Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001 - The Miami Herald
by: Leonard Pitts Jr.
| 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.
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.
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.
I THANK YOU ! ! !
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