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I'm sure this reflects the feelings of us all.
Could a MOD please make a sticky of this? thanx!!
Every body be safe!
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 cause of our countries suffering.
You monsters. You beasts.
You unspeakable bastards.
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, cultural, 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 of 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 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 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 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, 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.
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 about. You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
Could a MOD please make a sticky of this? thanx!!
Every body be safe!
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 cause of our countries suffering.
You monsters. You beasts.
You unspeakable bastards.
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, cultural, 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 of 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 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 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 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, 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.
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 about. You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
