Well, your plan seems to have backfired on
you now hasn't it?
Yes, you destroyed a few buildings and took several
lives but guess what? You missed America!
You expected us to fall apart, Crumble in terror
but it seems a though we have done just the opposite.
We are a joining together, one nation, one voice.
We rally around our flag and blanket ourselves in
it and the knowledge that cowardly bastards such as
you will NOT defeat us!
You thought we would be a divided nation but all
you have managed to do is bring us together closer
than ever. We are so pleased to disappoint you.
You see us as the "Great Evil" but you are the
evil one. We are a nation of heroes!! We have seen
people crawl into rubble with no regard for their
own lives in hopes of trying to save others.
We have seen hero's line up in lines for hours to
donate life saving blood. We have seen men and
women comforting those in need. Young children
standing on sidewalks waving the American flag.
People with little money giving all they can to help.
We have seen more heroes in the past week than
at any other time. And why you ask? Not because
they are getting paid for it, or because they
think they will be made martyrs like you. They
do it for the love of their country and countrymen.
Those heroes were from all walks of life.
They were of all ages, all races, all creeds,
all cultures, all socioeconomic levels, and all religions.
They had to be, for we are a melting pot of all
of them, and yet representatives of all of them responded.
No one stopped to ask another what their personal beliefs
were before they went scrambling through the rubble
to find a living body, any living body. No one stopped
to ask those victims who their God was or what
political party they belonged to, before they pulled
them from the rubble and began to bind their wounds.
It did not matter. All that mattered was the response
to the
pain around, the need for help.
So you see, your attack on us has only brought out
what is best about our great nation. We WILL have
justice for the evil you have brought upon us.
One last thought for you to ponder......
We are gathering...We will be coming and ....
HELL will be coming with us!
Well, you hit the World Trade Center, but you missed America.
You hit the
Pentagon, but you missed America.
You used helpless American bodies, to take
out
other American bodies, but like a poor marksman,
you STILL missed America.
Why? Because of something you guys will never
understand. America isn't about a building or two,
not about financial centers, not about military centers,
America isn't about a place, America isn't
even about a bunch of bodies.
America is about an IDEA. An idea, that you can
go someplace where you can earn as much as you
can figure out how to, live for the most part,
like you envisioned living, and pursue Happiness.
(No guarantees that you'll reach it, but you can sure try!)
Go ahead and whine your terrorist whine, and chant
your terrorist litany:
"If you cannot see my point,
then feel my pain." This concept is alien
to Americans. We live in a country where we
don't have to see your point. But you're free to
have one. We don't have to listen to your speech.
But you're free to say one. Don't know where you got the
strange idea that everyone has to agree with you.
There's a spirit that tends to take over people who
come to this country, looking for opportunity,
looking for liberty, looking for freedom.
Even if they misuse it.
You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that
we don't live in America, America lives in US!
American Spirit is what it's called. And killing a
few thousand of us, or a few million of us, won't change it.
Most of the time, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky kind
of Spirit. Until we're crossed in a cowardly manner,
then it becomes an entirely different kind of Spirit.
Wait until you see what we do with that Spirit,
this time.
Sleep tight, if you can.
We're coming
They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social
and cultural issues, 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 monsterYou beastYou 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.
We are a family.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast
and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial,
cultural, political and class division.
We're frivolous, yes. 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. And we are,
the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith,
believers in a just and loving God.
Perhaps you think that any or all of
this makes us weak. We are not weak.
Yes, we're in pain now. 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.
Both in terms of the awful scope of its 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 indeed,
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. 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
in the pursuit of justice.
In 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.
You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. 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.
Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped
to teach us. 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 about.
You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
