NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Issue

Volume 76, Number 6

December 2001

Sustaining the Moral Surge

John Sexton

Months have passed, commemorations have been held at ground zero, and Congress has declared September 11 a yearly National Day of Remembrance. Surely it will be another date that will live in infamy; no law is needed to ordain that, and no law could change it. But September 11 was, and should be, something more. And after the devastation is cleared, new buildings raised up, and commerce and finance return–all critical to the prosperity of New York and the nation–the other great test will be whether we sustain the moral power surge which moved across the city and this country in response to the terrorist attack.