncover the truth about how and why those attacks took place. That truth is unfortunately being zealously protected from exposure by our own Justice Department and intelligence services on “national security” grounds.
In 2016, Terry participated with the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus in a series of four concerts of Mozart’s Requiem, from September 9th to 12th—in the Bronx, in Manhattan, in Brooklyn, and in Morristown, New Jersey. This created the resonance with her effort and others for the passage of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), including the near-unanimous override of the President’s veto of the Act. And less than two weeks ago, thanks to the efforts of Terry and others, the current President issued orders for the declassification of documents relevant to identifying the enablers of the 9/11 attacks.
Terry’s steadfastness and courage have been a great inspiration to so many people working for justice. We are honored and thankful to have her with us today.
Terry Strada (video): Hello everyone. It’s nice to have you all gathered here, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to say hello and welcome you to this 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and tell you what it means to me and what we’ve been working on, and where we are today.
As many of you may know, we have been working for a very long time to hold the perpetrators accountable for the horrible attack on our country, that led to the death of my husband, and nearly 3,000 others on American soil. It’s been a very difficult road that we’ve been on, a very difficult path to find the truth—about who was behind the attacks, how they were facilitated, and why did they attack us.
We don’t have all those answers, yet. We’ve been asking those, and some of the answers to those questions lie within our own government. They did a nearly ten-year investigation into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the role that they played in facilitating the attacks, and it was a secret investigation; nobody was supposed to know about it, until an investigative reporter in Florida uncovered a 2012 FBI report. And although it was heavily redacted at the time, you could read between the lines that there was a lot of information there.
We served a subpoena on the Kingdom over three years ago, and they did not comply. They did not hand over all the documents that were asked for. They overly classified many more documents, and they rubber-stamped “State Secrets” on several more. This is a very egregious act towards the families and towards the American people. We all deserve to know the truth. We all deserve to know why this happened to us.
Question: Five years ago, you spoke at the opening of a Mozart Requiem concert given by the Schiller Institute Chorus in Morristown, New Jersey. What are your thoughts about the importance of musical commemorations like these?
Strada: Well, it’s just so nice for us all to be together again, at such a difficult time of year, and show the kind of support that these concerts have always done in the past, and uplift our hearts, and open our hearts again to the beauty in the world. With everything we’ve been through—COVID, and approaching this 20th anniversary—it’s more important than ever that we band together and share a unified feeling of hope, that the world will be a better place, if we just all band together.
