Rudy Wows Choice Conference

ATLANTA— Thunderous applause from the thousands of attendees at Choice Hotels International’s annual conference greeted former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as he took the stage May 9 to deliver the convention’s keynote speech at the Georgia World Congress Center here, an action repeated several times during his address. With his unique perspective on the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the former mayor framed the events of Sept. 11, suggesting why the United States was targeted. “We have to recognize exactly why we were attacked to figure out the proper way to respond to it,” said Giuliani. “We were attacked because of who and what we are as Americans. America is not an ethnic group. We’re not like the French or the Germans or the Italians or the Spanish or the Japanese. By and large, countries are organized around ethnic rules. They have singular ethnicity or language. We’re a country that’s organized around something rather unique. We’re organized around philosophy. We share a set of beliefs.” He continued, “We were attacked because we’re a political democracy, because we’re a place of economic freedom— we were particularly attacked because we believe in religious liberty….the reason for this attack is because of our beliefs and I think that’s why Americans have responded to in in such a unified way.” He also praised the lodging industry for its response, noting “your industry has been hurt probably more than most because of the fears people have. You’ve done a really, really good job in helping to get people to move beyond this. I think your campaign [“Thanks for Traveling”] which from the very early days, a couple of weeks after [the attacks], to thank people for traveling, reinforced the idea that there’s a psychology here we have to deal with.” “Yes, there are more dangers than we realized,” said Giuliani. “Yes, there could be further terrorist attacks— anyone who tells you the opposite of that isn’t telling you the truth— but is that the major risk to our future? Absolutely not.” He added the country needs to take responsible actions to protect against further terrorist attack. “Then we have to relax, calm down and move ahead with our lives, because there are lots of other things for us to worry about realistically, and there are many, many things for us to enjoy. We’re the land of the free and the home of the brave and we’ve got to be both. Your encouragement for people to travel is a very, very important contribution to that,” said Giuliani.