“We need you”: Chris Pratt has a message to the younger generation in 9-11 remembrance speech
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on September 20, 2023
On Monday evening, September 18, Chris Pratt reposted a speech he gave a week prior, as the keynote speaker for Pepperdine University’s remembrance ceremony on the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Pratt was invited after he posted to Instagram last year a photo of the nearly 3,000 flags representing the victims of the attacks that the university installed in Alumni Park on its Malibu campus.
It was there, this year, that Pratt recalled for an audience of more than 1,000 Pepperdine students, faculty, staff, and alumni, his horror at seeing the attacks on TV from New Zealand, where he was filming.
The Jurassic World and Marvel movie star urged the audience not to forget the “9/11 effect” — the feeling of patriotism the country felt after the attacks, and had a message for the younger generation too young to have felt it firsthand.
“And I say this gently to those who are immersed in their own worlds and who think their country doesn’t need them — and I say this with some urgency — it is your torch to carry. Your country needs you,” Pratt expressed.
“I feel called to be of service…To help other people better…comprehend what has and what continues to make America the great shining beacon on the hill.”
He added, “We need each other, man. We’re on the same team. We are the United States of America. When we are ‘One Nation Under God’ we are indivisible.”
In reposting the speech, Pratt noted in part, “…Let’s carry the torch forward, ensuring that the lessons of 9/11 continue to shape our future and inspire generations to come.”
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