SHANKSVILLE, Pa. -- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani imparted wisdom and extolled courage in the face of fear during commencement ceremonies at Shanksville-Stonycreek High School Friday.
Giuliani visited the crash site of Flight 93 and spoke at the Somerset County high school's commencement.
The former mayor of the largest city in the United States admitted that it was "a bit of a cultural shock" to visit
Shanksville-Stonycreek High School, which graduated 37students.
However, Giuliani noted that the rural western Pennsylvania community and New York City, as well as the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., are forever linked due to Sept. 11. He said they are forever strong because of their courage and strength in the face of the incidents.
"I do feel a special bond with you, and I know everyone in my city does," he said.
Giuliani said America won't lose confidence, even if more attacks occur.
"All those terrorists combined can't invade us and take us over," he said. "We're too big. We're too strong. We're too powerful. And we're too confident of who we are.
"They can inflict some horrible pain on us, the loss of people that we love. But they can only take away our freedom if we let them do it, psychologically, and I know we're not going to let them do that."
The school's graduating class had written to Giuliani and invited him to speak at commencement because of the leadership he exemplified after Sept. 11.
During his speech in the school's gymnasium, the mayor returned the praise to the town's 245 residents for their response to the terrorist attacks.
"What we demonstrated," Giuliani said, "is that whether it's America's largest city or one of America's smallest communities, we responded the way we did, not because we're from New York or we're from Shanksville or we're from Washington. We responded the way we did because we're from America."
Flight 93 was the only one of four planes hijacked on Sept. 11 that didn't kill people on the ground. Some passengers made cell phone calls indicating they were going to fight off the terrorists.
All 44 people were killed when the plane went down in Somerset County.
Since leaving office, Giuliani has been working for his Giuliani Partners consulting firm and taking speaking engagements.
Click here to review the Somerset crash site in pictures.
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