Subject:
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The unknown author of this suffering.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 15 Sep 2001 14:08:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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310 times
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(I found this on a comic book website and thought some folks here might want
to read it as well, the subject title is taken from the first paragraph)
This article was written by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald:
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, 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.
This article was written by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald:
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