U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, wrote in an opinion column that the nation’s response to violence is defined by its compassion and resilience and said that recent political violence underscored the need for vigilance.
In the New York Post column published Thursday, Lutnick recounted his personal experience on Sept. 11, 2001, saying he narrowly avoided the attacks because he took his oldest son to his first day of kindergarten instead of going to his office in the World Trade Center. He wrote that he lost his brother Gary, his best friend Doug and 656 colleagues from Cantor Fitzgerald in the deadliest terror attack on American soil and described the years of grief that followed.
Lutnick described rushing downtown after hearing a plane had struck the tower and trying to pull people out of the building. He said none of his colleagues escaped and that he cried every day until Oct. 21, 2004, adding that the grief never fully left and that mentioning a deceased co-worker’s name would trigger the pain anew. He also wrote about rebuilding Cantor Fitzgerald and later serving as the nation’s commerce secretary.
Drawing a line from the anniversary to more recent events, Lutnick said the nation faced a reminder of persistent threats when, “on Wednesday, as a deranged gunman murdered my great friend Charlie Kirk for his political views,” Americans again confronted lethal violence. He urged that the country must not be complacent, arguing that those who orchestrated Sept. 11 and similar actors would strike again if given the chance.
Lutnick praised what he described as the country’s moral stance in confronting such threats, writing that Americans operate with compassion, generosity and honor and that the nation fights evil while maintaining its moral high ground. He said that through his public service he had seen “the tremendous way our military, our government, our first responders and our people confront challenges and threats.”
In the column he also expressed support for the president, writing that having a leader in the Oval Office who understands the threat and is committed to “aggressively rooting out evil” provides reassurance. He said he expected the person who killed Kirk to face swift justice and that Kirk would be remembered for “his kindness, his loyalty and his devotion to America.”
The column combines a personal account of loss and rebuilding with calls for national unity and vigilance. Lutnick framed the country’s response to tragedy as a demonstration of its enduring values rather than a retreat from them, saying Americans rebuild, endure and refuse to surrender to evil.
The piece is part memoir and part commentary timed to the 24th anniversary of Sept. 11, a day Lutnick described as a wound that never fully heals. He concluded by saying his experience of loss strengthened his faith in the nation’s ability to confront threats both external and internal while remaining true to its ideals.