NON TR, But this is worth distributing...it is what America
and the free world is all about...
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Leonard Pitts Jr. , Miami Herald
Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001
We'll go forward from this moment
It's my job to have something to say.
They pay me to provide words that help make sense
of that which troubles the American soul. But in
this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting
disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to
say, the only words that seem to fit, must be
addressed to the unknown author of this
suffering.
You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your
coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our
Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would
learn? Whatever it was, please know that you
failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just
damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled
our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought
us together.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast
and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial,
social, political and class division, but a
family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable
of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop
cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress,
a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're
wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability
of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because
of that, we walk through life with a certain
sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally
decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate.
We struggle to know the right thing and to do it.
And we are, the overwhelming majority of us,
people of faith, believers in a just and loving
God.
Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or
all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We
are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that
cannot be measured by arsenals.
IN PAIN
Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we
are in shock. We're still grappling with the
unreality of the awful thing you did, still
working to make ourselves understand that this
isn't a special effect from some Hollywood
blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a
Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful
scope of their ambition and the probable final
death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as
the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the
United States and, probably, the history of the
world. You've bloodied us as we have never been
bloodied before.
But there's a gulf of difference between making
us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson
Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last
time anyone hit us this hard, the last time
anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental
pain. When roused, we are righteous in our
outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by
this level of barbarism, we will bear any
suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the
pursuit of justice.
I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I
know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I
know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble
with dread of the future.
In the days to come, there will be recrimination
and accusation, fingers pointing to determine
whose failure allowed this to happen and what can
be done to prevent it from happening again. There
will be heightened security, misguided talk of
revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from
this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But
determined, too. Unimaginably determined.
THE STEEL IN US
You see, the steel in us is not always readily
apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom
understood by people who don't know us well. On
this day, the family's bickering is put on hold.
As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will
mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense
of all that we cherish.
So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach
us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us
to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the
case, consider the message received. And take
this message in exchange: You don't know my
people. You don't know what we're capable of. You
don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
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