Miami Herald Article

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

This is a post from a website I made with a message board on it for those who

wish to speak, pray or whatever............This post was made by my son, - he

found it in the Miami Herald... thought you might like to see it.

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09/13/01 07:55:16 AM

Name: Dave

Just wanted to share this

Hey all,

 

Here is an editorial from the miami herald that was sent to me today...

This and the follow up can be found at

http://www.miami.com/herald/content/features/columnists/pitts/

 

thanks,

-d

 

 

We'll go forward from this moment

 

By Leonard Pitts, Jr.

 

 

 

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hugs,

 

Marilyn