Memorials fill Bush's schedule

WASHINGTON — President Bush, his hand over his heart, appeared to fight back tears as the national anthem played and America's week of remembrance began.

"Our emotions run deep, but our resolve runs deeper," first lady Laura Bush said from her husband's side at Monday night's taping of "Concert for America 2002" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The NBC-TV production will be broadcast Wednesday on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania.

"One year ago, we were attacked because of who we are and what we believe. But out of the evil done that day has come good," the president said at the finale of the show featuring Josh Groban, Placido Domingo and more.

"We've been reminded that we are one nation — diverse but united — and that we're one people deeply committed to one another, and that we're one country blessed by freedom and willing to defend our freedom."

For Bush, the concert began a week of ceremonies and speeches reflecting on the attacks and reinforcing the war against terror.

On Tuesday, Bush was conferring with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barosso about expanding the anti-terror war into Iraq. Later, at the Embassy of Afghanistan, he was to celebrate that country's post-Sept. 11 liberation from the Taliban regime that harbored Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorists.

On Wednesday, Bush is making a pilgrimage from the Pentagon to the southwestern Pennsylvania field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed and, finally, to New York's ground zero.

That night, he will address the nation from Ellis Island, with the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop — one that he hopes will remind "America again of our moral calling, our higher purpose as the beacon of liberty and freedom for people around the world," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.