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Miami Herald


My mother sent this to me.

michelle

> The following is from leonard pitts who writes a
> column for the 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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