Share This Article
Like so many Americans, I remember September 11, 2001, with painful clarity. I remember the images on television—the smoke, the fire, the confusion, and then the terrible realization that thousands of ordinary people had begun their day never imagining that they were in danger.
On September 11, 2001, my wife and I awoke to a call from family friends in Florida, urging us to turn on our television immediately. We could not have imagined the gravity or the disturbing nature of the images we were about to see.
Any notion that we were witnessing a tragic aviation accident disappeared when we saw the second airplane strike the South Tower. Then came the devastating news of the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
Until that morning, many of us believed that the United States was protected by more than oceans and borders. We believed that our homeland was a sanctuary—that the violence and instability we witnessed elsewhere could not reach us here.
September 11 shattered that assumption.
We learned that those who seek to harm America will not always confront us on a distant battlefield. They may strike our cities, our transportation systems, our institutions, and the places where Americans live and work.
They may target not only lives, but also the freedoms, confidence, and sense of security that define our society.
Yet 9/11 also revealed something stronger than our vulnerability. It revealed our capacity to respond. We witnessed firefighters, police officers, paramedics, military personnel, public officials, medical professionals, and ordinary citizens act with extraordinary courage.
In those hours, the boundaries between national defense and public safety disappeared. The defense of the nation began at the local level—in city streets, emergency operations centers, hospitals, airports, and communities.
As mayor of a city not far from this campus, I know firsthand how urgently relevant that lesson remains today.
The threats confronting our country have evolved. They include terrorism, cyberattacks, attacks on ports and supply chains, and disruptions to our electrical grid, water systems, communications networks, and other critical infrastructure.
These threats may originate abroad, but their consequences are experienced at home. They first fall upon local communities and civilian institutions, while also affecting the readiness and security of the nation as a whole.
This is why the work of the USC Price School’s Center for National Defense and Public Safety is so important.
The Center begins with a central proposition: civilian resilience is now inseparable from military readiness. America cannot be secure abroad if it is fragile at home.
Our armed forces depend upon functioning ports, reliable energy, secure communications, resilient supply chains, capable public institutions, and communities prepared to withstand disruption and recover from crisis.
Meeting these challenges requires more than military strength.
It requires cooperation among the armed forces, federal agencies, state and local governments, first responders, infrastructure operators, businesses, universities, nonprofit organizations, and the public.
It also requires leaders who understand how these different institutions can work together before a crisis occurs—not simply after disaster strikes.
At USC Price, one of the nation’s leading public affairs schools, we are bringing together the disciplines of governance, public administration, emergency management, infrastructure, and national security.
Through our research and executive education programs, we are preparing leaders to operate across institutional boundaries, make sound decisions under pressure, and build the partnerships upon which national resilience depends.
This work honors the legacy of September 11 because remembrance must be more than an act of reflection. It must also be an act of responsibility.
We remember those who were taken from us. We honor those who ran toward danger. And we accept our obligation to ensure that the lessons purchased at such a terrible cost are not forgotten.
September 11 taught us that our homeland is not beyond the reach of those who would harm us. But it also taught us that America’s strength resides not only in its military power.
It resides in the courage of its people, the resilience of its communities, the competence of its institutions, and our shared determination to defend both our country and the freedoms for which it stands.
Today, we offer our profound gratitude to our military, first responders—the firefighters, law enforcement officers, paramedics, emergency personnel, and all those who place themselves in harm’s way to protect the rest of us. Their service reminds us that courage is not merely something we remember from September 11. It is present among us every day.
May we always remember those we lost. May we always honor those who serve. May God bless our first responders, may God bless the United States of America, and may God continue to guide and protect us all.
Frank V. Zerunyan is a Professor of the Practice of Governance at the University of Southern California (USC) Sol Price School of Public Policy (USC Price) and Director of Executive Education. He is the founding director of the USC Price Center on National Defense and Public Safety. Professor Zerunyan oversees USC’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) as the Director and University Liaison for the U.S. Air Force, Army, Naval Reserves ROTC, and Nautical Science Programs.
Professor Zerunyan’s principal areas of expertise include governance, public-private partnerships, civic and ethical leadership, land use, medical regulation, negotiation, and executive education. He lectures locally and globally to build capacity and foster leadership among public executives worldwide. He is the author of books, book chapters, and many short articles published nationally, internationally, and on USC Price’s “Faculty Perspectives.” Professor Zerunyan is often quoted in the media and is a USC resource for journalists as an expert in governance and leadership. He is also an expert on public administration at the United Nations Innovation Branch (formerly Capacity Building Branch).
For his influential advisory role in the Republic of Armenia, he was awarded LL.D. Doctor of Laws – Honoris Causa by the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia. Professor Zerunyan designs curricula and teaches at the American University in Armenia, Yerevan State University, and the Vazgen Sargsyan Military University in Armenia, with an honorary rank of colonel. He also teaches for the U.S. Navy at the U.S. Naval Service Training Command.
Professor Zerunyan serves on the editorial boards of the Public Administration Scientific Journal for the Republic of Armenia and the Ukrainian Law Review. He is on the board of councilors of Anahuac University Law School, Xalapa, Mexico (Consejo Consultivo de la Escuela de Derecho).
Professor Zerunyan earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence (Doctor of Laws) degree from Western State University College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach. He also completed his advanced legal education in Corporate Taxation at the University of Southern California Law Center (USC Gould). He is a graduate of the California League of Cities’ Civic Leadership Institute.
Professor Zerunyan, trained and practiced as a lawyer, is a four-term Mayor and Councilmember in the City of Rolling Hills Estates, California. He serves on several city, county, and regional policy boards and committees. He was also a gubernatorial appointee under Governor Schwarzenegger, serving 38 million medical consumers on the Medical Board of California.