Each Year, on September 11, I’m Reminded of Winston Churchill.

For me, and for everyone in New York City and the world, the day of September 11 stands out from the rest of the year.

And each year,  I remember how back in 2001, just a month after the terrible events of that day had occurred, I was doing research for my biography of Winston Churchill,  Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, and was reading some speeches Churchill gave during the early years of the war.

And I noticed that it was on September 11, 1940, that Churchill gave one of his most memorable broadcasts — about the “Blitz,” the brutal nightly bombing of London.

This was so powerful for me that every year, on September 11, I post the same passage.

For me, re-reading Churchill's speech reminds me to reflect on the values of the United States -- and to challenge myself to live up to those values in my own life.

Every year, that aim and that challenge take a different form. The world changes. But I try to let this dark anniversary kindle a fire in my heart, to live up to the spirit of my country.

This year, given the terrible destructiveness of Hurricane Harvey and Irma, we're all focusing on the threats from the natural world.

As happened after September 11, we see that despite the shock and devastation, there's a mood of tremendous determination and desire to help.

Churchill said:

These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, a part of Hitler’s invasion plans. He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children, that he will terrorise and cow the people of this mighty imperial city, and make them a burden and anxiety to the Government…Little does he know the spirit of the British nation, or the tough fibre of the Londoners…who have been bred to value freedom far above their lives. This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatreds, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous Island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed.

If you want to listen to Churchill give his broadcast, you can listen here. The section I quote above begins at 7:43.

Each year, this anniversary helps me -- and many people, I think -- to remember the deepest values, and what matters most.

Do you feel this way about September 11?

Self Help Gurus etc