We found ourselves this week recalling the many- too many-men and women from our area who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks September 11 five years ago. Throughout those five years, their names and faces have not been far away, and the stories of their lives have become a realization of how ordinary Americans are wonderful people filled with love, compassion, vigor and an innate commitment to reaching out and helping others. Despite the horror of their deaths, their stories are inspiring and should give us hope.

They should also give us strength; the strength to do whatever needs to be done to rid the world of the blinding hatred that drove those planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the ground in Pennsylvania; the strength to use whatever force necessary to protect American lives and American values; the strength to hold fast to the goals of a true and lasting peace and to have hope in a future of our own making.

Many more Americans have died in that endeavor over the past five years in Iraq and Afghanistan, and still more will pay that ultimate sacrifice before that can be achieved. We honor them all and seek not vengeance or retribution but peace and justice and the right to live in freedom. Their fight and their lives were committed to that, and we must accept nothing less to ensure that their children and grandchildren have the opportunities they died for. That is our best gift to the victims of 9/11.